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Paywalls and Patreon - and you
10 years ago
Hey guys,
Let's talk Paywalls. If you're not interested, go back now!
Patreon popped up back in 2013, and it didn't take it long to become popular, and even notorious, in our fandom.
Since it's conception, I've seen a lot of people complaining about Patreon and the idea of paywalls - that is, having to pay money to see someone's art. Here's my view on paywalls.
They're not evil.
There is nothing wrong with paywalls.
Let me tell you why.
Artists like myself have spent an incredibly long amount of time of our lives to reach the ability level that we're at now. We didn't wake up one day and go "Oh, suddenly I can draw well." This shit comes with practice, practice, practice, practice and practice. NOTHING. BUT. PRACTICE. And in order to practice, we need to spend time. Lots and lots of time.
On sites like Deviantart and Furaffinity, we've had it pretty good. We can log on to a wealth of fresh art/porn every day from our favourite artists, and other than our internet bills, we don't pay a penny for it. Not a dime. It's free, and we've reached the point where we take it for granted.
When paywalls started popping up, it divided our community. Some artists chose to lock most of their art behind a paywall. People didn't like this, because the art that they were used to seeing for free on an almost daily basis suddenly wasn't there. I can understand that frustration, because it's happened to me with artists that I like. However, I know that with most of them, I can get access to their artwork - no, MORE than just their artwork - if I was willing to visit their patreon page and pledge a dollar a month.
One dollar. Per month.
That's right. Most artists are asking for a very small amount per month so that you can view their art. That's not much, guys. Some people are offering MORE than just their art for the lowest price band. And yes, I'm aware that there are artists who are also asking for a lot, but the worth of anything in this world is measured by how much people are willing to pay for it.
Let's invent a scenario, for the sake of argument. If an artist's minimum price band is $35 a month, and you decide that you don't like their art quite enough to pay something as hefty as that per month, then don't. It's honestly that simple. If the artist makes a decent living out of high price bands, then power to them; their art is obviously seen to be worth paying that much per month to some people, and it's working out for them. However, I suspect that some artists might not find that having $35 as their minimum price band is working out, so they'll lower it until people begin to subscribe. It's economics, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. End of scenario.
Now, an individual picture that an artist has produced will likely have taken HOURS to complete. I know, because my drawings take me anywhere from an hour for a sketch, to about 16 hours for a full colour image.
In 16 hours, I could have:
-Watched ~ 8 movies.
-Worked 2 average-length shifts at work.
-Written this journal 32 times.
You get the picture. It takes a LONG time to draw something. You don't see the process from conception to finished product. It takes a lot of planning, trial-and-error, and polish to get an image that we're proud of and does the customer justice.
Also, I know that some artists are quicker workers than others, but even WITH that taken into account, most artists are still vastly undercharging for their time and skill.
There are other points I could make about all the above, but I've already spent too long on this already, so I'll finish with the below.
If an artist makes the decision to form a patreon and ask for money to access their work and WIPs etc etc, then we should respect that decision. Whether or not we pay for that access is another question entirely. You are not obliged to pay for that person's art if you're not that bothered about seeing it. If you don't want to pay monthly to subscribe to someone's work, then you obviously won't miss their work much, so just move on.
If you support paywalls and don't see them as evil, then that's awesome and the above wall of text was probably lost on you because you knew all that already. I like you. You clearly have a sense of empathy and give a shit about the people you share the world with.
Let's talk Paywalls. If you're not interested, go back now!
Patreon popped up back in 2013, and it didn't take it long to become popular, and even notorious, in our fandom.
Since it's conception, I've seen a lot of people complaining about Patreon and the idea of paywalls - that is, having to pay money to see someone's art. Here's my view on paywalls.
They're not evil.
There is nothing wrong with paywalls.
Let me tell you why.
Artists like myself have spent an incredibly long amount of time of our lives to reach the ability level that we're at now. We didn't wake up one day and go "Oh, suddenly I can draw well." This shit comes with practice, practice, practice, practice and practice. NOTHING. BUT. PRACTICE. And in order to practice, we need to spend time. Lots and lots of time.
On sites like Deviantart and Furaffinity, we've had it pretty good. We can log on to a wealth of fresh art/porn every day from our favourite artists, and other than our internet bills, we don't pay a penny for it. Not a dime. It's free, and we've reached the point where we take it for granted.
When paywalls started popping up, it divided our community. Some artists chose to lock most of their art behind a paywall. People didn't like this, because the art that they were used to seeing for free on an almost daily basis suddenly wasn't there. I can understand that frustration, because it's happened to me with artists that I like. However, I know that with most of them, I can get access to their artwork - no, MORE than just their artwork - if I was willing to visit their patreon page and pledge a dollar a month.
One dollar. Per month.
That's right. Most artists are asking for a very small amount per month so that you can view their art. That's not much, guys. Some people are offering MORE than just their art for the lowest price band. And yes, I'm aware that there are artists who are also asking for a lot, but the worth of anything in this world is measured by how much people are willing to pay for it.
Let's invent a scenario, for the sake of argument. If an artist's minimum price band is $35 a month, and you decide that you don't like their art quite enough to pay something as hefty as that per month, then don't. It's honestly that simple. If the artist makes a decent living out of high price bands, then power to them; their art is obviously seen to be worth paying that much per month to some people, and it's working out for them. However, I suspect that some artists might not find that having $35 as their minimum price band is working out, so they'll lower it until people begin to subscribe. It's economics, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. End of scenario.
Now, an individual picture that an artist has produced will likely have taken HOURS to complete. I know, because my drawings take me anywhere from an hour for a sketch, to about 16 hours for a full colour image.
In 16 hours, I could have:
-Watched ~ 8 movies.
-Worked 2 average-length shifts at work.
-Written this journal 32 times.
You get the picture. It takes a LONG time to draw something. You don't see the process from conception to finished product. It takes a lot of planning, trial-and-error, and polish to get an image that we're proud of and does the customer justice.
Also, I know that some artists are quicker workers than others, but even WITH that taken into account, most artists are still vastly undercharging for their time and skill.
There are other points I could make about all the above, but I've already spent too long on this already, so I'll finish with the below.
If an artist makes the decision to form a patreon and ask for money to access their work and WIPs etc etc, then we should respect that decision. Whether or not we pay for that access is another question entirely. You are not obliged to pay for that person's art if you're not that bothered about seeing it. If you don't want to pay monthly to subscribe to someone's work, then you obviously won't miss their work much, so just move on.
If you support paywalls and don't see them as evil, then that's awesome and the above wall of text was probably lost on you because you knew all that already. I like you. You clearly have a sense of empathy and give a shit about the people you share the world with.
People are not entitled to an artist's work. An artist CHOOSES to share it.
If an artist decides to put a paywall to view their art, it is THEIR CHOICE.
It is then the VIEWER'S CHOICE to decide if it is worth paying.
Such a simple concept people can't understand.
Nice job making it a polite way to try an educate everyone. :3
But no, I understand the need to make a living, though the "screw customers" mentality ive seen has stung a little. Iunno, I'm still patiently waiting to see how long it holds tbh.
*Sighs*
Like that whole World of Warcraft subscription argument, the problem isn't the person cannot afford $15 a month, the problem is the game isn't fun enough for the person to pay monthly.
Yes, practicing art takes years of work and time. So does many art forms, after all, its an art form. The reality is sometimes you cannot use a paywall to support yourself. If I become an independent game designer but have no supporters for my project, I cannot blame the community or even myself. Sometimes people are not interested to support a buck a month.
I've been playing that game for free ever since they introduced tokens. Or at least I was until I got bored, bought an extra one for whenever I decide I want to play again, and let my time run out.
I think Patreon and other like services are fantastic because it provides a source of income and reward for incredible talent. The only words of caution I raise is if you always lock content/all content is behind a paywall you are only going to get a small net of your current viewership to pledge, and if nothing is readily circulating around you will not be expanding that viewership therefore not growing subscriber/pledge amount.
Love the rise of Patreon and the likes though.
I believe that the best idea in regards to a paywall is to sometimes entice the audience with your content. I'd say about 1/5 or so drawings you'd normally put on patreon, put on Fa. It makes it so you can get new people interested in your content, show that you're still quite active on the site.
Art is a rather strange skill. It's one that when you're bad or mediocre at, it takes a long while to get through a drawing. ( I am at that stage where a single drawing with a simple background takes about 3-5 steady sessions of 2-3 hours to get my art.) But as you get better, it becomes a faster experience to get through. I still have a lot to learn especially anatomy.
Things like art books, comics, self published stuff at cons sold by the artists or publishers are what I'd put money down on as I might never see it again and cons are only once a year! I'm not necessarily made of money so those spur of the moment, impulse buys are what I go for - which are a lot like commission slots can be. I do like supporting artists! But it's nice when people who do have Patreons throw the non-subscribing public a bone. It's not the model I prefer, but if it works, fair enough, more power to those who know how to use it.