Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Digital patronage is an emergent revenue model in which fans provide recurring financial support to a content creator, as exemplified through platforms like Twitch and Patreon. Whereas previous research has investigated creator-supporter relationships, the current study investigates creators’ multi-platform practices through in-depth interviews. We build on trends in creative labor studies and communication to examine how creators perceive Patreon and integrate it into their existing workflow. This study’s findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of digital patronage within the broader ecosystem of creative labor platforms.

Keywords

Creative labor digital economy digital patronage Patreon qualitative methods

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbing

(2002) Why are Artists Poor?: The Exceptional Economy of the Arts. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Abidin

(2015) Communicative intimacies: influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada 8: 1–16. Available from: http://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/

Alacovska

(2018) Informal creative labour practices: a relational work perspective. Human Relations 71(12): 1563–1589.

Baron

(2013) The death, destruction, and rebirth of the online video ad market. Available at: https://www.tubefilter.com/2013/10/21/the-death- destruction-rebirth-of-the-online-video-ad-market/ (accessed 20 June 2021).

Baym

Nancy

(2018) Playing to the Crowd. New York University Press.

Belleflamme

Lambert

Schwienbacher

(2014) Crowdfunding: tapping the right crowd. Journal of Business Venturing 29(5): 585–609.

Bonifacio

Hair

Wohn

(2021) Beyond fans: The relational labor and communication practices of creators on Patreon. New Media & Society. DOI: 10.1177/14614448211027961

Bonifacio

Wohn

(2020) Digital patronage platforms. In: Conference companion publication of the 2020 on computer supported cooperative work and social computing, New York City, US, 17 - 21 October 2020, pp. 221–226.

Brzozowska

Galuszka

(2021) Crowdfunding and Independence in Film and Music. London; NY: Routledge.

10.

Caplan

Gillespie

(2020) Tiered governance and demonetization: the shifting terms of labor and compensation in the platform economy. Social Media + Society 6(2): 1–13.

11.

Captain

(2018) Tumblr’s NSFW castaways are flocking to these lifeboats as a ban looms. Accessible at: https://www.fastcompany.com/90281686/tumblr-alternatives-castaways-are-flocking-to-before-sundays-nsfw-ban (accessed 12 July 2021).

12.

Cole

(2018) Patreon is suspending adult content creators because of its payment partners. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en/article/vbqwwj/patreon-suspension-of-adult-content-creators (accessed 12 July 2021).

13.

Conte

(2017) We messed up. We’re sorry, and we’re not rolling out the fees change. Available at: https://blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-out-fees-change (accessed 12 July 2021).

14.

Conte

(2017) Creators have made $100M on Patreon. Available at: https://patreonhq.com/creators-have-made-100m-on-patreon-ddfcc9338662 (accessed 30 March 2022).

15.

Cunningham

Craig

(2019) Social Media Entertainment. New York: New York University Press.

16.

Dalla Chiesa

(2021) The artists’ critique on crowdfunding and online gift-giving. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society 52(1): 20–36.

17.

Davidson

Poor

(2015) The barriers facing artists’ use of crowdfunding platforms: personality, emotional labor, and going to the well one too many times. New Media & Society 17(2): 289–307.

18.

Dekavalla

(2020) Gaining trust: the articulation of transparency by You Tube fashion and beauty content creators. Media, Culture and Society 42(1): 75–92.

19.

Dellinger

(2018) Why adult content creators are mad at Patreon. Available at: https://gizmodo.com/why-adult-content-creators-are-mad-at-patreon-1827254676 (accessed 12 July 2021).

20.

Digital Future Society (2019) The Future of Work in the Digital Era: The Rise of Labour Platforms. Barcelona: Digital Future Society.

21.

Duffy

(2017) (Not) Getting Paid to Do what You Love. New Haven: Yale University Press.

22.

Etter

Grossglauser

Thiran

(2013) Launch hard or go home! Predicting the success of Kickstarter campaigns. In: Proceedings of the first ACM conference on online social networks, Boston, US, 7 - 8 October 2013, pp. 177–182.

23.

Eurofound (2015) New Forms of Employment. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

24.

Evans

(2009) The online advertising industry: economics, evolution, and privacy. Journal of Economic Perspectives 23(3): 37–60.

25.

Fischer

King

(2021) Tipping is taking over the internet. Available at: https://www.axios.com/tippng-creators-twitter-facebook-clubhouse-2ec28b94-e3e9-4948-8262-2c3b8a2b2bb5.html (accessed 20 June 2021).

26.

Glatt

Banet-Weiser

(2021) Productive ambivalence, economies of visibility and the political potential of feminist YouTubers. In: Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment. New York: NYU Press, pp. 39–56.

27.

Graphtreon (2021) Graphtreon. Available at: https://graphtreon.com/ (accessed 20 June 2021).

28.

Guarriello

(2019) Never give up, never surrender: game live streaming, neoliberal work, and personalized media economies. New Media & Society 21(8): 1750–1769.

29.

Hair

(2021) Friends, not ATMs: parasocial relational work and the construction of intimacy by artists on Patreon. Sociological Spectrum 41(2): 196–212.

30.

Hesmondhalgh

(2020) Is music streaming bad for musicians? Problems of evidence and argument. New Media & Society 23: 1–23.

31.

Hunter

(2016) “It’s like having a second full-time job:” crowdfunding, journalism and labour. Journalism Practice 10(2): 217–232.

32.

Kastrenakes

(2021) Twitter announces paid super follows to let you charge for tweets. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22301375/twitter-super-follows-communities-paid-followers (accessed 20 June 2021).

33.

Klawitter

Hargittai

(2018) “It’s like learning a whole other language”: the role of algorithmic skills in the curation of creative goods. International Journal of Communication 12: 3490–3510.

34.

Knepper

(2017) No one makes a living on Patreon. Available at: https://theoutline.com/post/2571/no-one-makes-a-living-on-patreon (accessed 20 June 2021).

35.

Krishna

(2017) Patreon’s fee change punishes supporters who make small pledges. Availabe at: https://www.engadget.com/2017-12-08-patreon-fee-change-will-hurt-small-contributions.html (accessed 12 July 2021).

36.

Kumar

(2019) The algorithmic dance: YouTube’s Adpocalypse and the gatekeeping of cultural content on digital platforms. Internet Policy Review 8(2): 1–21.

37.

Larson

(2020) Open networks, open books: gender, precarity and solidarity in digital publishing. Information, Communication and Society 23(13): 1892–1908.

38.

Leith

(2021) Parasocial cues: the ubiquity of parasocial relationships on Twitch. Communication Monographs 88(1): 1–19.

39.

Lingo

Tepper

(2013) Looking back, looking forward: arts-based careers and creative work. Work and Occupations 40(4): 337–363.

40.

Luka

(2012) Media production in flux: crowdfunding to the rescue. Wi Journal of Mobile Media 6(3).

41.

Manjoo

(2017) How the internet is saving culture, not killing it. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/technology/how-the-internet-is-saving-culture-not-killing-it.html (accessed 20 June 2021).

42.

McDonald

Williams

Mayes

(2020) How professional photographers engage with and resist digital platform work. New Media & Society 23: 1602–1623.

43.

Namey

Guest

Thairu

, et al. (2008) Data reduction techniques for large qualitative data sets. In: Guest

MacQueen

(eds) Handbook for Team-Based Qualitative Research. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, pp.137–161.

44.

Neff

Wissinger

Zukin

(2005) Entrepreneurial labor among cultural producers: “Cool” jobs in “hot” industries. Social Semiotics 15(3): 307–334.

45.

Netherton

(2021) Heavy Metal Fundraisers: Entrepreneurial Recording Artists in Platform Capitalism. PhD Thesis, The University of Western Ontario, Canada.

46.

Nieborg

Poell

(2018) The platformization of cultural production: theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New Media & Society 20(11): 4275–4292.

47.

O’Meara

(2019) Weapons of the chic: Instagram influencer engagement pods as practices of resistance to Instagram platform labor. Social Media + Society 5(4): 1–11.

48.

Patreon (2021) 2020 Year-in-Review, and a peek into 2021. Available at: https://blog.patreon.com/2020-year-in-review-and-a-peek-into-2021 (accessed 12 July 2021).

49.

Regner

(2021) Crowdfunding a monthly income: an analysis of the membership platform Patreon. Journal of Cultural Economics 45(1): 133–142.

50.

Robertson

(2019) Patreon launches Pro and Premium tiers to compete with Facebook and YouTube. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/19/18272636/patreon-service-tiers-lite-pro-premium-jack-conte-platform-sustainable (accessed 30 March 2022).

51.

Romano

(2018) A new law intended to curb sex trafficking threatens the future of the internet as we know it. Available at: https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/13/17172762/fosta-sesta-backpage-230-internet-freedom (accessed 12 July 2021).

52.

Rouse

Salter

(2021) Cosplay on demand? Instagram, OnlyFans, and the gendered fantrepreneur. Social Media+ Society 7(3): 205630512110423.

53.

Scolere

(2019) Brand yourself, design your future: portfolio-building in the social media age. New Media & Society 21(9): 1891–1909.

54.

Smith

(2015) The backer–developer connection: exploring crowdfunding’s influence on video game production. New Media & Society 17(2): 198–214.

55.

Sutherland

Jarrahi

Dunn

, et al. (2020) Work precarity and gig literacies in online freelancing. Work, Employment and Society 34(3): 457–475.

56.

Throsby

Hollister

(2003) Don’t Give up Your Day Job: An Economic Study of Professional Artists in Australia. Sydney: Australia Council for the Arts.

57.

Warnke

, McLintock D (trans.) (1993) The Court Artist: On the Ancestry of the Modern Artist. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Vol. 3.

58.

Whitmer

(2019) You are your brand: self-branding and the marketization of self. Sociology Compass 13(3): e12662.

59.

Wohn

Freeman

(2020) Audience management practices of live streamers on Twitch. In: ACM International conference on interactive media experiences, Barcelona, Spain, 17 - 19 June 2020, pp. 106–116.

60.

Wohn

Jough

Eskander

, et al. (2019) Understanding digital patronage: why do people subscribe to streamers on twitch? In: Proceedings of the annual symposium on computer-human interaction in play, Barcelona, Spain, 22 - 25 October 2019, pp. 99–110.

61.

Yurieff

(2021) TI creator economy: a table of tipping take rates; Cameo gets a new rival. Available at: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ti-creator-economy-a-table-of-tipping-take-rates-cameo-gets-a-new-rival (accessed 20 June 2021).

62.

Zoledziowski

(2020) OnlyFans limits how much money sex workers make with zero warning. Available at: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/y3z4xv/onlyfans-limits-how-much-money-sex-workers-bella-thorne-make-with-zero-warning (accessed 20 June 2021).

Multi-platform practices among digital patronage creators

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References