Any other patreon musicians who also play live shows?

Find Creators Music
1

I am a touring artist with a Patreon, and have been asking Patreon for years to create some kind of on-the-spot, real world way for audience members to become patrons. I mention Patreon from the stage and have even tried giving away free merch to new patrons, but I find that the mobile signup process is too cumbersome to get many people to sign up during the show.

My favorite solution is a “text-to-patron” system similar to what some podcasts use when asking listeners to become sustaining donors (eg: “to support us on a regular basis, text “radiolab” to 55-66”). This would allow the audience to seamlessly join patreon and support me (and theoretically, would grow the patron base, making it easier to support other creators too).

I am wondering if other live performing creators would find this useful, and if so, whether we can band together to make this a higher priority for the development team.

EDIT: if you like this idea you can “heart” it in the feature request thread here: What's your biggest Patreon pain point?

9 Likes
2

I tried using Patreon for live shows. Turned out impractical. It’s not a ‘buy now’ service. It’s a long-term one imho.

Fans who pay a monthly fee really want to be there. Not sure they would with a quick subscription.

Or more to the point, I have not figured out how to turn it into a point-of-sale. And I also feel like it might canabilize merch sales.

2 Likes
3

This has been a thorn in our side (team Amanda Palmer) for years. We’ve spent a lot of money and time on this - and I know first hand from talking to other creators (even outside of music) that this is a pain point for them too. Lots of creators have IRL events - concerts, conferences, cons, etc. where they have tables and booths and signs and are trying to get folks to sign up.

For Amanda Palmer’s USA tour, we had a dedicated table in the venue lobby staffed by two (and sometimes three) people - myself included - to answer questions and help sign up patrons. Eventually we also offered an exclusive patron-only merch item (an enamel pin) that patrons could wear at the show to identify each other. This also helped entice people to sign up to Patreon. We used a QR code that directed to a link to our $1 tier and encouraged people to sign up using their own mobile devices (because in the past, we’ve run into security/fraud issues having multiple people create accounts on one singular device/IP address).

This worked for iPhone users, mostly. Most Android users didn’t have a QR reader app and so for them, we had to write out our Patreon URL for them to enter in mobile web. The wifi or cell service at these various venues differed from place to place, so often it would take 3-5 minutes for each person to go through the sign up process. Very tedious and time consuming, especially with limited time before the show started/after the show ended.

We also enticed sign ups by giving new patrons a letter Amanda signed that welcomed them to the patreon which was dated and labeled for that specific venue (“thanks for signing up on April 20th at the Beacon Theatre, in New York” type of thing).

The most crucial part of this was having Amanda announce this table from stage. The times she did, we got lots of sign ups, the times she forgot to, we didn’t have as much.

In San Francisco, a member of patreon’s product team shadowed us to see how we were doing this, and actually pitched in to help us sign up patrons so they saw exactly where our pain points were, what was working and what wasn’t.

So. Yes, this is an issue for musicians and for other creators, and we’ve been in touch with Patreon team directly about this, they’re aware of this need and to my understanding are working to figure out some solutions. I don’t know if and when anything will be rolled out, but it is helpful to know that they see how we’re trying to accomplish this feat: signing up patrons at in person events - and are asking questions to help answer the ultimate one: how do we do this effectively? what product solutions can help?

4 Likes
4

Hey there

I am a big fan of the Amanda Team, and the incredible work you do!
I am a live musician myself, and yes, I also tried it out with a QR Code on the shows.
For german people it is even harder to sign up and everything (I’m asking for a german page-translation since four years now), because not everyone speaks english, so they’re afraid.

I just reached 162 patrons last year, and my goal for this year is 250. What helped me a lot reaching out to people is a weekly music Stream. The people on the net mostly have PayPal, and know at least some basic english, so I gain at least one new patron everytime I stream.

But back to topic:
Yes, some easy, one click jump in, would be awesome. How about a “Patreon-quick-sign-up APP”?
A light weight App, which combines the Android mail address /apple iTunes mail address automatically with Patreon?

Hallo? Patreon team? Someone there?

3 Likes
5

I’m really curious about potential developments and what other folks do here too!

1 Like
6

Once gifting subs becomes a thing, you could try using NFC cards and preload a link to the subscription on it. Then physically sell the card for the price of the tier you are gifting. Print artwork on the front and subscription instructions on the back.

Then they will have a physical memory and souvenir which is more likely to get them to follow through when they get home or find better cell service etc.

Presuming we will be able to set a duration for the gifted sub, just set it to a month and they will most likely renew on their own once the gifted sub is up.

I imagine you could do this with any item, sticker backing, thank you card with t-shirt purchase etc. but most modern phones are NFC capable so all you have to do is wave the card by the phone and it will open the link you put on it. I presume a much smarter person than me could code the card to open the Patreon app right to the sub form.

Here’s to the future!

2 Likes