30% Patreon Creator Pay Cut: What You Need to Know

A 30% Patreon creator pay cut is coming to all new fan subscriptions paid via Apple. As of November, Apple is requiring Patreon to switch to its iOS in-app purchase system or risk being removed from the App Store.

As with Spotify and all paid subscription-based services that have Apple iOS apps, Patreon was forced by Apple to switch to a system that charges a 30% tariff. How fans will react is another matter.

“Unfortunately, Apple is requiring us to switch over to their in-app purchase system for all iOS transactions or else risk being kicked out of the App Store altogether,” Patreon said in a statement to creators, “and their in-app purchase system is not built with our same level of creator-first flexibility.”

While existing subscriber payments will not be affected, the November shift has two significant consequences for creators:

1. Apple will apply its 30% App Store fee to all new memberships purchased in the Patreon iOS app and to anything bought in your Patreon shop.
2. Any creator currently on a first-of-the-month or per-creation billing plan will have to switch to subscription billing to continue earning in the iOS app because that’s the only billing type Apple’s in-app purchase system supports.

To help ease the pain, Patreon has created an optional tool that can automatically increase prices — only in the iOS app — to offset the cost of Apple’s fee.

Learn more about the Apple-driven Patreon creator pay cut here.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a Berklee College Of Music professor.