Patreon recently received an influx of cash from investors, to the tune of 60 million.
I assume that now those same investors are looking to benefit from dividends before the year is out.
I would suspect this is the only reason for such a massive increase in the fees. That, and it will look better on paper during investor meetings, to further create more influxes of investor cash.
This change is clearly for investors, and shareholders. Not creators. Nor Patrons.
I have talked to quite a few people at Patreon HQ and they don’t seem like they would be that way, even with a bunch of new investors. I’m just “hoping” it has to do with some external factor. I could definitely see that it could be their payment processors changing the agreement for 2018 where each pledge needs to be an individual charge (where the payment processors get the new fee and not Patreon). It could have something to do with the tax bill going through the US Congress where Patreon would get heavily taxed or penalized if they kept doing things the old way (just guessing, haven’t read the bill).
If it is an external factor, I would hope Patreon would be able to tell us. If it was true and verified, we’d all be like “Well that sucks, not your fault though Patreon.”
This is starting to hit the news:
Now would be a great time to demonstrate that as a company Patreon is capable of taking user feedback into account and responding to it in a way that respects its users.
Chiming in here to let Patreon know, as a creator I’m extremely against this change. As others have pointed out, the math is incredibly unfavorable for 1$ patrons, leaving people who pledge to multiple creators having to choose who they can afford to continue to support. I and many other creators rely on those low level pledges, they make up a big chunk of my income from Patreon. As of yesterday when this nonsense came out, I’ve already lost a $1 patron.
I also want to point out that while there are few online services that can be compared to Patreon directly, services I use as an artist to make money do not charge my clients and customers a fee for using. Paypal’s rules state that seller’s are responsible for transaction fees. Etsy’s fees are entirely on the shop owner for making listings and paying shipping. Redbubble take substantial fees for being primarily responsible for producing and shipping materials with the artist’s work on it. Passing the fee burden onto the customer is insanely unethical in my eyes. I, as a creator, am choosing to use Patreon to put my content into the world. I, as the creator, should be responsible for the fees involved. You guys have heard this a ton of times from a ton of creators in the span of the last 24 hours; we creators are ok with carrying that burden if it means we can control the patron’s experience! This change strips us of that power and burdens the patron.
I am distressed at the lack of transparency coming from Patreon on this new change, whipping it out last minute with little to no feedback from your creators at large, and patrons who pledge to us. You say you have tested this feature vigorously with feedback, but we have not been provided any amount of data regarding this matter. I have a hard time trusting you guys on this, and with reason (bear with me while I digress slightly). As a creator who has been with you for over 2 years, I have been asking for the charge-up-front feature for 5 months, being told that creators who are active and in good standing for around 3 months usually get the feature. Not only do I still not have it, but you’ve begun ignoring my repeated requests. Also ignored are my repeated requests for you to publicly address the increase in fraudulent patrons, who are often difficult to detect, taking our content with nothing in return. Some months I’ve seen as many as 8 fraudulent patrons come and go. In addition, you do not provide any reasoning why the charge-up-front feature isn’t available to all trusted creators. In short, you guys are pretty bad at this whole transparency thing, which is really worrying. It makes me not trust you on the data regarding this new fee change.
So here’s what I’m asking; at least delay the rollout of this feature, pony up the data, and communicate with your creators better.
If there is an outside reason for the changes, then why the obfuscation instead of transparency?
I’ve already emailed Patreon about how I feel about this change, but wanted to voice my support of the others (above) who are upset over the new fee structure and the speed/manner it is being rolled out. Our patrons deserve better than this. Very disappointed.
I just had a patron who’s contributed 5 dollars per month for 4 months message me that he’s pulling his pledge until Patreon reverses its new policy. He also said that he was still willing to donate, if I’d provide him with a PayPal address or something of that sort, but he won’t do it through Patreon.
@carla I really, really hope that you and the other Patreon employees take the hint. Literally nobody seems to be on board with this.
I actually almost hope that they ARE doing something against their processors’ terms. That would mean that they’d have no choice but to not go through with it.
Wanted to add my voice here. Really shocked by the sudden announcement that feels like some kind of ultimatum.
I really don’t understand why this cannot be optional. Why can’t the patron decide if they want to pay the extra fees, if they opt in the pay extra…otherwise we the creators would pay.
I have been frustrated by my processing fees jumping all over the place, and feeling opaque, but I don’t feel like this is the right fix.
We as creators want, I almost need, Patreon to succeed. This announcement just seems way out of character, and is not only disruptive but also frightening, because it leads to the question of why is patreon doing it this way.
My only comment right now is so far today I’ve lost SIX patrons over this, all specifically referencing these changes in their exit questionaires.
Plus I’ve received a dozen emails, ten facebook messages, fourteen hangout questions, and three phone calls asking about how the changes will impact them - especially users confused by the flat surcharge and worrying if it will be attached to what they pay per creation, or if it is being paid on the monthly total based on how many creations I released that month.
I was hoping to work on CREATING today, not on panic control.
I just read this on someone’s blog:
“I got a response from Patreon to my request for information about how they will be charging people who pledge per post. It turns out that each pledge will incur a separate thirty-five-cent charge. That clearly makes my current structure unacceptable — if I do ten posts in a month then someone paying $1 per post will be charged $3.50 on top of their $10 payment, which is frankly absurd.”
Seriously… I have patrons at $0.05 per creation. If this is true, they’ve just had their cost jump to over 40c per creation, of which I get 10%?
Please tell me this isn’t true.
I’m down 14 patrons already.
Confirmed that the 35c is being charged PER CREATION.
Based on a 10-creation month:
So for someone at the $1/creation level for me will be charged 37.9% more than they used to be charged.
Someone at the 50c / creation level will be charged 72.9% more than they used to be charged.
Someone at the 5c / creation level will be charged over 800% of what they used to be charged
EIGHT HUNDRED PERCENT
THIS IS INSANE.
I’m about to go from being one of Patreon’s success stories (one of the top 100 earners on Patreon in 2014) to having to get a day job again.
I posted my grievances on Patreon’s facebook page yesterday. While I can still comment on previously-existing posts, I found that I can no longer create new ones there. It looks like they’ve blocked people from posting on their FB page.
Exit survey:
"Deleted $1.00
Charging $1.38 for a $1 pledge is bullshit"
I had a patron bail out within hours of my post about the change. She left the same “I’m not happy with Patreon’s features or services” reason.
I just want to throw one more thing in here about asking people to increase their 1-dollar pledge to 2 or 3 to counter the fee.
You’re suggesting that I ask my patrons to double or triple their pledge. That is a suicidal move. If I were to do that in person, I wouldn’t blame them if they were to punch me in the face right there. Really, suggesting that patrons multiply their pledges, or telling them how to show how meaningful their support is is right up there with EA’s disastrous “We’re making gamers grind for 40 hours because we want them to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment” comment on Reddit.
We don’t tell patrons what they want. THEY tell US what they want. And right now, EVERYONE is telling Patreon what WE want, and what we want is for this processing fee plan to disappear.
Heading over here to add my voice to the mix. This change is absurd. Not only is it costing old pledges, but how is a new patron going to feel when they sign up for the $1 pledge level and discover they’re actually going to be charged $1.38?
Saying this is “for the benefit of creators” is absurd. We’re capable of managing what level of pledges we choose to offer, and understanding what the income will be from that. To blindside our patrons with this nonsense does no one any good, especially the creators who are losing pledges.
You claim to have had a control group of creators and patrons, but a change this enormous should at least have been accompanied by a sitewide survey, which would have told you in no uncertain terms what a boneheaded move this is. Get rid of this change before it goes into effect and regain our trust before this becomes a fiasco we can’t recover from.
