Guys we forgot to give Apple their cut!

Starting in November, iOS will start collecting platform fees (30%) of all transactions from Patreon. Patreon has in turn passed this problem on to creators, so we have to decide whether we want to lose 30% of our payments from iOS users or raise prices for those users. This is monopoly behavior; very classy, Apple. The third option Patreon creators have is to basically put this off for a year, making iOS users unable to subscribe until November 2025, when Patreon will basically migrate everyone over to a new billing system.

I know some of my patrons are on iOS; your billing will only be effected if you leave and rejoin, as I understand it, but don't quote me on that. If you have another device to access Patreon, please use that, not just for me but for every Patreon creator. I know it's inconvenient, and you shouldn't have to do that, but it's our reality now. Please do this if at all possible! Of course, it's your money, if the Apple fees are passed on to you and you don't care, I can't stop you, but I do think the principle should at least offend you.

Not that Google or Microsoft are much better, but Apple consistently nickles-and-dimes consumers and small-time developers in a way that no one else does. You'd think a trillion dollar company could leave the pennies on the table, they're literally probably losing more money by wasting time just to scrounge them up. But this is not about making money, in my opinion, it's about contempt and control.

I'm sure Apple users and fans will roll their eyes at more "Apple bad, lol" takes, but they are genuinely anti-innovation and anti-consumer. One way to prevent competition for their own services, software, and even entertainment products is to capture, kill, and control every single thing that you do through the use of their platform, even if it has nothing to do with them, like getting in between the business relationship you and I have.

Apple does currently only charge fees for what it considers digital products, so yes, for right now, things like Uber and Venmo and even your Starbucks are exempt. But is a Patreon subscription a digital product? Sort of, in a certain manor of speaking. Apple didn't used to think so, since they didn't used to collect platform fees on Patreon subs. Obviously, Apple is free to interpret their rules how they want, and there's nothing to stop them from changing those rules at any time. But that is inherently the problem.

Apple has nothing to do with the business relationship you and I have, even if you purchase a subscription on one of their devices, nothing they've done contributed to the substance of our financial interaction. It's like if a corporate big wig closed a major deal during a phone call and made a million bucks and AT&T charged them 30% of the deal on top of the normal phone bill. Facilitating a financial interaction through a platform does not make you a party to it, and it's crazy we live in a world where sometimes huge companies pretend they are.

When I pay Patreon my fees--again, Patreon is a service that I actually use, so it makes sense to pay them a fee anyway--that money goes to pay for representatives I actually occasionally need help from. It goes toward redesigns and new logos. And yeah, most of that is bad, but at least I stand to benefit from this business relationship if Patreon someday accidentally makes a good decision! But Apple doesn't really do anything. They don't make Succubus Stories or Hex better. At least the taxes I pay through the nose to the government like go to roads and stuff after every major weapons manufacturer and politician gets their cut.

Apple just summons money ex nihilo at this point, because they're so deeply involved in your life, you basically have no choice but to pay them whatever they ask for. Anyway, I don't want to rant too much, but I really do feel a certain kind of way about this, if you couldn't tell. And look, Microsoft and Google also suck and I have plenty of hatred to go around, but Apple is literally the worst. I would take 90s browser-war era hyper-monopoly Microsoft over Apple any day of the week.