The Patreon problem
The platform serves 15,000 music creators but isn't growing much.
A look at 5 Patreons I know
Patreon is the best-known platform for individual creators who offer memberships. When I announced the Update, the first comment I received was, "You are making your own version of Patreon for yourself!"
In the music category alone, Patreon moves more than CAD 1.25 million a month in earnings, to over 15,000 users who have at least one patron.
However, the category isn't growing; it boomed in 2020 but has been flat since the start of 2021.
This week, I got curious: which of my followers use Patreon?
Let's look at five Patreon users I know, and the following info about them:
The Black Lab
- Music venue (joined Patreon in 2019)
- Top 15% in music creators ($385/month)
- Trajectory: falling off slightly this year
- How I know them: I've dabbled in covering all-ages youth DIY indie-rock in town, and this is a venue in that scene.
- On Patreon: nothing! It's odd, but they use the platform mechanically, not for content. It's just the payment processor for people to support their real-world activity.
John Oliver
- Composer (joined 2018)
- Top 50% in music (6 patrons)
- Trajectory: steady drawdown since launch
- How I know them: he joined me on the podcast and got a nice Bandcamp editorial feature shortly afterward – which didn't seem to translate, unfortunately, into new patrons.
- On Patreon: previews and artist statements for upcoming projects.
Itamar Erez
- Jazz musician (joined 2018)
- Top 40% in music (9 patrons)
- Trajectory: recovered from a 2020 dip to stay flat
- How I know them: I heard him play jazz at the Fox Cabaret recently.
- On Patreon: charts that detail his compositions, plus other content around music education.
The Modern Day Warriors
- Rush tribute band (launched 2019)
- Top 35% in music (10 patrons)
- Trajectory: slightly off their peak from last year
- How I know them: Tahnee Juryn is the singer and co-founder; she was on the podcast recently.
- On Patreon: recognition in YouTube credits, exclusive play-alongs, plus input and previews of upcoming videos.
Roots Music Canada
- Website/publication (launched 2017)
- Top 10% in music ($659/month)
- Trajectory: drawing down slowly since 2020
- How I know them: they're like Rhythm Changes but a bit more old-school, and in the folk genre.
- On Patreon: accountability to the folks who care, including an annual report
What I learned
It doesn't look great for any music-Patreon; none of these users are growing their revenue/patrons. And it looks like the majority of music-Patreons have less than 6 patrons. (Side note: I found many of my friends who have accounts with zero patrons. I didn't list them here.)
Knowing that one user is in the top 10% with around $650/month lets me do this back-of-the-envelope calculation:
- The top 1,500 music creators share over a million dollars of the $1.25 million total monthly earnings.
- The other 13,500 share less than $20/month each on average.
I checked, and I don't think any of you currently publish on Patreon (nothing wrong with having tried it and switched off!). I'd recommend you don't, and the platform deserves skepticism unless the total size of the pie starts growing again for music creators.
Our favourite artists deserve both time and money, to do what they do best; the problem with Patreon is that they're decreasingly likely to find it there.
