A major Patreon survey shows that most creators don’t want crypto payments – TechCrunch

Patreon introduced the outcomes of its first creator census, which invited the group to share suggestions about how the fan membership platform can greatest assist impartial creatives. Out of 250,000 creators lively on Patreon, over 13,000 folks responded to the survey, representing 113 nations and 18 languages.

In accordance with the survey, video is the preferred major medium on Patreon, representing 38% of respondents. The subsequent hottest classes are writing (17%) and podcasting (14%). Fifty-six p.c of Patreon creators contemplate themselves nearer to being seasoned professionals, whereas 44% say they’re nearer to only beginning out. Apparently sufficient, respondents additionally stated that over 40% of their inventive earnings got here from Patreon.

Picture Credit: Patreon

Linktree, the link-in-bio monetization platform, additionally lately carried out a survey of 9,500 creators. Each Linktree and Patreon reported that model sponsorships don’t make up as a lot of creator earnings as we beforehand thought — Linktree stated that 70% of creators earn lower than 10% of their earnings from model offers, whereas Patreon creators reported that this makes up 2% of their earnings. Nonetheless, these outcomes might be skewed because it’s a holistic report of creators from all genres. Excursions and dwell reveals are an enormous a part of musicians’ earnings, for instance, however Patreon’s knowledge says it makes up simply 2% of creators’ earnings. That’s in all probability as a result of musicians don’t make up a big portion of Patreon creators (plus, touring hasn’t been too possible over the previous few years as a result of … ).

Patreon additionally surveyed creators about their priorities for future Patreon merchandise. Over the past a number of months, Patreon executives like CEO Jack Conte and CPO Julian Gutman have stated that the corporate has been eager about exploring whether or not crypto instruments might assist creators earn cash. By its Creator Coverage Engagement Program, Patreon even floated the concept of creator cash as an avenue for monetization. Gutman informed TechCrunch in December that the corporate had thought-about constructing a small crypto workforce to look at potential choices, however that there weren’t any plans set in stone for a plunge into web3.

“It’s not, ‘Hey, let’s go construct an NFT platform proper now,’ however , a few of us which are centered on this full time,” Gutman stated on the time. “And by the way in which, they could conclude, ‘Hey, what, there’s nothing for us to construct right here proper now,’ which is a completely high-quality, affordable conclusion.”

However suggestions from the creator census confirmed that 43% of creators are strongly towards crypto funds, whereas 30% stated they don’t care. 9 p.c stated crypto funds could be essential, whereas 18% stated they might be good to have.

Picture Credit: Patreon

“Some creators, together with many who took this survey, are against Patreon constructing any web3 performance attributable to considerations about potential fraudulent conduct, environmental sustainability and inaccessibility of the know-how in its current purposes,” the census report stated. “Different creators already supply web3 advantages off Patreon and are excited concerning the flexibility and worth they will supply memberships with new forms of digital items.”

Positive, crypto skeptics might merely simply not use web3 options with their viewers. However some creators fear that their viewers shall be much less prone to assist them by way of Patreon if the corporate dabbles in web3.

“Any creator turns into like customer support and a consultant for any of the companies that you just use,” Multitude Productions CEO Amanda McLoughlin informed TechCrunch final yr, noting that patrons had reached out to her up to now with considerations about Patreon pivoting to crypto. For small enterprise house owners that make a major chunk of their earnings from fan memberships on Patreon, these seemingly small function updates could make a severe impression.

For now, Patreon will focus extra on constructing options like a local video participant, one-time tipping, present memberships and a custom-made touchdown web page format.

“Our focus continues to be on the best way to give creators extra possession and leverage over their content material, and that features exploring the advantages of web3 applied sciences,” Patreon stated in an e mail to TechCrunch. “Nevertheless, neither our creators nor Patreon are prioritizing this house proper now.”