Apple’s Cash Grab From Patreon Harms Journalism, Advocacy, and Art

Subscriber support through Patreon is a lifeline for independent artists, researchers, advocates, and journalists. I’m among the people who rely on monthly subscriptions to produce the kind of writings that don’t get aired through mainstream media, academic gatekeepers, or well-funded nonprofits.

Now comes Apple’s App Store, rolling out 30% fees for new subscriptions. This affects each new Patreon subscription started on Apple’s iOS, from this month on.

Subscribers want to contribute to independent journalism, art and advocacy. They get no tax breaks for supporting independent creators on Patreon. They’re not signing up to fund a billionaire’s company.

As for the creators, we’ve agreed to stomach Patreon’s (much smaller) fee for a presence on the platform. We duly pay income taxes on the funds we receive. But we didn’t expect to have to cover the Apple tax.

Patreon CEO Jack Conte expressed frustration over Apple’s move, and urged creators to hike rates for new subscriptions, given that Apple will take a 30% cut from what we’d have received from new supporters who use Apple’s app system. Some option! When subscriptions cost more because of corporate fees, creators get less of their subscribers’ support.

Most creators earn just a few hundred dollars a month on the platform. Typically, independent artists and writers earn about 40% of their total income from Patreon subscriptions.

In contrast, Apple was first on the stock market to cross the $3 trillion market cap line. For this giant, siphoning money from creators is just another corporate prerogative. At the end of the day, Apple’s new cut will make it harder for independent artists, writers, performers, educators, and advocates to survive, let alone flourish.

Here is how Patreon is trying to make sense of this to us. TL;DR: Never mind the App Store; use Patreon’s own website (even from your phone), or Android, to commit support to creators on Patreon.

Why Acquiesce?

Patreon CEO Jack Conte is a musician, one who has personal experience with Big Tech extracting money from independent artists. Patreon started up as a rebellion to this sort of exploitation. So, can’t Patreon walk away from Apple? It’s complicated, I suppose. Without the little P logo on people’s screens, Patreon would lose something that nudges iPhone owners to check out creators.

Conte says they’re going along with this because iOS is the “most-used platform” for supporter engagement on Patreon. So Apple got its hooks into this platform, and now it’s calling the shots. It’s just as Ben Norton says. “Now that U.S. Big Tech monopolies are deeply embedded into the fabric of the global economy, with no real competitors, they’ll jack up rents.” Apple is a private digital utility that should be publicly owned, Norton declares, with its services provided as public goods.

In Europe, the Digital Markets Act is forcing Apple to let innovators offer apps that Apple doesn’t control—without paying Apple 30%. But the Apple barons vow to introduce new fees and restrictions when people download alternative apps.

The Studio for the Art of Animal Liberation I built on Patreon is about exploring the human identity. It’s about what we can become in relation to other living communities and our Earth. If the high-tech era is more interested in replicating exploitive economics than abiding by fair exchange, how can we expect to nurture supportive cultural values regarding other-than-human beings?

I don’t know how many future supporters will subscribe to my work through the Apple App Store. I don’t know how many will be put off because of the exorbitant rates. I’ll never know how much Apple has got and I have not. Nor will any of the 250,000+ writers and creators who’ve come to Patreon’s platform seeking community and sustenance.

I do know we can’t do art, advocacy, and independent research when trillion-dollar companies regard us as fuel to dig up and feed to their profit machines. We have to take on capitalism, and the Apple-Patreon drama offers 250,000 new reasons why.

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