Patreon

Patreon

Type	Private
Founded	2013
Headquarters	San Francisco, United States
Founder(s)	Jack Conte Sam Yam
Website	www.patreon.com
Type of site	Crowdfunding

Patreon, based in San Francisco, is a crowdfunding platform created by musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam.^[1] It allows artists to obtain funding from patrons on a recurring basis or per artwork.^[2] It is popular with YouTube content creators, musicians, and webcomic artists and has been featured in Forbes, Time, and Billboard magazines.

History

Patreon was founded in May 2013 by artist Jack Conte, who was looking for a way to make a living from his popular YouTube videos.^[3] Together with Sam Yam he developed a platform that allows patrons to donate a set amount of money every time an artist creates a work of art. The company raised $2.1 million in August 2013 from a group of venture capitalists and angel investors.^[4][5] In June 2014 the company raised a further $15 million in a series A round led by Danny Rimer of Index Ventures.^[6]

The company has signed up more than 125,000 "patrons" in its first 18 months.^[7] In late 2014, the website announced that patrons were sending over $1 million per month to the site's content creators.^[8]

In March 2015, Patreon acquired Subbable, a similar voluntary subscription service co-created by John and Hank Green, and brings over Subbable creators and contents including C.G.P. Grey, Destin Sandlin's Smarter Every Day and the Green brothers' own CrashCourse and SciShow channels.^[9] The merger was consequent of an expected migration of payment systems with Amazon Payments that Subbable used.

Model

Artists set up a page on the Patreon website, where patrons can pledge to donate a given amount of money to an artist every time they create a piece of art, optionally setting a monthly maximum. Alternatively a fixed monthly amount can be pledged. This is different from other crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, where artists obtain a single sum after a successful campaign and typically have to start over for every new piece.^[3] Similar to other platforms however, artists will often provide rewards for their patrons.^[10][11] Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges.^[12]

Participating artists

As of February 2014, almost half of the artists produce YouTube videos, while the rest are writers, draw webcomics or make podcasts.^[13] On average, patrons donate $7 per creation. Patreon is growing rapidly both in patrons and creators, with 10,000 artists expected to use Patreon by the end of February 2014.^[14] While the website initially targeted musicians, established webcomic artists such as Jonathan Rosenberg, Zach Weinersmith and Paul Taylor are successfully using it.^[15] Any content creation that may be deemed pornographic photography is prohibited since a December 2014 policy change. Non-Photographic sexual imagery (drawn, sculpted, or computer generated, for example) is allowed.

References

External links

• Official website