Big Companies are Trash (a heads up for iOS patrons) (Patreon)

I wanted to read up on this more before I talked about it on here, & I’m still not necessarily sure entirely what is going on (as it’s not entirely a way I interact with Patreon), but I’ve seen other creators talk about it & wanted to give a heads up sooner rather than later for anyone it might effect.

Patreon isn’t the best platform, but its one advantage is how it allows there to be a space for creators to offer subscriptions to their work. They take a cut as a platform, but over 90% of your support goes directly towards creators like me (depending on when they signed up & when Patreon tweaked their own percentages of course).

Enter Apple, a greedy company that I personally very much dislike. I think out of sheer greed, they are forcing companies like Patreon to set up their in-app purchases & subscription services to work inside the App Store with a higher fee so they can ALSO get a cut, but they’re also the least consequential part of this equation.

Patreon, as a knock on effect is passing this cost onto creators to decide what to do with: either raise prices through the App Store, or take a hit.

While I’m not in dire straits at the moment, I’m going to be honest, I don’t see the necessity of Apple needing to take any cut in any further capacity. Especially when they could just as easily be sidestepped here entirely.

All this to say that if you’re someone that engages with my content through the iOS version of the Patreon app, there will be a price hike. BUT, before November rolls along, it seems as though this is just as easily avoided if you simply set your Patreon account up to bill you directly through a non-Safari browser instead of solely relying on paying through the app.

Does that make sense? I sure hope so.

Look, I’m not trying to be greedy or anything, just keep what I’ve already got going here.

But I also for damn sure don’t want to see any you get ripped off either! So it might take a little fumbling through a browser to make sure that doesn’t happen, & you’ve got two months! So do what you can to avoid it. Just know it’s not ME if there’s a sudden hike.

I’ll probably trash this post after November if I think back to it, just wanted to give y’all a heads up. Thanks for your continued support all the same!!