WEBVTT - Patronage Makes a Comeback 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:12.879 With technology with tex stuff from Hatflog, Patre everybody, it 0:00:13.039 --> 0:00:16.320 is tech stuff. I am Jonathan Strickland. I am so 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:19.200 pleased to be chatting with you today. I'm on my own. 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.800 It's another solo episode, and today I want to talk 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.320 about Patreon and patronage. I mean, for today's episode. I 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:30.080 thought it might be interesting to take another look at 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.400 how people can use the Internet to make money. And 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.920 I've covered topics like e commerce before, web advertising, We've 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:41.479 covered multiple times on this show. We've even covered crowdfunding 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.080 stuff like Kickstarter and Indiego Go. But I really wanted 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.800 to look at patronage because it's interesting to see it 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:52.240 come back so strong. That's not to say that patronage 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.200 is new, even new on the Internet. It's not. It 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.960 just seems to be rising in prominence right now. The 0:00:59.000 --> 0:01:03.840 idea of patronage dates back to the Renaissance, and I 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.959 gotta be honest with you guys. I debated briefly, but 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.440 I did debate on describing Renaissance patronage in the style 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:15.760 of the character I used to play back when I 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:20.720 was an employee of the Georgia Renaissance Festival. But then 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.040 I figured, you guys, would probably unsubscribed so fast that 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.200 you'd actually hear the whishing sound of the wind filling 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.920 in the vacuum of missing listeners. So I'm going to 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:35.760 spare you the corny Renaissance festival character for now. But 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.399 if you really want to hear me cut loose as 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:43.960 a Renaissance festival idiot, stick around to the very end 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.160 and then you'll get a treat, or maybe you'll think 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.160 of it as something other than a treat, but at 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.120 any rate, it'll be at the end, so that way 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:54.320 you can not listen to it if it bugs you. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:02:00.000 So getting back to Renaissance and the era of patronage. 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.360 When you look at the Middle Ages in Europe, the 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:08.799 period preceding the Renaissance, the primary social system in place 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:12.440 was feudalism. And in case you're not familiar with feudalism, 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.400 what the concept is or how that worked. This was 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.320 where you would have a centralized power figure of some 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:23.120 sort to whom everyone in the region would swear fealty. 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:25.720 And this was a two way relationship. It wasn't just 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:30.200 someone lording over a lot of peasants, although that could happen. 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:33.760 The person in charge was supposed to make big decisions 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.919 on behalf of the entire region, and in the best 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:41.520 case scenarios, uh, they would actually take great pains to 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:44.920 protect the people they ruled over. In fact, if you 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.440 look at stuff like the old epic poem Beowulf, you 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.360 hear about the the job of the king is to 0:02:52.560 --> 0:02:55.800 hand out rings, which is essentially the symbol of wealth 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:00.920 two loyal subjects who have have contributed in some meaningful 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:05.400 way to the area's success. That was the basis of 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:11.040 society for centuries in Europe. But once you start getting 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.000 toward the end of the Middle Ages, things start to change. Now, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:18.120 during the Middle Ages, you know the peasants really their 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:22.440 job was to essentially make enough food for everyone to 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.359 stay alive, including the person in charge. But at the 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.280 end of the Middle Ages, the system of feudalism began 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.880 to fall apart, and it also marked the first time 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.960 people really begin gan to move in great numbers from 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:44.000 the pastoral countryside and farms into cities. This was the 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:48.320 era of cities having an enormous population booms, so places 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:52.000 like Paris and London had their numbers swell, and out 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:56.680 of that change grew something brand new, the middle class, 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:02.400 or the bourgeois in other words, and as professions became lucrative, 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.240 as people began to find ways to create things, to 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:11.840 make goods or provide services that were valued within the cities, 0:04:12.640 --> 0:04:14.840 people began to make money. The middle class began to 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.360 make serious money. Sometimes the people in the middle class 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:22.760 were far wealthier than anyone in the nobility class. There 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.600 are plenty of examples of nobles who were arranging marriages 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.760 with wealthy middle class families because the middle class families 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:35.240 lacked a title, but they had money, whereas the nobility 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:40.960 had titles but no money. So it became this weird relationship, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.159 particularly in places like England. Now some of the people 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.839 in the middle class wanted to use the money they 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:55.440 made to do various things, including supporting artists of various types. 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:59.719 Maybe they found it rewarding to support an artist's work, 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.520 or maybe they got some other sense of value from it. 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:06.719 At any rate, they became what we call patrons of 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.719 the arts, and there are lots of examples of various 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:14.640 patrons who were really famous at the time. The Medici 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:18.479 family is probably the best known patrons from the era 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:24.159 of the Italian Renaissance, particularly Cosimo de Medici and his grandson, 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.000 Lorenzo de Medici. These two Medici's were famous for their 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:33.560 patronage of various artists uh. Together, they supported some really 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:38.679 famous ones like uh well, names that would seem familiar 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:41.880 to anyone who watched teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Because they 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.200 supported artists like Donna Tello, Leonardo da Vinci, and michel 0:05:45.240 --> 0:05:51.039 Angelo and Uh. The patronage actually gave these wealthy people 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.599 a certain social status. It allowed them to associate themselves 0:05:55.760 --> 0:06:00.720 with the most talented, brightest people of the age, and 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.640 it also created opportunities for the artists to make amazing 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.880 works of art, ranging from paintings to sculpture and other stuff. 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:12.800 Often the artists were working on a commission by the nobility, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.679 so they didn't really have a whole lot of choice 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.320 in what they were able to make, but the money 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:21.120 they made from that allowed them to fund other things. Famously, 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:25.320 Da Vinci came up with lots of different stuff. Meanwhile, 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:29.200 theater companies also had patrons. William Shakespeare belonged to the 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.159 Lord Chamberlain's Men during Queen Elizabeth the First's reign. Uh. 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:36.680 The initial patron of that theatrical company was a man 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:40.920 named Henry Carey, who was the first Baron Hunston uh 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:44.080 the Lord Chamberlain to the Queen. Now, eventually that company 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:48.520 would become the King's Men, because Elizabeth passed away and 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:51.640 James the First rose to the throne and became the 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.560 new patron of this theatrical company. So they provided the 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:58.080 budget that the artists needed in order for them to 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:00.120 do their work, and then they would also reward the 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.400 artists themselves. Um and this approach allowed ours to protect 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.720 practice their craft without worrying about selling the finished product 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:11.520 to buyers, though that could also happen depending upon the artist. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:15.200 So generally speaking, it was a work for higher sort 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.680 of thing. It wasn't an idea, you know, create a 0:07:18.680 --> 0:07:20.440 product and then go to the market and try and 0:07:20.520 --> 0:07:24.119 sell the product. Today we still have patrons of the arts. 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.800 A lot of wealthy people will end up funding arts 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.280 in some way. There are a lot of foundations that 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.600 also provide funding, and others who donate to museums or 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:37.440 to theaters. But when it comes to supporting individual artists, 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:43.440 patronage had largely faded away until relatively recently, but now 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:46.640 we're in a new era of patronage and it also 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:51.920 makes sense because honestly, the era of advertising is starting 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.600 to come to an end. We've become tired of ads, 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.600 so making money through ads has become increasingly difficult. It's 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:04.040 a chat lunch. It's still very important, but it's harder 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:08.240 to do, largely because the audience itself has become cynical 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.600 or tired of ads. Uh. You can try to sell 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:14.360 stuff in an online store instead, and that might work 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.200 great for certain types of artists, like people who do 0:08:17.280 --> 0:08:20.720 graphic design work, and maybe they do sketches or paintings 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:22.680 or comics or things of that nature, and they can 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.200 sell different prints or posters. That sort of stuff. Also 0:08:26.240 --> 0:08:30.800 makes sense for musicians who might sell things like albums 0:08:30.920 --> 0:08:34.200 or individual songs that kind of thing. But there's some 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.839 types of creative work that do not lend themselves to 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:42.040 merchandise easily. So, for example, maybe you do a series 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:45.000 of videos. Like you, you have a web video series, 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.079 and you might have some merchandise options, but generally speaking, 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:51.480 those are probably not going to bring in enough money 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:54.959 to support your work. So what do you do? Well, 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.040 that's where patronage comes into play. Now. The best known 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.080 service right now is patriot on, and that service allows 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:06.520 creators to build a profile for their work. Fans can 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.200 contribute money on an ongoing basis. Creators can set up 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.360 a Patreon account so that the pledges are collected monthly 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:16.040 or every time there's a new piece of content for 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:19.079 an audience to enjoy. So, in other words, if I'm 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.240 a creator and I want to create a Patreon page, 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:24.720 I could do it. Let's say I'm doing a web 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:28.040 video series. I could do it where I say pledge 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.200 X amount per month, and you might say a dollar 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.440 or five dollars or whatever that might be. Or I 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.679 could choose to say pledge x amount per video, so 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.839 every time an episode comes out, you would end up 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.480 contributing however much you had pledged, whether it was a 0:09:45.520 --> 0:09:48.640 dollar or five dollars or whatever amount. Those are the 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.760 different options. Uh, It's kind of like a subscription service, 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:56.959 only you aren't necessarily buying something. You're supporting the work 0:09:57.040 --> 0:10:01.400 of someone who's stuff you like, so you're not necessarily 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:04.080 getting something that no one else can get, although that 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:05.760 can play apart two and I'll talk about that in 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.480 a second. But really what it's all about is saying 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:12.520 I like the stuff you do. I want you to 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:15.320 continue to be able to do the stuff you do, 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:19.040 and I'm willing to pay money so that this happens. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:24.800 And it's interesting because at least for some people it works. Now, 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.280 in the interest of full disclosure, I wanted to let 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.560 you guys know I support to Patreon campaigns right now, 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.000 and I'm not asking anyone else to go out and 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.360 support them. I just want to be able to talk 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.440 about my experience as a patron as opposed to a creator. 0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:44.520 I don't have a Patreon campaign for anything that I do. 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:48.640 I just support other Patreon campaigns. So the two campaigns 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.280 I support. One of them is for Tom Merritt's daily 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.520 tech news show, and Tom's a friend of mine. He 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:58.640 does great work. He covers tech stories each weekday and 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:02.520 brings on interesting guests and sometimes people like me to 0:11:02.559 --> 0:11:04.800 be on his show to discuss the stories and give 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:10.559 them context. So I am one of many patrons of 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.320 Tom Merritt's and I want him to continue to be 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:15.800 able to do this work, which I think is valuable. 0:11:15.920 --> 0:11:19.960 It's entertaining, and it's informative, so that's why I have contributed. 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.480 The other Patreon campaign I support is for a group 0:11:23.520 --> 0:11:27.640 called Red Letter Media, and that's an entertainment company and 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:32.280 they create online videos and plus they create films. They're 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.920 they're essentially a film studio that also does online video. Now, 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:40.320 they're mostly known for their film criticism. I have several 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.720 shows that focus on criticizing films in various ways. There's 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.480 one called half in the Bag, there's one called Best 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.120 of the Worst, and then there are the infamous Mr 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.160 Plinkett reviews. So if you've ever come across one of 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.400 those reviews of either Star Wars or Star Trek where 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:01.559 the persona doing the review is a crazy, the sociopathic 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:06.760 old guy, that's Red Letter Media. Now there are hundreds 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.160 of projects listed on Patreon, and some of them may 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.400 even be for stuff you already enjoy. So how does 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:17.480 the service work? I mean, how can it actually work 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:19.920 in a in a in a background sense. I mean, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.920 clearly it's not as simple as just a sorting house 0:12:23.000 --> 0:12:25.840 for audience contributions, right, I mean, how would Patreon even 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.720 make its own money so that it could remain in operation. Well, 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.400 to answer that, we need to look at the history 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:36.079 of Patreon and then at how the service makes money. 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:38.840 And it all starts with a pretty successful YouTube channel. 0:12:39.440 --> 0:12:43.040 Now that channel belongs to Jack Conti and he's a 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:47.000 filmmaker and songwriter living in California, and he's also one 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.120 half of the group Pomplo Moose, which if you are 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.840 not familiar with Pomplo Mouse, you should probably go and 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:57.040 check that out. They're pretty awesome. They do fun musical 0:12:57.160 --> 0:13:01.319 mashups and really creative music videos as well some very 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.200 experimental film stuff that's kind of interesting, so check that out. 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:09.360 In two thousand thirteen, County had a YouTube channel that 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.640 had more than a hundred thousand subscribers and his videos 0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.120 were racking up more than a hundred thousand views per video, 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.360 but he was faced with a real problem. He says 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.800 he was only making about fifty dollars a month off 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:28.000 his channel from advertising, so that's a big issue he 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:30.120 was He was doing well, he had a he had 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:34.840 a sizeable audience, but he wasn't really realizing any true 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.200 revenue from it. And there are a lot of factors 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:40.120 that figure into this. If you allow advertising on your 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:43.760 videos on YouTube, you only get a percentage of the 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:48.040 money earned through ads on your channel. The rest goes 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:51.760 to Google to YouTube itself. Now, on top of that, 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.200 you have to choose whether your channel will serve up 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:58.199 ads that people can skip after a few seconds, or 0:13:58.480 --> 0:14:00.920 ads that play all the way through and there's no 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.720 skippable option, and subscribers tend to prefer skippable ads obviously 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.040 they don't want to be forced to watch commercial if 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.000 they don't have to. But if they get a skippable 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:14.720 ad and they skip out too early in other words, 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:18.800 before thirty seconds have passed, no revenue is generated from 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:23.040 the ad impression, so that's an issue. And YouTube also 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:26.280 has algorithms that determine how frequently ads are shown in 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.000 the first place, so not every view of a monetized 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:32.960 video may result in an ad display. So there are 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.320 a lot of factors here that actually limit the amount 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.600 of money you're going to make. You on paper, it 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:39.600 looks like you should be making a lot because you've 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:42.480 got so many views of your video, but if everyone 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.720 is skipping the the ads, or there are not a 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.880 lot of ads being served up on that video in particular, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.840 you might be making very little in the long run. Now, 0:14:51.840 --> 0:14:54.480 the bottom line was that Conti was putting time and 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:57.760 effort into creating videos but seeing very little return on 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.200 his investments. So he began to think about way that 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.520 artists could create a direct link to audiences, something that 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:08.560 would allow audiences to support the artist rather than having 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:13.840 to depend upon this third party advertising structure. So in 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:18.480 May two thousand thirteen, CONTI paired with partnered with Sam 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:23.320 Yam to create Patreon, and the idea was pretty simple. 0:15:23.680 --> 0:15:27.040 Artists would create a Patreon account. They would offer rewards 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:30.920 to people who contribute money to their efforts. Uh So 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.000 those rewards could be anything, really, but ideally they would 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:38.400 be things that you could easily deliver reliably so that 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.240 people who are supporting you actually feel like they're getting 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:45.680 value for their contribution. So, for example, if I were 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:49.200 doing that web video series, I might offer up an 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:53.240 access to bonus videos or blooper reels and other content 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.680 to people who contribute at a certain level, and anyone 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.920 who is either not contributing or contributing at a lower level, 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:03.800 they don't get access to that, but they can still 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.280 see the regular web video series. The important thing here 0:16:07.320 --> 0:16:11.680 is I'm not forcing people to subscribe to something. I'm saying, 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.160 if you want to support me, here's a way to 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:18.760 do it, and in return, you get this bonus material. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.120 But if you don't feel like you can support me 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.600 for whatever reason, maybe you don't enjoy the content that much, 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.480 or maybe your money is very limited and so you 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.320 can't really afford to support me. That's fine, enjoy the 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:35.520 regular series with everybody else. You're still going to have 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:38.480 access to it. It's only if you want to and 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.120 are able to, and you want this bonus material in 0:16:41.160 --> 0:16:45.320 the first place, that you should contribute. That tends to 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:50.320 be the general approach most creators take when they're using Patreon. 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.800 It's the idea of added value and also for people 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.840 to express their appreciation for the work that you do. 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:01.880 And it's amazing because it actually seems to work. As 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:03.920 for the rewards, there are a lot like you would 0:17:03.920 --> 0:17:06.919 see on stuff like Kickstarter or Indie Go Go, and 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:11.480 higher levels of contribution typically correspond to more prestigious awards, 0:17:12.000 --> 0:17:15.639 such as being acknowledged as a producer, for example. And 0:17:15.680 --> 0:17:19.840 to give a specific incident, Tom Merritt and producer Jenny 0:17:19.960 --> 0:17:23.520 Josephson of Daily Tech News Show once read out the 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:27.040 names of every contributor to the Daily Tech News Show 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:31.280 Patreon when they hit ten thousand dollars per month. Ten 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.679 thousand dollars of contributions per month, so it took them 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.719 just under four hours to go through all the names, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:42.720 and they even throw in lots of puns and other 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:46.399 silly things for almost every single name on that list. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.720 And if you want to search, the video is up 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:52.520 on YouTube. You can find it three hours and fifty 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.080 nine minutes. If you want to hear when my name 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.760 comes up, because I was a patron at that time too, 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:01.800 it's at the one hour twelve minute mark. He's actually 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:03.800 really nice. He gave a shout out to how stuff works, 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:08.280 which was lovely, so fun time there, it was interesting, 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.520 and that was just something that he decided to do, 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:14.280 and actually I think it was Jenny's suggestion. They decided 0:18:14.320 --> 0:18:17.399 just to do that spontaneously to thank the people who 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.719 had been supporting them. It wasn't part directly part of 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:24.680 the Patreon support. So that was really really fun and 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:26.920 and showed a lot of dedication to sit there for 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:31.720 four hours and thank every single person by name. Now 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:34.200 this might sound similar to something that's been around for 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:39.720 several years, that being the PayPal tip jar approach, so 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:43.480 you've probably seen this around. Lots of creators have included 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.080 a tip jar on sites to allow fans the chance 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.920 to contribute directly to their favorite artists or writers or whatever. 0:18:50.720 --> 0:18:53.560 So this would be on various sites where you see 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.119 the little PayPal button you can click and then contribute 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.800 a certain amount. You can even make it a recurring 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.080 contribution if you want it too. So that's very similar 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.919 to what Patreon offers, and that's been around for a while. 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.879 But it's one of those things that I think, you know, 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.400 I'm sure people have collected money from it, but not 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.800 large amounts. It's not terribly visible, and so it's it's 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:21.399 not like it's not like Patreon has replaced this button, 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.320 but certainly augmented it. And Patreon also has built in 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:29.000 tools that allow creators to communicate directly where their supporters, 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:33.600 which was something that the PayPal button didn't supply at all. 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:35.879 The PayPal button was really just a way for people 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.919 to contribute directly to a person. Patreon is more of 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.320 a community building tool because you can actually send a 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:46.720 message out to all of your Patreon supporters and give 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:51.400 them updates, give them links to special content, give them 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.800 alerts to things that you have planned that haven't been 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:57.159 officially announced yet. All of this kind of stuff. The 0:19:57.200 --> 0:20:00.879 idea of including people into an artistic endeavor is built 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:07.160 into Patreon Now. Patreon charges the pledges at the end 0:20:07.160 --> 0:20:10.800 of each month, so if you end up supporting a 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.239 Patreon campaign, you're not going to get charged until the 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:16.600 end of the month, and that might mean for some 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.840 Paton patrons a really long wait if you join at 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:22.600 the very beginning of the month and pledge, because you 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:24.199 won't be charged till the end of the month, and 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.399 you might not actually have access to the patron level 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.639 rewards until your money has been processed. So if I 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.879 start off on on September one and I pledge at 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.199 a certain level because I want to have access to 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.959 this special stuff, it may not be until the following 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:45.040 month until October when I'm able to actually access that. 0:20:45.240 --> 0:20:48.520 So that's one downside to Patreon. There are some others too. Obviously, 0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.720 if you do not like PayPal, that's another issue, because 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:55.480 that's the main way to contribute money through Patreon, and 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.960 if you object to PayPal, then that could be a real, 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.480 real problem. One thing that's nice about Patreon is that 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.000 it's not necessarily a means to get a project off 0:21:06.000 --> 0:21:09.239 the ground, So in other words, the work itself is 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.480 probably already done. In most cases, you're you're not risking anything. 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.840 You're not contributing money to a campaign that might ultimately fail, 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.119 which can completely happen with Kickstarter and indiego Go. Now, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:24.560 of course, in Kickstarter campaigns, if the campaign doesn't fund, 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:28.280 you aren't charged. With indiego Go, you are charged because 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:31.199 even if a campaign doesn't mean it's campaign goal, some 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.640 of that money will end up going to the creator. 0:21:35.000 --> 0:21:39.640 In both cases, if the campaign funds but nothing ever 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:43.040 comes out of it, you are left in the lurch. 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:47.800 And this has happened to me three times. I have 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:54.160 supported three different campaigns through crowdfunding that never ever went anywhere. 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.879 These are the infamous smart watches I have backed, and 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:01.560 all three have length wished and never got to me. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:06.320 So learn from my lesson. Also, I think it's important 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:09.160 to remember any time you see any kind of crowdfunding thing, 0:22:09.640 --> 0:22:13.800 if it's for a physical product, way that with the 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.800 idea that this may never happen even if the project funds, 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:22.080 because physical products are hard to produce, uh they can 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:25.600 often cost more money and have more problems than someone 0:22:25.640 --> 0:22:30.520 would would have otherwise predicted. So that's always valuable to 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:35.400 go into a crowdfunding situation knowing that ahead of time, 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:37.840 and if you're okay with that risk and you believe 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.760 in what the people are doing, that's fine. But if 0:22:40.760 --> 0:22:43.399 you're thinking of the kickstarter as a way to start 0:22:43.440 --> 0:22:47.280 a pre order on something, you could end up for 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:50.439 with a rude awakening fur their down the line at 0:22:50.480 --> 0:22:53.400 any rate. Patreon is not like that. With Patreon, most 0:22:53.440 --> 0:22:55.880 of the time, the creators are doing something they love 0:22:56.119 --> 0:22:58.560 and they're going to be doing anyway. This is just 0:22:58.720 --> 0:23:01.159 a means for them to be compensated for some of 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:03.640 that work. So, for example, it might be a web 0:23:03.640 --> 0:23:06.920 comics artist who is going to continue drawing web comics 0:23:07.440 --> 0:23:09.959 no matter what, but this is a way for you 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:13.160 to express appreciation and help support the web comics artist 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:16.120 in his or her efforts to bring that art to you. 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:20.320 So it's it's very different in that it's not it's 0:23:20.320 --> 0:23:23.440 not like you have to wait for a certain threshold 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:25.879 to be met and then you get whatever it is 0:23:25.920 --> 0:23:30.080 you're supporting. You're getting it already, so I think that's 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:32.719 pretty exciting. And also, you can end your support at 0:23:32.720 --> 0:23:36.400 any time. You can go into Patreon and say I'm 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:41.040 done supporting this particular campaign. I either you know, I'm 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:43.800 no longer interested in it, or I can't afford it, 0:23:43.880 --> 0:23:45.920 or whatever the reason, Maybe it doesn't matter. You don't 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.280 have to provide a reason. You can just stop your support. 0:23:50.200 --> 0:23:54.280 As for Patreon itself making money, well, it got started 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:57.440 with venture capital investments. You know, this is the way 0:23:57.480 --> 0:24:00.680 we see a lot of startups start. You know, how 0:24:00.920 --> 0:24:03.199 how they're able to stay afloat early on is that 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:07.600 they get investments from outside to get things moving. But 0:24:07.760 --> 0:24:10.320 beyond that, you have to create a different model or 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:15.919 else your your business will ultimately fail. So what Patreon 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.800 does is it takes five percent of all the pledges 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:24.800 that are gathered for all the different Patreon campaigns, And 0:24:24.880 --> 0:24:28.040 so as more people create Patreon campaigns and more people 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:32.800