Why Patreon is the most important part of our income.
Being an independent creator is amazing. Free from corporate structure it enables you to really do what you want to do. Be as politically incorrect as you want, do bizarre stuff no media company would ever green light, put hundreds of hours into a single video. You are free to do so on the internet.
If your stuff catches on, you can reach millions of people and make a good living while being as free as one can be. And you do not need to become famous to make it — on the internet there are millions of niches. If you find yours, talking about the most bizarre hobby can become your job.
The other side of this coin is how insecure online video can feel sometimes. Rules can change overnight without any warning. A single tweak to a website that decides who sees your content can destroy the livelihood for thousands of people.
Or if the old media is attacking your platform and causes huge conflicts with advertisers. Like it is happening with the adpocalypse on youtube right now.
All of this makes it very hard to plan for the future. The dream can be over really quickly.
While big creators generally have more ways to monetize their work, many small creators are living right at the edge of surviving. A few hundred dollars more or less can mean the difference between being able to do youtube as a job or having to quit.
And for channels with teams like us, it can mean having to let people go and scale down production. The more time intensive your content is, the more this affects you.
Youtube itself is certainly not happy about this situation. They are trapped between creators and advertisers constantly screaming at them.
So if you do work on the internet today, it is critically important to become independent from ads. This is not a new thing. People sell merch, have their own websites, do sponsorships, accept speaking gigs or — like in our case — do commercial work for clients. Ads can be one of many revenue streams but if you want to do content for a job you can’t rely on it if you want to sleep well at night.
Take Kurzgesagt for example: In 12,017 we are a team of twelve full time people. Philipp, Patti, Philip, Miri, Dani, Sonja, Greta, Lizzy, Jonas, Bene, Chris and Tobi. And we have super regular collaborators like Steve, Thomas and Fabi.
Not birds but real humans in the real world. We have an office, hardware, software licenses, a cleaning lady, someone to do our taxes, insurances. Weird complicated stuff that happens when you become a company. If we don’t make enough money there are real world consequences.
This is still the case — but life became a little less unpredictable when a few great people came up with the idea of monthly crowdfunding for things on the internet, that promised independence from ads.
And so, for many creators, including Kurzgesagt, Patreon has become their most important source of income.
Patreon gives you way more than money, something critically missing for internet businesses: stability and security.
Patreon means that things are ok and you can focus on making content. It enables creators to ramp up production in a slow and controlled way. You can take calculated risks, make your productions better and employ people without being irresponsible.
It is also the most direct feedback you can get from viewers. If someone likes your stuff enough to support you financially, you are probably on the right track.
So if a creator, be it us or someone else, produces videos that make you feel something or if you think their work is worthwhile and makes your life better, gifting them the equivalent of a cup of coffee each month really makes a difference.
Thousands of cups of coffee add up to enable writers to write, podcasters to podcasts and animation studios to animate. Patreon really helps independent creators, create.
We can’t imagine how different internet would be without Patreon. It certainly would be much less interesting.
If you want to check out our Patreon you can do so here.
Thanks a lot for reading, if you have thoughts on this whole thing I’d love to hear them. –Philipp
