Patreon is officially launching its own video hosting feature nearly a year after it was first teased.
The update marks a major shift in how creators can share video content with fans on Patreon. Previously, creators had to upload videos to third-party platforms like YouTube and Vimeo and then embed video players or share links with subscribers. However, uploading to a third-party app had its wrinkles, such as videos being shared outside of paying subscribers.
The native and ad-free Patreon player allows creators to upload their content directly to the platform, select thumbnails for their videos, and view audience data such as number of views. Creators can also select who can watch the video without worrying about sharing links outside of subscribers. The player has been in beta with a select group of creators and will be available to all creators with the pro and premium subscriptions starting today.
“[This vision] is really about giving creators a more direct connection with their fans,” said Julian Gutman, chief product officer at Patreon. “Giving them the content and community tools to really create a new model that’s ad-free, that’s algorithm-free, true they have this direct relationship.”
One of its key features is the ability to create custom teasers: short clips of up to two minutes that creators can offer to the public for free. The idea, Gutman says, is that the previews can convert people into paying subscribers by giving them a taste of what a creator has to offer.
For starters, creators with pro and premium plans that don’t create adult content will get 500 hours of uploads until the end of 2023. Gutman says Patreon will roll out a more granular payment structure sometime in 2024 and that creators will have a six-month extension to use their allotted 500 hours. If a creator runs out of video hours, they can charge more during this early period before the pricing structure takes effect.
Creators are the largest category on Patreon and even other types like podcasters or visual artists upload video content for fans. But for some creators, using a third-party hosting platform has also made it a thorny and frustrating topic.
Earlier this year, several popular Patreon creators who used Vimeo for hosting were shocked to learn that the price to keep videos on the platform was going up — thousands of dollars in some cases. Vimeo has long been a favorite for creatives thanks to its content protection tools and its reputation as an indie alternative to YouTube. Now creators were told they had to pay or risk losing their work.
Due to a long-standing partnership that included video integration, many Patreon creators had chosen to upload their videos to Vimeo. When fees rose unexpectedly, some creators said Patreon didn’t sufficiently warn users that it could happen to them.
“Vimeo has been a great partner for us for a long time,” says Gutman. “However, one of the things that shows us and I think the wider market is that when you rely on an outside company to power some of your core functions, it’s just unpredictable. Leadership can change, things can change at that company.”
Creators can still use Vimeo for their work – Patreon’s native tool is just one option for hosting video content.
Gutman says the video player should be seen as the first version of a product the company will iterate on. Patreon is working on enabling mobile uploading, for example, as well as a 4K option for videos.
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