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Patreon has completely upended these economics. You can make a comfortable middle-class income based on a small but extremely loyal fanbase. If you're dependent

Patreon has completely upended these economics. You can make a comfortable middle-class income based on a small but extremely loyal fanbase. If you're dependent on ad revenue, you need millions of subscribers, because you're only earning a fraction of a cent for each viewer. If you're supported through Patreon, you only need a couple of thousand people to chip in a couple of bucks a month. It's an interesting middle ground between patronage and busking that doesn't have any clear precedent.

PeterisP 9y ago
You still need a quite sizeable fanbase - small is not the right word for a couple thousand loyal fans who regularly spend money on you; even in the pre-globalized world where the distribution was more fair (less global stars sucking up attention), the vast majority of artists, bands, sports clubs, performers, etc didn't have as many serious fans. No matter what happens, there's only so much attention available, and it's a zero-sum game, most content creators won't be able to make it especially if the number of creators grows and dilutes that attention / eagerness of being a fan.
- jdietrich 9y ago
  Patreon take a 5% cut of donations. A band with an exceptionally good record deal might get to keep 15% of CD sales. The numbers are fairly similar in most mass media - under historical distribution models, middlemen kept the lion's share of revenues. Even assuming that competition for entertainment spending is entirely zero-sum, then the disintermediation of the arts is destroying a lot of jobs for middlemen but is increasing the amount of revenue that goes to artists. Even if the pie is static or shrinking, artists are getting a bigger cut. I'm not saying that everything is sunshine and roses, I'm not saying that everyone can become a creative professional, but I think that the situation is definitely improving. Barriers to entry are lower and there's a much larger middle-class of artists who aren't internationally famous but are making a good living.
dredmorbius 9y ago
I follow Mastodon quite closely. Its creator, Gargron, produces social networking software with roughly 1 million registered users. He has 685 patrons, and nets $3,267/mo income. That's less than $40k/yr. Though it's a richly diversified income stream and he has no boss (or rather: 685 bosses). https://www.patreon.com/mastodon https://www.patreon.com/mastodon It's an interesting story, and one I'm watching closely. As I get older, I break out in ever-faster cases of hives when someone claims to have "completely upended these economics". You might consider this the New Hives Mind.

PeterisP 9y ago

You still need a quite sizeable fanbase - small is not the right word for a couple thousand loyal fans who regularly spend money on you; even in the pre-globalized world where the distribution was more fair (less global stars sucking up attention), the vast majority of artists, bands, sports clubs, performers, etc didn't have as many serious fans. No matter what happens, there's only so much attention available, and it's a zero-sum game, most content creators won't be able to make it especially if the number of creators grows and dilutes that attention / eagerness of being a fan.

jdietrich 9y ago
Patreon take a 5% cut of donations. A band with an exceptionally good record deal might get to keep 15% of CD sales. The numbers are fairly similar in most mass media - under historical distribution models, middlemen kept the lion's share of revenues. Even assuming that competition for entertainment spending is entirely zero-sum, then the disintermediation of the arts is destroying a lot of jobs for middlemen but is increasing the amount of revenue that goes to artists. Even if the pie is static or shrinking, artists are getting a bigger cut. I'm not saying that everything is sunshine and roses, I'm not saying that everyone can become a creative professional, but I think that the situation is definitely improving. Barriers to entry are lower and there's a much larger middle-class of artists who aren't internationally famous but are making a good living.

dredmorbius 9y ago

I follow Mastodon quite closely. Its creator, Gargron, produces social networking software with roughly 1 million registered users. He has 685 patrons, and nets $3,267/mo income. That's less than $40k/yr. Though it's a richly diversified income stream and he has no boss (or rather: 685 bosses). https://www.patreon.com/mastodon https://www.patreon.com/mastodon It's an interesting story, and one I'm watching closely. As I get older, I break out in ever-faster cases of hives when someone claims to have "completely upended these economics". You might consider this the New Hives Mind.