Podquisition Episode 45: The Patreon Conspiracy

I think that Joshua Chap's generalization is incorrec. There are many artists that believe that art and music should be free. Their creations are released for free and some do not even accept donations. Personally, I think you should do what you love, and get paid for it.. whatever your choice of payment is (Ad-Supported, Patreon, Donations, etc...).

Anyone who complains that someone is making money here clearly never made anything themselves and have no understanding at all how much effort it really takes.

Joshua Chap

Indeed. I've turned to entirely using it as a payment platform to support creators I think are worthy, most which are already wealthy compared to me. Supporting artists has nothing to do with it because Patreon does nothing to promote its creators: the old music business worked far harder to find an audience for its people.Patreon is new 'disruptive'

Chris Johnson

I think the whole "support starving artists" thing gave the wrong impression of Patreon. Also the initial strong focus on featured hipsters may have then influenced the negative "hipster welfare" association with this site/system. I believe it is fading though and gradually more people will understand Patreon for what it is. So many people with Adblockers installed have gotten used to receiving free content at the expense of the creator. It will be interesting to see how the majority respond to YouTube's upcoming subscription model. As a creator, it's hard to balance the desire to make things with having to work and earn a living (even to balance the sacrifice of "free time" and social gatherings). There is so much that goes on behind the scenes which people aren't aware of. Equipment is expensive and the skills required to learn and produce videos (as an example) are extremely time consuming. I've made short video reviews that are about 5 minutes long that have taken between 8-12 hours to complete (write script, record gameplay, record voice, edit sound, edit it all together, create video thumbnail, export video, upload, etc). Patreon is an excellent way of helping creators and allowing them justify more time spent on creating than working (once you get a lot of patrons, so the pay is either equal or better). Eventually/hopefully turning it into a full-time job. Maybe people do want a bit more transparency? They want to know how much you spend on Pogs? Personally I think you have the right attitude and totally agree with what you said. To me it's obvious you work hard and deliver a lot of content (of consistent quality) on a regular basis :-)

MyGamerXP

Gavin's charity bundle is awesome!