Building intimacy with fans: A comparative study of self-presentation strategies of crowdfunded musicians on Patreon and YouTube

Abstract

This study explores how music content creators and musicians negotiate their online identities across Patreon and YouTube to cultivate digital intimacy. We conducted a comparative analysis of the self-presentation tactics employed by the top 20 music creators on Patreon (as of February 2023) across both their Patreon and YouTube ‘About’ sections. Qualitative content analysis reveals that creators perform distinct personas tailored to each site’s logic: whereas YouTube descriptions prioritize professional legitimacy and quantifiable achievements to satisfy algorithmic visibility, Patreon focuses on relational labor and gratitude to justify financial support. The findings demonstrate that intimacy is not merely an individual choice but a structured requirement of platform architecture. This research highlights how creators must strategically navigate the tension between professional branding and commodified vulnerability, with critical implications for the sustainability of artistic careers in the platform economy.

Introduction

Since the development of participatory culture on the Web in the 2000s, digital technologies and practices have transformed the ways in which music is made, distributed, and listened to. More recently, in the quick-evolving socio-economic landscape of the music industry, confluence of factors such as the global pandemic of Covid-19, the prevalent streaming model, and the increasing emphasis on diversification through content monetization has pushed/led artists to find new streams of revenues and along the way, reshaped the dynamics of artist-fan relationships. In today’s music industry, artists are confronted with the necessity of embracing a variety of platforms to cultivate their careers, showcase their artistic endeavors, and establish meaningful connections with their audiences. Those platforms range from social media (Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok) to streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, YouTube, SoundCloud), and from selling (Bandcamp, SoundCloud, Beatport) to crowdfunding websites (Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Patreon).

In the context of this article, we examine the relationship between Patreon and YouTube from the perspective of self-presentation strategies adopted by music content creators and musicians. Patreon, as a subscription-based crowdfunding platform, offers creators the opportunity to establish direct financial support from their audiences, while YouTube serves as a crucial avenue for content dissemination, audience engagement, and ad revenues. These platforms complement each other in the online music ecosystem, with Patreon providing a platform for creators to connect with dedicated supporters on a supposedly more intimate level, while YouTube offers a wider reach, visibility, and virality to attract new audiences. Patreon and YouTube host creators spanning various musical genres, falling into two main categories: music content creators who produce reactions, reviews, interviews, and educational content about music; and musicians, including singers, instrumentalists, composers, and producers engaged in creation, performance, and teaching. Both categories significantly shape online music content and creators-audiences relationship across platforms.

According to Jamieson (2013), in a ‘mediated and global digital age [. . .] personal relationships [are] becoming more intense and democratically collaborative projects as people sought to anchor themselves through intimacy in rapidly changing worlds’ (Jamieson, 2013: 13). More particularly, the arrival of social media has opened up a new relational paradigm between artists and audiences: we evolved from a time when it was considered cool for rock stars to be inaccessible to a context where the reduction in the number of intermediaries between artists and audiences and the possibility of interacting easily online has created, among audiences, high expectations of availability and accessibility on the part of artists (Baym, 2018). Moreover, research on musicians and crowdfunding reveals that success depends heavily on pre-existing fan base development and emotional engagement (Gamble et al., 2017).

As suggested by Hair (2021), inside the realm of the digital artist-audiences relationship, the construction of intimacy between artists and patrons on Patreon can have a significant impact on the stability of income for digital creative workers. By fostering a sense of intimacy and connection with their patrons, artists can cultivate a loyal and engaged fan base that is more likely to provide ongoing financial support by becoming patrons. An intimate relationship can lead to increased patron loyalty, higher retention rates, and potentially more consistent income streams for the artists.

Those expectations are heightened in the context of subscription-based crowdfunding. This model appeared in 2013 with the creation of the website Patreon which is currently leading the market. Subscription-based crowdfunding differentiates itself from ‘traditional’ crowdfunding in the way patrons no longer support a project like the production of an album or a tour, but they support the artist by paying a monthly sum of money. With subscription-based crowdfunding, the closeness between artists and their audience that was initially fostered through traditional crowdfunding evolves into a more sustained, long-term relationship. The maintenance of an affective relationship with patrons is crucial since it is becoming an essential factor for stability and success for the model to work.

This article will be guided by the following research question: how do artists present themselves to their audiences on Patreon and YouTube and how do they build intimacy with them? To answer this question, we explore the self-presentation strategies adopted by music content creators and musicians on Patreon and YouTube. More specifically, we qualitatively analyze the content of the Patreon ‘About’ section of the 20 creators in the music category with most patrons (as of February 2023) and the ‘Description’ section of their YouTube pages.

We examine how these complementary platforms, Patreon as a subscription-based crowdfunding platform and YouTube as a platform for content distribution, enable artists to cultivate meaningful relationships with their audiences while generating revenue. Drawing on concepts such as self-presentation and digital intimacy between artists and fans, this article aims to provide new insights into the dynamics of artist-audiences relationships in the digital environment.

More specifically, our focus lies in examining the dynamics of online intimacy through the concept of ‘extimacy’. Originally coined by psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan in 1960 to describe the tension between interior and exterior aspects of the psyche, the term extimacy was later adapted by Tisseron first to analyze contemporary behaviors (Tisseron, 2001)—notably when the first reality TV show was aired in France—and then online contemporary behaviors (Tisseron, 2019). Tisseron (2011: 84) defined it as the process by which ‘fragments of the inner self are presented to others for validation’. ¹ Through the concept of extimacy, researchers in language sciences and digital communication have explored how individuals build their online identity (Denouël, 2011) and how they present themselves on platforms such as ‘extime blogs’ (Rouquette, 2008).

This study contributes to the growing body of platform studies that examine how different digital environments shape online persona construction and audience relationship-building (Marwick, 2013; Papacharissi, 2010; van Dijck, 2013). Theoretically, we propose an integrative approach that bridges self-presentation theory, platform studies, and digital labor scholarship to reveal how social processes like intimacy and audience relationships operate under structural constraints. Rather than developing new conceptual framework, our contribution lies in demonstrating empirically how platform architecture alter those processes. Specifically, our analysis reveals how intimacy or lack thereof becomes algorithmically and economically mandated rather than freely chosen, contributing to debates on platformed relationships where intimacy and authenticity are increasingly commodified through tiered access systems and engagement metrics.

Patreon, YouTube, and their affordances

Founded in 2013 by Jack Conte and Sam Yam, Patreon shifted the crowdfunding paradigm from a one-time project financing toward a continuous subscription-based model. By providing recurring financial support, patrons enable creators across various disciplines to monetize their work independently. This framework facilitates direct engagement through exclusive content and private community spaces, fostering a supposedly sustainable economic relationship between creators and their audiences. On 4 April 2026, the data available on Graphtreon ² indicated a sizable community in the music category, with 18,674 paid creators receiving support from at least one patron and 567,103 paid memberships (excluding hidden memberships). These paid subscriptions contribute to an estimated monthly payment of nearly $778,018 to the musicians and music content creators.

On the other hand, YouTube, established in 2005, stands as a pioneering and ubiquitous platform that has significantly altered the landscape of online video content creation and consumption. The platform enables creators—from amateurs to major media entities—to upload, share, and monetize content across diverse genres, democratizing access to global audiences. YouTube’s ad-driven revenue model includes advertising, channel memberships, and Super Chats. Beyond financial gains, YouTube fosters participatory engagement through comments, likes, and shares, creating a dynamic content ecosystem.

While Patreon and YouTube function autonomously, certain functionalities have been developed to streamline navigation between them. Notably, the inclusion of clickable links has been introduced, allowing transitions between platforms, and making them more visible for users. This feature, often presented as clickable logos of the said platform, supposedly helps artists in establishing connectivity across their diverse platforms, concurrently facilitating the migration of audiences from one platform to another. Such functionalities can be characterized as affordances, enabling artists to capitalize on the interconnectedness of digital platforms for self-presentation, enhanced engagement, and intimacy with audiences.

The term affordance refers to the characteristics of objects or environments that guide human behaviors in terms of ‘action potentialities’ (Luyat and Regia-Corte, 2009). A digital affordance pertains to the interaction and practices possibilities offered by elements or digital interfaces (boyd, 2010), such as websites, applications, software, and more specifically, clickable buttons, icons, text areas, the ability to use emojis, or to tag someone. These aspects provide insights into the ‘common modalities of interaction between humans and computers [. . .] and the relationships between humans, action, and the environment’ (Strachan, 2012: 123).

Gabriele Troilo and Daragh O’Reilly (2023) proposed to approach digital environments as landscapes of affordances, emphasizing the interactive nature of digital platforms and the myriad possibilities they offer for users. This perspective aligns with our study, where we aim to explore how affordances provided by platforms like Patreon and YouTube shape artists’ self-presentation strategies. By integrating the concept of affordance into our analytical framework, we seek to understand how platforms shape self-presentation strategies and digital intimacy.

In her comparative analysis of Facebook and LinkedIn interfaces, van Dijck (2013) illustrated the significant role these platforms play in shaping public identities. She highlights how these platforms offer affordances that enable users to personalize their profiles and encourage connectivity among users and between platforms. These platforms establish behavioral and presentational standards that guide self-presentation norms. Thus, platform affordances fundamentally structure how individuals navigate online spaces, influence perception, and mold digital relationships.

Digital self and self-presentation theory

In this study, the theoretical framework employed is derived from Erving Goffman’s (1973) self-presentation theory. According to this theoretical perspective, individuals engage in the enactment of social roles in their daily lives, contingent upon the diverse situations and contexts they encounter. Goffman posits that these roles are intricately crafted and sustained through the mechanism of impression management, wherein individuals utilize various communicative elements such as signs, gestures, facial expressions, and interactions to construct and maintain their desired social persona. According to Jamieson (2013) ‘with some refurbishment, classical interactionist accounts of the self can remain fit for a theoretical purpose in a digital age, despite seeming to take face-to-face personal relationships as ontological necessities’ (Jamieson, 2013: 28). As noted by Lunt (2022), Goffman’s insights into social performance and self-presentation continue to inform studies of mediated interactions and online identity construction:

Erving Goffman’s work has had a sustained influence on media and communications research from the period of mass communication to the digital age. His early work on everyday social interaction as dramatic performance (Goffman 1959) has influenced numerous mediated self-presentation studies. (Lunt, 2022: 195)

To modernize Goffman’s theory and tailor it to digital environments, we can refer to the work of Shulman (2022: 26):

Self-presentation in an Internet era now involves individuals using mechanical interfaces, incorporating new resources into their performances, increased risks of an expressed identity being spoiled and stigmatized, and more commercialization of the means of presentation [. . .] The goal of staging self-presentations offers commercial interests leverage to encourage greater consumption.

More specifically, according to Stenger and Coutant (2013), self-presentation is generated through the production of traces (textual, audiovisual) of a performative nature and during social interactions taking place on platforms (as interaction frameworks). In this context, it is important to note that platforms and their affordances take on a prescriptive role. On social media platforms, the ‘About’ page functions as a critical site of ‘profile affordances’ where platform architecture dictates the boundaries of self-presentation (Papacharissi, 2010). Unlike the fluid stream of a timeline, the fixed fields and bio sections of a profile act as a bounded space that encourages certain identity performances while marginalizing others. As noted by Marwick (2013), these structured interfaces compel creators to translate complex artistic identities into ‘platform-ready’ narratives. Consequently, the ‘About’ page is not a neutral biographical repository but a strategic tool where the platform’s technical constraints, such as character limits, specific categorization fields, or algorithm governance dictate strategies and norms.

Applying Erving Goffman’s framework to analyze self-presentation on Patreon reveals a metaphorical alignment with theatrical components. The entire Patreon profile page, with its standardized structure, functions akin to a stage, while the presentation video plays a role analogous to the set design. Visual elements like portraits, brand images, and logos serve as tools for self-presentation to engage with audiences (Boyle and Johnson, 2010) but also allows for the distinction between musicians (using portraits) and content creators (using logos and brand images). Nonetheless, to limit our scope and to be able to demonstrate how self-presentation and discourse are articulated, we will focus on the textual elements produced by the musicians and the music content creators on their profiles, putting non-verbal elements aside. In the context of this article, self-presentation refers to how musicians present themselves and their work to their audiences on Patreon and YouTube.

Digital intimacy

While prior studies have explored self-presentation and digital intimacy in influencer culture, few have examined how these dynamics unfold across crowdfunding and video platforms, making this study’s transplatform focus a contribution to the literature on platformed cultural labor. Digital intimacy refers to the emotional and affective connections that individuals form with others through online platforms and digital communication. It involves the sharing of personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings in a virtual space, leading to a sense of closeness and connection despite physical distance. In the context of social media, digital intimacy can be cultivated through practices of authenticity, relatability, and vulnerability (Reade, 2021), as users engage in sharing personal stories, struggles, and moments of their lives with their online audience. This sharing of intimate details and emotions online can create a sense of belonging, trust, and connectedness among users (Reade, 2021), fostering a form of intimacy that transcends traditional offline boundaries.

The concept of digital intimacy is frequently explored through the lenses of gender studies (Attwood, Hakim and Winch, 2017). Scholars such as Ruberg and Brewer (2022), Kanai (2018), and Adams-Santos (2020) have examined how digital intimacy manifests in online interactions and the ways in which it intersects with gender dynamics and media representations. Researchers like Liberati (2023) have investigated digital intimacy within the realm of love relationships, exploring how individuals navigate intimacy in the digital age and the implications for romantic connections.

Scholars also explore digital intimacy within the realm of relationship-building between social media influencers, such as content creators like YouTubers or vloggers, and their audiences (Berryman and Kavka, 2017; Reade, 2021). Building on the work of Marwick (2015), who discusses influencers’ use of ‘strategic intimacy’ and less controlled personas, and Abidin (2015), who highlights the ‘perceived interconnectedness’ and impression of exclusive exchange between influencers and their followers, Glatt (2024) examined relational labor through an intersectional feminist lens, arguing that structural inequalities significantly shape creators’ relationships with their audiences, leading to an ‘intimacy triple bind’ for marginalized creators, who are already at higher risk of trolling and harassment yet face increased pressure to perform relational labor.

In the music sphere, the cultivation of digital intimacy and the establishment of strong connections entail what is termed as ‘relational work’ (Baym, 2018; Bonifacio et al., 2021). Central to social media studies and intimacy are considerations of self-disclosure, self-exposure (Berryman and Kavka, 2018), and authenticity. For influencers, micro-celebrities, and in our case, crowdfunded musicians and music content creators, those elements play pivotal roles in creating meaningful online relationships with audiences. Nonetheless, as Beer (2008) argued, the perceived intimacy between music audiences and artists is often mediated through digital interfaces and may not translate into substantive personal closeness.

Parasocial relationships and music fandom in crowdfunding context

The dynamics of creator-audience relationships in digital environments are better understood in the broader context of parasocial interaction and the commodification of affective relationships. Parasocial relationships, first theorized by Horton and Wohl (1956) to describe one-sided emotional connections audiences develop with media figures, have evolved significantly in digital contexts where interactivity creates the illusion of reciprocal connection (Abidin, 2015).

Krause et al. (2018) demonstrated that fans’ psychological traits significantly predict their engagement with musicians on social media, suggesting that music-based parasocial interactions and relationships are driven by desires for belonging and intimacy rather than just entertainment or information. Research on platforms like Twitter shows that musicians’ strategic social media presence, like Lady Gaga’s, ‘helped to cultivate an innovative reciprocal bond’ (Click et al., 2013: 377) by allowing her ‘Monsters’ to deeply identify with her. We understand music fandom traditions have long valorized authentic connection over professional distance, creating audience expectations that subscription platforms must accommodate. However, as Marshall (2010) argued, the intensification of these expectations through social media creates new pressures for musicians to commodify their emotional availability through their public persona, as described through concepts like the ‘public private self’ (Marshall, 2010: 44).

Studies show that crowdfunding campaigns emphasizing on ‘ongoing journey’ (Manning and Bejarano, 2017) based on storytelling, personal narrative and vulnerability achieve higher funding success. Hair (2021) specifically examined how Patreon creators strategically deploy authenticity and extimacy to nourish parasocial relationships, with the explicit goal of making audiences feel connected enough to subscribe and maintain their financial support. This strategic intimacy requires creators to perform vulnerability and accessibility while managing the emotional labor of ongoing audience engagement. The platform’s tiered membership structure (Chekkar and Renault, 2021) further commodifies these relationships, creating hierarchies of access and intimacy based on financial contribution levels.

Method, sample, and limitations

Starting in February 2023, our empirical investigation entailed an analysis conducted on Graphtreon to identify the top 20 profiles within the music category with the highest patron counts. Selection criteria were based solely on patron count (February 2023) to identify highly visible creators. While engagement metrics (likes, comments) provide additional context, patron count represented actual financial commitment, making it—before the introduction of free members—the most relevant metric for studying monetized intimacy. Future studies could incorporate engagement metrics for a more nuanced analysis. We acknowledge this selection, by representing highly visible, successful creators, does not reflect the long tail of Patreon user and is one of the study limitations. As the 20 profiles were identified, we systematically analyzed the textual content of these profiles, ³ specifically targeting the biographical ‘About’ sections of each artist.

We used a structured analysis grid covering presentation elements, type of profile picture, catchphrases, subscription levels, and compensation types. Textual content was analyzed to identify self-presentation strategies and patron terminology, guided by Goffman’s (1973) self-presentation theory and Tisseron’s (2019) extimacy. Specifically for the textual elements from the ‘About’ descriptions, we analyzed them to identify self-presentation strategies through systematic coding of discourse patterns, narrative structures, and vocabulary choices for addressing patrons. Categories emerged through iterative analysis, revealing repertoires that creators adapt to platform-specific constraints.

While we acknowledge the importance of visual elements in digital self-presentation (Darvin, 2022; Poulsen and Kvåle, 2018), this study deliberately focuses on textual strategies for three reasons: (1) to provide depth in analyzing discursive intimacy-building practices, (2) to examine how creators navigate platform constraints through language when visual options are standardized, and (3) to establish a baseline for future multimodal studies. This limitation is acknowledged and future research should integrate visual analysis and examine how differentiated positions within the cultural economy create varied experiences of platform intimacy requirements through mixed-methods approaches combining content analysis, algorithmic studies, and creator interviews.

Among the 20 creators, 8 present as musicians, 8 as content creators, and 4 as music educators. The sample comprises profiles from a diverse range of countries, including Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Mexico, and Turkey. The prevalence of participants from the United States is notable, indicating a significant presence within the sample. The data also reflects a diverse array of musical genres represented, spanning Metal, Jazz, Country, Pop Music, Electronic, Rock, Blues, A Capella, Hip-hop, and Video Game Music, exclusively popular music.

Those initial findings prompted us to extend our investigation into self-presentation strategies and the cultivation of intimacy with audiences on alternative platforms. We extended our investigation to the same creators’ YouTube channels, chosen for its predominant usage in our cohort and its role as a Patreon funnel. We conducted qualitative content analysis of YouTube channel descriptions using the same theoretical frameworks. YouTube accounts span from 2006 to 2017, with subscriber counts ranging from 35,000 to 20 million and views from 2 million to 5 billion.

Findings

Self-presentation strategies on Patreon: Situating oneself in a competitive and precarious environment by showing the work behind the curtain

Within the scope of our investigation, a comprehensive analysis of Patreon profiles offers insights into the diverse strategies employed by creators on the platform. The ‘About’ section, a focal point of our study, exhibits considerable variation, with textual lengths spanning from 39 to 480 words. The average word count of 222.45 underscores the depth with which creators present themselves and their content, offering audiences detailed narratives that extend beyond mere transactional information.

Remarkably, 11 profiles within our sample integrate presentation videos as an additional mode of self-presentation. These videos, while promotional in nature, serve as an alternative avenue for creators to expound upon the mechanics of Patreon, elucidate the rewards offered, and often reiterate content detailed in the ‘About’ section. These presentation videos might contribute to the cultivation of extimacy by showcasing creators in their work environments, frequently in home studios (sometimes living room) or music studios thereby providing patrons with a glimpse into the creators’ personal spaces, a form of ‘behind-the-scenes’.

Most creators identify as music educators or content creators rather than musicians, suggesting strategic positioning for Patreon’s monetization model. Our analysis reveals that self-presentation strategies vary across creator types. Musicians emphasize relational authenticity and behind-the-scenes, music educators highlight pedagogical expertise, while content creators foreground entertainment qualities as well as behind-the-scenes. For musicians and content creators, the imperative to perform continuous emotional availability constitutes a form of affective labor central to platform monetization models like Patreon. This emotional work—maintaining parasocial relationships, performing gratitude, sharing vulnerability—becomes a precondition for economic success, raising critical questions about the sustainability of careers predicated on constant emotional exposure. Rather than fixed identities, the categories of musician, educator, and content creator function as strategic repertoires that creators deploy flexibly across platforms. Creators shift between these personas in response to monetization pressures and algorithmic demands.

The visual architecture of the Patreon pages is dominated by a banner and a profile picture. Their analysis reveals a split in the creators’ strategies: educators and content creators adopt an entrepreneurial approach, utilizing consistent logos and branded avatars to institutionalize their identity and ensure brand recognition. In contrast, musicians prioritize a semiotics of incarnation, using personal portraits to signal authenticity and emotional availability. While the former use imagery to project a professional persona, the latter leverage the artist’s image as a tool for affective labor, fostering a sentiment of proximity, intimacy, and accessibility in the recurring subscription model context.

Within our dataset, a subset of creators, particularly those who have achieved success as content creators on YouTube, challenge the conventional notion that substantial viewership on YouTube equates to financial stability since ‘the videos don’t generate enough ad revenue’ (artist N) and moreover, ‘record labels are taking every single penny of revenue’ (artist O). In other words, ‘Making a living as a musician is tricky these days. With streaming overtaking album sales and platforms like YouTube becoming less reliable with monetization, artists need other options’ (artist T). This notion is also aptly illustrated in the discourse of content creators who justify their use of Patreon by explaining that ‘While YouTube has been (and will continue to be) an amazing outlet, it doesn’t allow us to put out content to the extent that we want. That’s where Patreon comes in’ (content creator R) or that ‘we decided to make this Patreon as a way of putting out content that YouTube sadly won’t allow us to produce due to copyright restrictions’ (content creator E). This strategic move not only serves as a means of bypassing limitations imposed by the YouTube platform but also serves to highlight the constraints creators encounter, emphasizing how the utilization of Patreon offers a pathway to liberate themselves from such restrictions.

This self-presentation strategy accentuates the perceived difficulty of sustaining a career in the field. Furthermore, it emphasizes the role of crowdfunding as a protective measure safeguarding their autonomy, independence, and creative freedom. The discourse further contends that crowdfunding facilitates the ability to disengage from conventional employment, aligning with a narrative akin to Patreon’s own justification for its existence in empowering creators.

Another strategic element of self-presentation involves drawing attention to the protracted and demanding nature of the creative process, as articulated by statements like ‘My songs can often take over 100 hours to create & that’s not including the promotion & managerial stuff’ (artist T), ‘The high quality of my productions is due to over 2 decades of dedication, work & practice’ (artist T). This highlights the arduous and time-consuming aspects of artistic creation, to underscore that independent artists assume responsibilities that often constitute invisible labor from the audience’s perspective. Invisible labor warrants consideration when evaluating the value attributed to the artist’s work. By elucidating the time-intensive nature of their creative endeavors, creators aim to garner recognition for the comprehensive scope of their contributions beyond the final artistic output.

Through the deliberate construction and presentation of what can be termed as the ‘professional creator narrative’ (Hoose and Rosenbohm, 2023: 13), music content creators and musicians are justifying their work and their presence on the platform to their audiences. This narrative serves as a framework enabling creators to articulate their roles and identities in a manner that aligns with the expectations and perceptions of their audience, specifically on a crowdfunding platform, where direct money contributions are encouraged.

Another significant theme prevalent in the lexicon is centered on artist support, often linked to work quality and creative output. For instance, statements such as ‘This page is a chance for me to spend more time on creating and developing high quality lessons and études for you’ (artist L), ‘In order to keep making this much music to this standard, it needs to stay my full-time job’ (artist T) highlight the critical role of support in sustaining artistic output and maintaining standards of excellence.

To engage their audiences and foster a sense of intimacy in their relationships, creators encourage them to ‘support’, ‘subscribe’, ‘partner’, ‘join’ a ‘community’ or a ‘family’ or to be ‘part of a journey’. These expressions convey a sense of closeness and also imply a deeper connection between creators and their supporters. By using language that emphasizes collaboration and belonging, creators aim to cultivate a strong, special bond with their audience, inviting them to become active participants in their creative adventures and helping the development of their career.

Creating a sense of intimacy on Patreon: The use of extimacy elements

Our inquiry sought to ascertain whether artists utilize extimacy elements on Patreon to foster intimacy with their audiences. The observations revealed that a minority of artists choose to disclose personal details, emotions, intimate experiences, or facets of their identity with the intention of establishing a connection and cultivating intimacy with their audience in the ‘About’ section of their Patreon profiles, leading us to think intimacy must be built throughout videos, other contents, online and offline interactions, and probably other platforms.

The relative scarcity of extimacy elements in our data (observed in only two of 20 creators) is analytically significant. Rather than indicating creator preferences, this absence reveals how platform architectures delimit the boundaries of acceptable self-disclosure in specific spaces. Patreon’s ‘About’ section offer professionalized introductions while monetizing intimacy through tiered memberships. YouTube’s description boxes, driven by engagement metrics, emphasize achievements over vulnerability. Both platforms’ standardized formats constrain authentic self-disclosure, pushing creators toward strategic rather than genuine intimate performances. In addition, professional identity differences might explain why musicians deploy extimacy more readily than music educators, who emphasize skills over personal connection. This suggests that extimacy, while theoretically relevant, operates under specific structural and cultural conditions that limit its empirical visibility in standardized profile sections.

When extimacy emerges, it manifests through strategic storytelling that reveals personal struggles (career transitions, financial precarity) and vulnerable admissions of professional challenges, both forms of disclosure that humanize creators while maintaining their artistic credibility. One creator, for instance, narrates her decision to transition away from constant touring after 6 years:

My romance with the ukulele began about 4 years ago. After 6 years of touring and traveling with my beloved Taylor guitar, I was tired of constantly worrying about grumpy flight attendants and passengers who might inadvertently cram their luggage on top of my instrument. (Artist B)

In addition, she incorporates personal details, tracing the origins of her career back to learning hula dancing in Chicago and subsequently falling in love with Hawaiian music:

While learning to dance hula in Chicago (of all places), I began singing with my kumu (teacher) and fell in love with Hawaiian music, those lush irresistible harmonies and the heart-and-soul storytelling approach. When I left Chicago, my kumu gifted me an ukulele. It would be a few more years until I would play ukulele regularly. (Artist B)

Conversely, the second artist employs elements of extimacy to depict the challenges of being a ‘part-time’ artist. He candidly shares his struggles, recounting experiences of working in various jobs while balancing a pursuit of music on the side:

In the past I worked on music in my free time while washing dishes in hotels or waiting tables or working in retail . . . trying to balance that double life wasn’t easy and it was hard to find time to record my songs, let alone produce them to the level of quality my audiences now enjoy. (Artist T)

By deconstructing the notion of immediate success, he emphasizes the demanding process of building a career through hard work and how it made him feel. These instances of extimacy contribute to crafting a narrative around the artist, humanizing them in the eyes of the audience and showing them vulnerable to their competitive environment. Consequently, these strategies could play an important role in establishing a profound connection between artists and their audiences.

The degree of intimacy within the patron-creator relationship on platforms like Patreon can be discerned through the nomenclature assigned to different contribution tiers. In this context, the hierarchical structure of tier names reflects a graduated scale of status or closeness, correlating higher contributions with elevated fan status and ‘fan cultural capital’ (Bennett, 2011: 755). For instance, the progression from tiers like ‘Patreon Community’ and ‘Entry Fan’ to ‘Groupie’, ‘The Warning Army’, ‘VIP Fan’, and ultimately ‘Ultimate Fan’ implies a nuanced hierarchy. This tier naming strategy encapsulates a method by which creators structure the patronage experience, communicating and reinforcing the degree of intimacy associated with each contribution level.

Building intimacy can be facilitated by the manner in which artists address their audiences. This process involves deliberate linguistic and relational strategies aimed at fostering a sense of closeness and connection. Notably, artists frequently employ a personalized approach, utilizing pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘we’ (to include the audiences) rather than ‘I’ to directly engage with their supporters. By shifting the focus onto the audience, creators create a conversational tone that enhances the perception of intimacy and mutual appreciation.

In addition, expressions of gratitude and inclusivity, connectivity and partnering such as ‘Thanks for being part of our lives’ (artist K); ‘Without you amazing fans, we couldn’t be living our dream of being full time musicians. We really want to make this extra special and get a chance to connect with all of you that’s what music is all about’ (artist K) or ‘By partnering with us here you’ll be directly helping to support us, our music, and our videos, while also allowing us a great outlet to help connect with you’ (artist D) serve to reinforce the collaborative, personal, and intimate nature of the patron-artist relationship, further solidifying the bond between creator and supporter.

On Patreon, self-presentation focuses on the need for financial support to sustain creative labor, a strategy dictated by the platform’s transactional affordances. Because Patreon lacks robust discovery tools and efficient search engines, it functions as a destination for existing fans rather than a site for audience building. Consequently, creators arriving from platforms like YouTube bypass foundational fan-building, instead utilizing the ‘About’ section to negotiate the cost-benefit of their offerings. This shift reinforces the platform’s role not as a social network, but as an interface for monetizing pre-established intimacy.

While many creators frame their self-presentation strategies in terms of authenticity, gratitude, and shared values like hard work, these discourses cannot be interpreted solely as spontaneous expressions of relationality. It is essential to recognize how Patreon structures and commodifies intimacy as a prerequisite for monetization. The very architecture of Patreon: its tiered subscription model, gated content, and mechanisms for exclusive communication—configures intimacy not as an organic connection, but as a structured expectation. Intimacy becomes a value-added feature, traded for sustained patronage. In this sense, artists and creators are incentivized to perform closeness, vulnerability, and emotional engagement as a strategic response to platform affordances.

Self-presentation strategies on YouTube: Business card to attract partnerships?

One notable feature of these YouTube accounts lies in their ‘About’ sections, which is the focus of our attention to study self-presentation strategies. Key affordances within this section include textual descriptions, metrics such as view counts, specific details such as location, creation date of the account, and a variable number of hyperlinks ranging from one to nine, presenting opportunities for creators to direct audiences to external content or affiliated platforms, as stated in the previous section about affordances on YouTube.

In terms of textual brevity, the ‘About’ sections of our corpus on YouTube, ranging from 4 to 153 words, exhibit a concise average of 75 words. Interestingly, this is notably shorter than the corresponding sections on Patreon, suggesting potential differences in communication styles and emphasis on brevity within the two platforms. Indeed, the profile page of Patreon is more like a homepage on which audiences will inevitably arrive. The YouTube description section, is, however, more hidden, as users must click on the channel description to reveal a pop-up window containing the ‘About’ information. ⁴

Moreover, our qualitative examination unveiled three distinct categories of self-presentation content: descriptive (13), biographical (6), and contact information (2). Notably, it was observed that a single text could traverse multiple categories, underscoring the interconnectedness of these elements. This finding resonates with the study conducted by Kirchberg and Lazzaro (2020) on composer’s Internet websites, where they identified key elements such as biography, creation presentation (analogous to the YouTube channel in our context), contact information, and social media links. In addition, our analysis revealed the presence of banner and profile picture on the homepage of YouTube channels, emphasizing the significance of an appealing design, as noted by Kirchberg and Lazzaro (2020). In this regard, the YouTube homepage and ‘About’ section function akin to a personal website homepage.

The examination of self-presentation strategies on YouTube reveals a predominant reliance on two key elements: the presentation of channel and the inclusion of biographical details. The presentation of channel is very descriptive, short (one sentence), and direct: ‘Two college guys checking out the great music of the past for the first time’ (content creator E); ‘Pop song reviews and musical retrospectives of musicians across myriad genre’ (content creator F), or ‘[Name of the channel] is all about in-depth electronic music & synth ideas tips, tricks and reviews!’ (content creator H). Description of content is the communication strategy most used in our corpus, as description of the tiers and benefits was on Patreon.

The second strategy involves a performance of professional legitimacy, where musicians anchor their identity in factual and quantifiable milestones. Rather than seeking intimate connection, creators like Artists B, A, and T utilize the ‘About’ section to showcase artistic lineage and session credentials. This is reinforced by the strategic deployment of metrics of success such as Grammy® awards, RIAA certifications, and billions of views (Artists Q, K). On YouTube, these metrics serve as a primary semiotic tool for communicating with the platform’s algorithmic structure (Verwiebe et al., 2024), potentially transforming the biography into a portfolio of achievements designed to attract collaboration and maybe boost the power of the algorithm.

Self-presentation strategies on YouTube show biographical details showcasing creators’ dedication, achievements, and success. However, as we saw earlier, this success may be downplayed when presenting themselves on Patreon, serving to justify their use of the platform and request for support. In addition, we could hypothesize the presentation may vary depending on the target audience, such as potential collaborators on YouTube and audiences on Patreon. Six descriptions utilize third-person narration, complicating authorship and signaling a shift from personal ‘authenticity’ to professionalized branding. This stylistic distance aligns with YouTube’s function as a marketing hub, further evidenced by explicit calls to action (e.g. ‘subscribe,’ ‘join’). Notably, these appeals lack the extimate or emotional depth found on Patreon. By prioritizing facts and information over personal disclosure, YouTube creators reinforce a professional boundary that treats the audience as a broad community of subscribers they need to leverage for algorithmic visibility, aligning their self-presentation with YouTube’s governance of metrics over intimacy.

Self-presentation strategies are shaped not only by individual preferences but by structural conditions including platform affordances, visibility algorithms, and economic precarity. As Duffy (2017) and Hesmondhalgh (2019) argued, digital labor is often affective and undervalued, with intimacy functioning less as relational ideal than as monetizable performance expected by platforms.

Creating a sense of intimacy on YouTube: The absence of extimacy elements

The exploration of self-presentation strategies on YouTube casts a spotlight on the dimension of creating intimacy with fans, particularly notable for its absence of extimacy elements. In contrast to platforms like Patreon, YouTube creators primarily refrain from integrating personal thoughts, emotions, or intimate experiences into their self-presentations. The emphasis tends to lean more toward the professional aspects, such as showcasing content, achievements, and career milestones, creating a successful artistic persona through biographical elements.

The exclusion of extimacy elements in YouTube self-presentation strategies raises questions about the intended audience and the overarching objectives of creators. Unlike Patreon, where the emphasis can be centered on fostering a sense of shared intimacy with patrons, YouTube creators appear to adopt a more distant and professional tone. This divergence leads reflections on whether the goal is to cultivate intimacy directly with audiences or to establish a broader professional presence and reputation within the platform and the industry.

The absence of extensive extimacy elements in the description section does not negate the potential for building intimacy; rather, it redirects the focus toward the real-time, interactive facets of the platform where genuine connections are forged through comments, community involvement, and the reciprocal exchange of thoughts and emotions. Recognizing this spatial shift in intimacy-building highlights the complex nature of YouTube as a platform for creator-audience relationships.

Discussion

Our analysis demonstrates that intimacy is not a freely chosen performance but is fundamentally structured by platform architectures. This challenges Goffman’s (1973) dramaturgical framework by revealing how digital stages predetermine available performances. As our findings suggest, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm incentivizes an entrepreneurial self-focused on achievement and credibility. By prioritizing engagement metrics, the platform compels creators to optimize for ‘algorithmic legibility’ (Gillespie, 2014) rather than emotional depth. This explains why quantified success markers dominate YouTube descriptions, acting as signals to the system, potential collaborators, and subscribers. As Verwiebe et al. (2024) noted, creators perceive algorithms as ‘mercurial gods’ requiring constant appeasement through metric optimization.

Conversely, Patreon’s tiered architecture commodifies intimacy by turning it into a product behind a paywall. This aligns with the idea that a creator’s economic viability depends on their perceived emotional availability (Glatt, 2024). Our study extends this by showing that this labor is not merely affective but structural; the ‘About’ section on Patreon becomes a space for negotiating the cost of vulnerability. The scarcity of genuine extimacy in our data—observed in only 2 of 20 creators—further reveals how platforms constrain rather than enable authentic self-disclosure.

While creators are incentivized to perform closeness for economic survival, the public spaces designed for self-presentation discourage genuine vulnerability. Extimacy and authentic disclosure are structurally pushed toward monetized spaces like premium subscription tiers; meaning platforms like Patreon create graduated authenticity hierarchies where different levels of extimacy correspond to different economic access points, making self-disclosure and vulnerability economically valuable precisely because it is excluded from public visibility.

We argue that creators operate as subjects of ‘platform capitalism’ (Srnicek, 2017), where self-presentation strategies are strategic responses to specific governance structures. Whether it is the ‘professional achievement’ persona on YouTube or the ‘vulnerable and grateful creator’ persona on Patreon, the artist’s identity is partitioned to meet the divergent monetization models of the creator economy. This ‘platformed identity work’ extends Duffy’s (2017) concept of aspirational labor by revealing how emotional performance becomes mandatory rather than voluntary.

This tension suggests that ‘authenticity’ is increasingly becoming a standardized requirement of digital labor, what Baym (2018) called ‘relational labor’ and which our analysis reveals as platform and algorithmically mandated. These dynamics raise significant concerns regarding the long-term mental and creative sustainability for musicians in a platformed landscape, potentially leading to burnout and creative exhaustion.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this comparative analysis demonstrates that digital intimacy is not merely a performative choice but a structural byproduct of platform governance. By identifying the divergence between YouTube’s achievement-based visibility and Patreon’s subscription-based emotional labor, we reveal how platform architectures mandate specific, often contradictory, versions of the self. As intimacy becomes a formalized economic requirement, the risks of creator burnout and the marginalization of those who maintain personal boundaries become central concerns for the future of digital labor. Ultimately, understanding these invisible constraints is essential for envisioning a more sustainable cultural landscape where artistic survival does not necessitate the total commodification of the private self. Finally, while this study focuses on textual self-representation, future research could adopt a multimodal approach to incorporate the visual semiotics of platform interfaces. Combining such analysis with semi-structured interviews with creators would further enrich our understanding of how artists subjectively experience and navigate their digital environment.