
Small Business News
Patreon Increasing Its Creator Cut Later This Summer
The popular site Patreon has announced a new fee structure taking effect soon.
About Patreon’s New Fee:
This summer, Patreon will be updating its fees. On August 4th, the platform will be increasing its standard plan fee to 10% of earnings plus applicable fees and taxes. Moreover, the site is simplifying its options by retiring the current Pro (8%) and Premium (12%) plans in favor of the new 10% one. However, this update will only impact new customers. Those creators who have already published a Patreon page will be able to keep their current plan at their existing rate.
With this change, creators will still be able to add Merch to their plan for an additional 3% of their earnings. For existing creators, this means 11%, whereas new creators (who publish their pages on or after August 4th) will pay a total of 13%. Meanwhile, Patreon’s FAQ notes that those currently on the Premium plan will be transitioned to the Pro+Merch plan after August 4th.
What They’re Saying:
In a blog post announcing the changes, Patreon highlighted recent additions to their platform, noting, “Since we last updated our prices six years ago, Patreon has expanded beyond just payments to include media hosting, community, and discovery. Chat messages between creators and their fans are growing 63% year over year, in the past year fans viewed over 80 million hours of Patreon video, creators are going live daily, and Patreon’s discovery ecosystem is driving over $200 million to creators per year.” The post added, “We’re updating our pricing for new creators to continue offering even more tools to help you grow and connect.”
My Thoughts:
No one likes to see prices go up — but it’s commendable that Patreon is only applying this updated cost to new users. Hopefully that remains the case and isn’t just a temporary reprieve. And, also to their credit, the platform is correct to point out all of the additions they’ve made in recent years, leading to a more robust resource for creators and patrons overall.
As for those who have considered launching a Patreon before, there’s now extra incentive to register and publish your page before the August 4th price hike. That advice applies even if you don’t have all of the details figured out just yet as it seems you’ll be able to edit your page after the fact — and, as long as you don’t unpublish the page, you’ll be able to retain the lower fee. Then, you can start promoting your page to your community once you’ve nailed everything down.