Art funding for creatives is in the news after Patreon announce a change to its funding structure. This impacts on funders using the platform to give regular small amounts of money to individuals. The charges for creators who use Patreon for funding for art or ‘fund me’ campaigns will have their fee passed on to the their donors. This means that if you support one or more individuals with a small donation you’ll incur the costs which were previously taken from the receiving account.
Patreon argue that they have undertaken significant research into what works best for artists, and that they have improved the system. However, by transferring the charges to the donor, it will mean that those supporting with small amounts for art funding to multiple individuals, will see their fee rise considerably. This will discourage smaller individual donations in favour of larger single donations, and won’t affect large earners like Amanda Palmer, outlined in our recent review.
In response, Kickstarter have launched a new version of Drip, their subscription service to support artists. At the moment, Drip is being rolled out on an invite-only basis, but will open to the public in the new year. Unlike other Kickstarter campaigns, Drip allows ongoing funding to support creators with regular contributions, rather than one off payments. Drip also makes it easy to move platform if wanted, as users are able to export Drip data and content, and securely transfer subscription and payments information to other subscription platforms.. Drip begins with a founding membership period to help creators build momentum with a strong starting call to action.
How many UK artists use #Patreon or #Kickstarter to #fund their #artprojects?