Patreon demands a change in billing model next year...?

Hey folks, just to preface: this is not an urgent thing that requires any action from anyone right this moment; however do note that this payment change will affect everyone who is reading this when it goes into effect sometime (when I decide) before Nov. 2025. I'll almost definitely make more posts about it as more info comes to light (creators just got this news yesterday), but just know this doesn't necessarily require anyone's immediate attention yet!

So, to give you all a quick rundown, Patreon contacted every creator who uses the per-creation billing system yesterday to let them know they're gonna have to make some big changes which meant I woke up to a nice little e-mail telling me that my current system for uploading/charging on this page is being phased out before the end of next year (not a fun way to start your day, let me tell you). They are now mandating that everyone switches to a charge upfront monthly price model once the change takes effect. So rather than being charged per creation I upload, you just get charged $X/month every month.

Why are they doing this? Well it turns out that because Patreon allows people to sign-up for pledges on their iPhone app, Apple has demanded that they conform to their pricing systems, so since Apple doesn't support per-creation billing, Patreon is no longer allowed to either. Additionally, with this change Patreon is also being forced to conform to Apple's App Store billing policy, which means subscribing to my, or any other Patreon page on the iPhone App will incur a 30% markup which will go straight to Apple. Incidentally if you're pledging to anyones Patreon page through the Patreon app on iPhone, I'd encourage you to unsubscribe on the app and resubscribe on a desktop browser lest you get charged an extra 30% for no reason come November 2024 when Apple starts enforcing their payment policies.

Anyway, unsurprisingly creators like myself who are happy with the current system have reached out to Patreon to ask for clarity and suggest alternatives rather than forcing every page to conform to a pricing model that may not fit their business, but in the past 24 hours Patreon has made it very clear that the internal decision has already been made. There's still 16 months before anything mandatory happens of course, so who knows what could change, but it's not looking likely unfortunately.

So what does this mean for my page, and your comic access? Well, hopefully not a lot when I do finally make the switch. Generally speaking I tend to upload two comic pages a month, with the occasional three-page month once in awhile, which means people on the $2 tier get charged about $4 per month, and people on the $3 tier get charged $6 per month, and that's very likely what the new pricing system for this page would look like (though they could still be different depending on how much of a commitment I want to make to this page).

The real disappointment here though is just that there needs to be any change at all. I have always really enjoyed the flexibility of this charging system. It allows you guys to pop in whenever you want, check out some new content, pay for a page here and there, and have full control over how much you're spending. The new system makes things far more rigid and gives me less flexibility in how much I should aim to produce each month. If you agree and find this (or any of the other changes I've mentioned above) to be rather annoying, I would encourage you to let Patreon know (link)! This is the best time to do it if we want to put them under a bit of pressure to reconsider things.

Last thing I'll say here is just that I hope you guys will stick with me through these weird changes once they do take effect! I have to admit I've been worried this could cause a massive drop in support if done without care or thought, so just know that I want to make sure to do this right and make this as painless as possible for everyone to continue following along and supporting the comic when the time does come to make the switch. And do note: I don't intend on changing anything before Chapter 5 wraps up, so this place is gonna stay the same well into 2025, that I can promise! I'll share more when I know more, and thanks to everyone who read through this!

More pages coming soon!

-Star