Let me tell you the story about Patreon.

Actually, Let Jack Conte tell you.  He created it.

But before we do that, here is my favorite Jack Conte video.  He said Nataly Dawn was gone for a couple days, so he “didn’t have anyone to regulate him, or make sure he ate” (paraphrasing), so he spent 20 hour days turning his garage into an anamatronic Millenium Falcon.

It is honestly too cool for words.

 

So, what is Patreon and why should we totally love it to pieces?

https://www.patreon.com/jackconte

“Patreon, based in San Francisco, is a crowdfunding platform created by musician Jack Conte and developer Sam Yam. ^[1] It allows artists to obtain funding from patrons on a recurring basis or per artwork. It is popular with YouTube content creators, musicians, and webcomic artists and has been featured in Forbes, Time, and Billboard magazines.”

“Patreon was founded in May 2013 by artist Jack Conte, who was looking for a way to make a living from his popular YouTube videos.Together with Sam Yam he developed a platform that allows patrons to donate a set amount of money every time an artist creates a work of art.”

 

How does it work if you are an artist?

“Artists set up a page on the Patreon website, where patrons can pledge to donate a given amount of money to an artist every time she or he creates a piece of art, optionally setting a monthly maximum. Alternatively a fixed monthly amount can be pledged... Similar to other platforms however, artists will often provide rewards for their patrons.  Patreon takes a 5% commission on pledges.^“

So, for example, this is part of the Patreon page for Jack Conte’s “Pedals”:

• Each time I release a new Music Video, I’ll put out a short, useful tutorial as well.  These will be super helpful if you’re an audio producer.

 

Who All Does This?

“As of February 2014, almost half of the artists produce YouTube videos, while the rest are writers, draw webcomics or make podcasts. ^[10] On average, patrons donate $7 per creation. Patreon is growing rapidly both in patrons and creators, with 10,000 artists expected to use Patreon by the end of February 2014. While the website initially targeted musicians, established webcomic artists such as Jonathan Rosenberg, Zach Weinersmith and Paul Taylor are successfully using it.”

So here is Jack Conte explaining his vision!

 

And finally, here is another music video from Jack Conte.

I absolutely love his videos to death.  They are very unique, very interesting…very fresh.  Real artistry, I believe.

But this is a man thinking outside the box to create music and build something really amazing with new technology.

This is the stuff that keeps me up at night, and wondering what else we can do, folks 🙂