WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Patronage Makes a Comeback 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.280 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.040 job in Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Radio 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:21.479 and how the tech are you today? It's time for 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:25.200 another tech Classic episode. This one is called Patronage Makes 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:30.760 a Comeback. It was originally published on September and this 0:00:31.000 --> 0:00:35.680 is an episode about services like Patreon that allow people 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:40.280 to directly support creators of all types and not go 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.400 through things like ad revenue. But it becomes more of 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:47.120 a sort of a direct subscriber kind of approach. So 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.520 let's sit back and listen to this classic episode. I've 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.080 covered topics like e commerce before web advertising, We've covered 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.720 multiple times on this show. We've even covered crowdfunding stuff 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:03.040 like Kickstarter in Indiego Go. But I really wanted to 0:01:03.080 --> 0:01:06.960 look at patronage because it's interesting to see it come 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.600 back so strong. That's not to say that patronage is new, 0:01:10.840 --> 0:01:13.720 even new on the Internet. It's not. It just seems 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.319 to be rising in prominence right now. The idea of 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:22.120 patronage dates back to the Renaissance, and I gotta be 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.280 honest with you guys. I debated briefly but I did 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.880 debate on describing Renaissance patronage in the style of the 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.959 character I used to play back when I was an 0:01:33.959 --> 0:01:39.160 employee of the Georgia Renaissance Festival. But then I figured 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.560 you guys would probably unsubscribed so fast that you'd actually 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.360 hear the whishing sound of the wind filling in the 0:01:46.480 --> 0:01:50.680 vacuum of missing listeners. So I'm going to spare you 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.840 the corny Renaissance festival character for now. But if you 0:01:54.960 --> 0:01:58.040 really want to hear me, cut loose as a Renaissance 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.520 festival idiot, stick a round to the very end, and 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.120 then you'll get a treat, or maybe you'll think of 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.480 it as something other than a treat, but at any rate, 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:10.120 it will be at the end, so that way you 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.320 can not listen to it if it bugs you. So 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:18.720 getting back to Renaissance and the era of patronage, when 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.960 you look at the Middle Ages in Europe, the period 0:02:22.280 --> 0:02:27.919 preceding the Renaissance, the primary social system in place was feudalism. 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.560 And in case you're not familiar with feudalism, what the 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:33.560 concept is or how that worked. This was where you 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:37.320 would have a centralized power figure of some sort to 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:41.480 whom everyone in the region would swear fealty, and this 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:44.840 was a two way relationship. It wasn't just someone lording 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.920 over a lot of peasants, although that could happen. The 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:51.720 person in charge was supposed to make big decisions on 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:57.160 behalf of the entire region, and in the best case scenarios, uh, 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.440 they would actually take great pains to protect the people 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:04.200 they ruled over. In fact, if you look at stuff 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:08.240 like the old epic poem Beowulf, you hear about the 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:11.520 the job of the king is to hand out rings, 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.360 which is essentially the symbol of wealth two loyal subjects 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.480 who have have contributed in some meaningful way to the 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:25.440 area's success. That was the basis of society for centuries 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:29.919 in Europe. But once you start getting toward the end 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.160 of the Middle Ages, things start to change. Now, during 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.320 the Middle Ages, you know the peasants really their job 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.960 was to essentially make enough food for everyone to stay alive, 0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:44.480 including the person in charge. But at the end of 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.160 the Middle Ages, the system of feudalism began to fall apart, 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:52.360 and it also marked the first time people really begin 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:58.200 gan to move in great numbers from the pastoral countryside 0:03:58.440 --> 0:04:02.520 and farms in to cities. This was the era of 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.880 cities having an enormous population booms, so places like Paris 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.160 and London had their numbers swell, and out of that 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:14.960 change grew something brand new, the middle class, or the 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:20.480 bourgeois in other words. And as professions became lucrative, as 0:04:20.520 --> 0:04:25.200 people began to find ways to create things, to make 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.640 goods or provide services that were valued within the cities, 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:32.719 people began to make money. The middle class began to 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:36.240 make serious money. Sometimes the people in the middle class 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:40.640 were far wealthier than anyone in the nobility class. There 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:45.480 are plenty of examples of nobles who were arranging marriages 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.640 with wealthy middle class families because the middle class families 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.120 lacked a title, but they had money, whereas the nobility 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:58.839 had titles but no money. So it became this weird relationship, 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:03.039 particularly in places like England. Now, some of the people 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.719 in the middle class wanted to use the money they 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:13.320 made to do various things, including supporting artists of various types. 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.640 Maybe they found it rewarding to support an artist's work, 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:20.360 or maybe they got some other sense of value from it. 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:24.599 At any rate, they became what we call patrons of 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.599 the arts. And there are lots of examples of various 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.520 patrons who were really famous at the time. The Medici 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:36.359 family is probably the best known patrons from the era 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:41.440 of the Italian Renaissance, particularly Cosimo de Medici and his 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:45.680 grandson Lorenzo de Medici. These two Medici's were famous for 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:50.920 their patronage of various artists. Uh. Together they supported some 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:56.159 really famous ones like uh. Well, names that would seem 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.560 familiar to anyone who watched teenage mutant Ninja turtles because 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.680 they boarded artists like Donna Tello, Leonardo da Vinci, and 0:06:02.760 --> 0:06:08.680 michel Angelo and Uh. The patronage actually gave these wealthy 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.640 people a certain social status. It allowed them to associate 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:17.880 themselves with the most talented, brightest people of the age, 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:20.920 and it also created opportunities for the artists to make 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.120 amazing works of art, ranging from paintings to sculpture and 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:29.160 other stuff. Often the artists were working on a commission 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:31.960 by the nobility, so they didn't really have a whole 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:33.920 lot of choice in what they were able to make, 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:37.039 but the money they made from that allowed them to 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.719 fund other things. Famously, Da Vinci came up with lots 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:45.840 of different stuff. Meanwhile, theater companies also had patrons. William 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.279 Shakespeare belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Men during Queen Elizabeth 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:53.480 the First's reign uh. The initial patron of that theatrical 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.400 company was a man named Henry Carey, who was the 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.920 first Baron Hunston uh, the Lord Chamberlain to the Queen. Now, 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:05.159 eventually that company would become the King's Men because Elizabeth 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.479 passed away and James the First rose to the throne 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:12.640 and became the new patron of this theatrical company. So 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:15.600 they provided the budget that the artists needed in order 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:17.120 for them to do their work, and then they would 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:21.600 also reward the artists themselves. Um and this approach allowed 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.600 ours to protect practice their craft without worrying about selling 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.840 the finished product to buyers, though that could also happen 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:31.960 depending upon the artist. So generally speaking, it was a 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.720 work for higher sort of thing. It wasn't an idea, 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:37.640 you know, create a product and then go to the 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.840 market and try and sell the product. Today we still 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.360 have patrons of the arts. A lot of wealthy people 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.440 will end up funding arts in some way. There are 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:50.000 a lot of foundations that also provide funding and others 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.800 who donate to museums or to theaters. But when it 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:58.000 comes to supporting individual artists, patronage had largely faded away 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:02.440 until relatively recently. But now we're in a new era 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.560 of patronage. And it also makes sense because honestly, the 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.760 era of advertising is starting to come to an end. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:15.080 We've become tired of ads, so making money through ads 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:20.160 has become increasingly difficult. It's a challenge. It's still very important, 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.960 but it's harder to do, largely because the audience itself 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.840 has become cynical or tired of ads. Uh, you can 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.640 try to sell stuff in an online store instead, and 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.000 that might work great for certain types of artists, like 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.320 people who do graphic design work and maybe they do 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:40.160 sketches or paintings or comics or things of that nature. 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.160 They can sell different prints or posters. That sort of stuff. 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:46.880 Also makes sense for musicians who might sell things like 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.960 albums or individual songs that kind of thing. But there's 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.640 some types of creative work that do not lend themselves 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:59.320 to merchandise easily. So for example, maybe you do a 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.200 series videos like you have a web video series, and 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:07.200 you might have some merchandise options, but generally speaking, those 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:09.440 are probably not going to bring in enough money to 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.000 support your work, So what do you do? Well, that's 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:16.440 where patronage comes into play. Now. The best known service 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:21.120 right now is Patreon, and that service allows creators to 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.480 build a profile for their work. Fans can contribute money 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.520 on an ongoing basis. Creators can set up a Patreon 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:32.160 account so that the pledges are collected monthly or every 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.600 time there's a new piece of content for an audience 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.440 to enjoy. So, in other words, if I'm a creator 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:41.160 and I want to create a Patreon page, I could 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:43.320 do it. Let's say I'm doing a web video series. 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.720 I can do it where I say pledge x amount 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.920 per month, and you might say a dollar or five 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:53.880 dollars or whatever that might be. Or I could choose 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:58.040 to say pledge x amount per video, so every time 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:01.880 an episode comes out, you would end up contributing however 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:03.800 much you had pledged, whether it was a dollar or 0:10:03.800 --> 0:10:08.480 five dollars or whatever amount. Those are the different options. Uh, 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.400 it's kind of like a subscription service, only you aren't 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:15.760 necessarily buying something. You're supporting the work of someone who's 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.200 stuff you like, so you're not necessarily getting something that 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:22.679 no one else can get although that can play apart 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:25.040 two and I'll talk about that in a second. But 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:28.520 really what it's all about is saying I like the 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:31.200 stuff you do. I want you to continue to be 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.280 able to do the stuff you do, and I'm willing 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:38.440 to pay money so that this happens. And it's interesting 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:42.760 because at least for some people it works. Now, in 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.320 the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to let you 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:49.920 guys know I support to Patreon campaigns right now, and 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.880 I'm not asking anyone else to go out and support them. 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:54.760 I just want to be able to talk about my 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:58.679 experience as a patron as opposed to a creator. I 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.400 don't have a patriot On campaign for anything that I do. 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.520 I just support other Patreon campaigns. So the two campaigns 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.160 I support, one of them is for Tom Merritt's daily 0:11:09.240 --> 0:11:12.400 tech news show, and Tom's a friend of mine. He 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.520 does great work. He covers tech stories each weekday and 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.360 brings on interesting guests and sometimes people like me to 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:22.679 be on his show to discuss the stories and give 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:28.400 them context. So I am one of many patrons of 0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:31.200 tom Merritt's and I want him to continue to be 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.680 able to do this work, which I think is valuable. 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.840 It's entertaining and it's informative. So that's why I have contributed. 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:41.360 The other Patreon campaign I support is for a group 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:45.520 called Red Letter Media, and that's an entertainment company and 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:50.160 they create online videos and plus they create films. They're 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:54.800 they're essentially a film studio that also does online video. Now, 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.160 they're mostly known for their film criticism. I have several 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.800 shows that focus on the sizing films in various ways. 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.040 There's one called half in the Bag, there's one called 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:07.599 Best of the Worst, and then there are the infamous 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:11.959 Mr Plinkett reviews. So if you've ever come across one 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.559 of those reviews of either Star Wars or Star Trek 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.440 where the persona doing the review is a crazy, sociopathic 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:24.640 old guy, that's Red Letter Media. Now there are hundreds 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:28.040 of projects listed on Patreon, and some of them may 0:12:28.080 --> 0:12:31.280 even be for stuff you already enjoy. So how does 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:35.319 the service work? I mean, how can it actually work 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:37.800 in a in a in a background sense. I mean, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.800 clearly it's not as simple as just a sorting house 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.720 for audience contributions, right, I mean, how would Patreon even 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:47.600 make its own money? So that it could remain in operation. Well, 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:50.280 to answer that, we need to look at the history 0:12:50.480 --> 0:12:53.920 of Patreon and then at how the service makes money, 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.480 and it all starts with a pretty successful YouTube channel. Now. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.599 That channel belongs to Jack Conti, and he's a filmmaker 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.160 and songwriter living in California, and he's also one half 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:08.120 of the group Pomplo Moose, which if you are not 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.000 familiar with Pomplo Mouse, you should probably go and check 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:15.640 that out. They're pretty awesome. They do fun musical mashups 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:19.920 and really creative music videos as well some very experimental 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.080 film stuff that's kind of interesting, So check that out. 0:13:24.120 --> 0:13:27.280 We'll be back with more about patronage in the online 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:40.800 age after this quick break. In two thousand thirteen, Conti 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.400 had a YouTube channel that had more than a hundred 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:46.600 thousand subscribers and his videos were racking up more than 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:51.160 a hundred thousand views per video, but he was faced 0:13:51.160 --> 0:13:53.160 with a real problem. He says he was only making 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.679 about fifty dollars a month off his channel from advertising, 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.240 so it's a big issue he was He was doing well, 0:14:02.400 --> 0:14:05.160 he had a he had a sizable audience, but he 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.320 wasn't really realizing any true revenue from it, and there 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.679 are a lot of factors that figure into this. If 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:15.760 you allow advertising on your videos on YouTube, you only 0:14:15.800 --> 0:14:19.200 get a percentage of the money earned through ads on 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.840 your channel. The rest goes to Google to YouTube itself. Now, 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.200 on top of that, you have to choose whether your 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.040 channel will serve up ads that people can skip after 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:33.040 a few seconds or ads that play all the way 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:36.800 through and there's no skippable option, and subscribers tend to 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:39.880 prefer skippable ads obviously, they don't want to be forced 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:43.040 to watch a commercial if they don't have to. But 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.280 if they get a skippable ad and they skip out 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.640 too early, in other words, before thirty seconds have passed, 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.600 no revenue is generated from the ad impression, so that's 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.840 an issue. And YouTube also has algorithms that determine how 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.080 frequently ads are shown in the first place, so not 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.480 every view of a monetized video may result in an 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:06.840 ad display. So there are a lot of factors here 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.360 that actually limit the amount of money you're going to make. 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:11.680 You on paper, it looks like you should be making 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:14.560 a lot because you've got so many views of your video, 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.360 But if everyone is skipping the the ads, or there 0:15:17.360 --> 0:15:19.480 are not a lot of ads being served up on 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:23.080 that video. In particular, you might be making very little 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.720 in the long run. Now, the bottom line was that 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.400 Conti was putting time and effort into creating videos but 0:15:29.520 --> 0:15:32.120 seeing very little return on his investments. So he began 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.040 to think about ways that artists could create a direct 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:39.720 link to audiences, something that would allow audiences to support 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.400 the artist rather than having to depend upon this third 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:48.800 party advertising structure. So in May two thousand thirteen, Contie 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:54.960 paired with partnered with Sam Yam to create Patreon, and 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.520 the idea was pretty simple. Artists would create a Patreon account, 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.720 they would offer reward to people who contribute money to 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:06.440 their efforts. Uh So those rewards could be anything, really, 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.280 but ideally there would be things that you could easily 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:13.320 deliver reliably so that people who are supporting you actually 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.640 feel like they're getting value for their contribution. So, for example, 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.800 if I were doing that web video series, I might 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:25.120 offer up an access to bonus videos or blooper reels 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.280 and other content to people who contribute at a certain level, 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:33.240 and anyone who is either not contributing or contributing at 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:36.120 a lower level, they don't get access to that, but 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.360 they can still see the regular web video series. The 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:42.720 important thing here is I'm not forcing people to subscribe 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.120 to something. I'm saying, if you want to support me, 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.960 here's a way to do it, and in return, you 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.200 get this bonus material. But if you don't feel like 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.040 you can support me for whatever reason, maybe you don't 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.880 enjoy the content that much, or maybe your money is 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:03.240 very limited and so you can't really afford to support me, 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.560 that's fine. Enjoy the regular series with everybody else. You're 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.400 still going to have access to it. It's only if 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:12.880 you want to and are able to, and you want 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:16.879 this bonus material in the first place, that you should contribute. 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.800 That tends to be the general approach most creators take 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:26.000 when they're using Patreon. It's the idea of added value 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:29.919 and also for people to express their appreciation for the 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:33.399 work that you do. And it's amazing because it actually 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.040 seems to work. As for the rewards, there are a 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.960 lot like you would see on stuff like Kickstarter or 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:42.919 Indiego Go, and higher levels of contribution typically correspond to 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.360 more prestigious awards, such as being acknowledged as a producer, 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.720 for example, and to give a specific incident, Tom Merritt 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.960 and producer Jenny Josephson of Daily Tech News Show once 0:17:56.000 --> 0:17:59.240 read out the names of every contributor to the Daily 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.360 Tech News Show Patreon when they hit ten thousand dollars 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:07.840 per month ten thousand dollars of contributions per month. So 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.720 it took them just under four hours to go through 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.239 all the names, and they even threw in lots of 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:18.680 puns and other silly things for almost every single name 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:21.800 on that list. And if you want to search, the 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.880 video is up on YouTube. You can find it three 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.439 hours and fifty nine minutes. If you want to hear 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:29.560 when my name comes up, because I was a patron 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:33.000 at that time too, it's at the one hour twelve 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:35.800 minute mark. He's actually really nice. He gave a shout 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.760 out to how stuff works, which was lovely, so fun 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:42.359 time there, it was interesting, and that was just something 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:44.480 that he decided to do, and actually I think it 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.920 was Jenny's suggestion. They decided just to do that spontaneously 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:51.600 to thank the people who had been supporting them. It 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.919 wasn't part directly part of the Patreon support. So that 0:18:56.000 --> 0:18:58.600 was really really fun and and showed a lot of 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.080 dedication to sit there for four hours and thank every 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.080 single person by name. Now, this might sound similar to 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.439 something that's been around for several years, that being the 0:19:09.520 --> 0:19:15.080 PayPal tip jar approach, So you've probably seen this around. 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.679 Lots of creators have included a tip jar on sites 0:19:17.720 --> 0:19:20.680 to allow fans the chance to contribute directly to their 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:25.080 favorite artists or writers or whatever. So this would be 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.600 on various sites where you see the little PayPal button 0:19:27.680 --> 0:19:30.280 you can click and then contribute a certain amount. You 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:33.400 can even make it a recurring contribution if you wanted to. 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:37.840 So that's very similar to what Patreon offers, and that's 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:39.800 been around for a while. But it's one of those 0:19:39.800 --> 0:19:43.439 things that I think, you know, I'm sure people have 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.119 collected money from it, but not large amounts. It's not 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.040 terribly visible, and so it's it's not like it's not 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:56.399 like Patreon has replaced this button, but certainly augmented it. 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.920 And Patreon also has built in tools that allow creators 0:19:59.920 --> 0:20:03.800 to communicate directly where their supporters, which was something that 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.359 the PayPal button didn't supply at all. The PayPal button 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.000 was really just a way for people to contribute directly 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.200 to a person. Patreon is more of a community building 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:17.159 tool because you can actually send a message out to 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.880 all of your Patreon supporters and give them updates, give 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.400 them links to special content, give them alerts to things 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:29.000 that you have planned that haven't been officially announced yet. 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:31.159 All of this kind of stuff. The idea of including 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:37.240 people into an artistic endeavor is built into Patreon Now. 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:40.760 Patreon charges the pledges at the end of each month, 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:45.480 so if you end up supporting a Patreon campaign, you're 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.040 not going to get charged until the end of the month, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.120 and that might mean for some pat patrons are really 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:53.639 long wait if you join at the very beginning of 0:20:53.680 --> 0:20:56.399 the month and pledge, because you won't be charged till 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:58.280 the end of the month, and you might not actually 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.800 have access to the Patreon level rewards until your money 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.040 has been processed. So if I start off on on 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:09.880 September one and I pledge at a certain level because 0:21:09.920 --> 0:21:13.080 I want to have access to this special stuff, it 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:16.200 may not be until the following month until October when 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:19.639 I'm able to actually access that. So that's one downside 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:21.760 to Patreon. There are some others too. Obviously, if you 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.040 do not like PayPal, that's another issue, because that's the 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.760 main way to contribute money. Through Patreon, and if you 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:33.040 object to PayPal, then that could be a real, real problem. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:36.800 One thing that's nice about Patreon is that it's not 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:39.600 necessarily a means to get a project off the ground, 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:43.560 So in other words, the work itself is probably already done. 0:21:43.600 --> 0:21:46.760 In most cases, you're you're not risking anything. You're not 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:50.560 contributing money to a campaign that might ultimately fail, which 0:21:50.600 --> 0:21:54.119 can completely happen with Kickstarter and indie go go. Now, 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:57.520 of course, in Kickstarter campaigns, if the campaign doesn't fund, 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.320 you aren't charged. With indie goog, you are charged because 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.159 even if a campaign doesn't mean it's campaign goal, some 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:06.640 of that money will end up going to the creator. 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:12.640 In both cases, if the campaign funds but nothing ever 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.040 comes out of it, you are left in the lurch. 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.760 And this has happened to me three times. I have 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:27.160 supported three different campaigns through crowdfunding that never ever went anywhere. 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:30.840 These are the infamous smart watches I have backed, and 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:34.920 all three have languished and never got to me. So 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.359 learned from my lesson. Also, I think it's important to 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.760 remember anytime you see any kind of crowdfunding thing, if 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:47.240 it's for a physical product, way that with the idea 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:50.880 that this may never happen even if the project funds, 0:22:50.920 --> 0:22:55.080 because physical products are hard to produce, uh, they can 0:22:55.160 --> 0:22:58.520 often cost more money and have more problems than someone 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:03.320 would would have they're wise predicted. So that's always valuable 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:08.360 to go into a crowdfunding situation knowing that ahead of time. 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.800 And if you're okay with that risk and you believe 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:13.719 in what the people are doing, that's fine. But if 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.359 you're thinking of the kickstarter as a way to start 0:23:16.440 --> 0:23:20.240 a pre order on something, you could end up for 0:23:20.600 --> 0:23:23.920 with a rude awakening further down the line at any rate. 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.840 Patreon is not like that. With Patreon, most of the time, 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:29.640 the creators are doing something they love and they're going 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:32.280 to be doing anyway. This is just a means for 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:35.280 them to be compensated for some of that work. So, 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:37.760 for example, it might be a web comics artist who 0:23:37.880 --> 0:23:41.040 is going to continue drawing web comics no matter what, 0:23:41.640 --> 0:23:44.240 but this is a way for you to express appreciation 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.720 and help support the web comics artist in his or 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:50.920 her efforts to bring that art to you. So it's 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:53.680 it's very different in that it's not it's not like 0:23:53.720 --> 0:23:56.679 you have to wait for a certain threshold to be 0:23:56.760 --> 0:23:59.639 met and then you get whatever it is you're supporting, 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:03.719 You're getting it already, So I think that's pretty exciting. 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:06.200 And also, you can end your support at any time. 0:24:06.240 --> 0:24:10.160 You can go into Patreon and say I'm done supporting 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:14.480 this particular campaign. I either you know, I'm no longer 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:17.280 interested in it, or I can't afford it, or whatever 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:19.119 the reason. Maybe it doesn't matter. You don't have to 0:24:19.119 --> 0:24:23.439 provide a reason. You can just stop your support. You've 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.040 got a bit more to say about Patreon and similar 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:40.200 services after this quick commercial break. As for Patreon itself 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:44.680 making money, well, it got started with venture capital investments. 0:24:45.040 --> 0:24:46.560 You know, this is the way we see a lot 0:24:46.600 --> 0:24:50.400