Economics
Patreon Found a Way to Pay the Creative Class. Will It Work?
While the site has signed up more than 50,000 creators with a million patrons, most earn less than $100 a month.
Jack Conte
Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Four years ago, a musician named Jack Conte co-founded Patreon with a pledge to help the creative class earn a living making everything from podcasts to paintings. Pronounced Pay-Tree-On, the startup is a digital spin on the arts patronage that has flourished since the Medicis backed Michelangelo back in the 1500s.
Patreon Inc. has signed up 50,000-plus creators, who pay the company 5 percent of their earnings; last year alone, it attracted more than $150 million from one million patrons. Conte’s investors are betting a critical mass of talent will become sufficiently popular to push Patreon into the black.