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How to leave Patreon
Leaving a patronage platform like Patreon can be scary—especially if you’re receiving reliable income from patrons that helps you to put food on the table and a roof over your head. However, we actually have several artists who made the leap from Patreon to Ampled, which means they have insight on how to make the process doable.
Below, we’ll share reasons why you should consider leaving Patreon for Ampled, along with a step-by-step guide on how to make the switch as stress-free as possible.
Why leave Patreon?
Ownership
Ampled Is Owned By Artists. Patreon Is Owned By Investors.
Patreon doesn’t allow its users to vote on company policies that directly impact them. That’s how the platform is able to raise its Patron fees without worrying about any pushback, hurting creators on Patreon who lose supporters as a result.
Ampled’s ownership model would prevent this sort of imposition because it allows artists to democratically make company decisions aligned with their collective needs.
Content Tiers
Ampled Doesn’t Have Paid Tiers. Patreon Pressures Creators To Use Them.
This might sound like a minor technical difference. However, it goes a long way.
On Patreon, delegating content to each tier isn’t an automated process, so users have to do everything manually. It pressures artists to commit extra creative labor to come up with different content options they can offer at different tiers.
Ampled doesn’t force musicians to work harder than they already do. We instead set a $3 minimum level of monthly support for each artist, but subscribers can pay more than that if they’d like. This effectively gets rid of the burdensome tiered structure.
Community
Ampled Is By And For Musicians. Patreon Is For Those At The Top.
Patreon’s top-down model causes creators to feel atomized and focus on their individual rather than collective success on the platform.
Thanks to Ampled’s cooperative model, no one is an island. Since everyone is looking out for each other by design, democratic participation fosters more meaningful connections than you could ever attain on Patreon.
Decision Making
Ampled Is Controlled By Artists. Patreon Is Controlled By Venture Capitalists.
Ampled is governed by its members, which elect a board, which then chooses management. Patreon has a traditional, hierarchical governance system, leaving power in the hands of owners.
Financialization
Ampled Is Not For Sale. Patreon Is Built To Exit.
Patreon could be sold to Google or Facebook at any time and is playing the VC rat race game: Operate at a loss to prioritize growth, monopolize a large addressable market, and sell the company or go public so that investors and founders can liquidate their ownership.
How to leave Patreon, ft. Jonathan Mann:
When Ampled artist-owner Jonathan Mann reached out to his community on Patreon to explain that he was switching to Ampled, his patrons were incredibly supportive and eager to help him make the transition. The majority of Jonathan’s patrons have since followed him to Ampled, and he’s now an artist-owner on our platform.
We recently talked with him about his experience and how he successfully moved his audience from Patreon to join him on Ampled. He sums it up like this:
“It was an easy decision for me to move because Patreon has only gotten weirder and worse over the years.”
Here are the steps he took—and we recommend that you also take—to leave Patreon for Ampled.
- 1.Send an initial message to your Patrons: Reach out to your patrons with an announcement on your decision to leave Patreon; and elaborate a bit on why you are leaving. For Jonathan, this included his beliefs that co-ops were a more ethical business model, his passion for worker’s rights, and his desire to participate in a more equitable music economy.
<name>,First, thank you so much for being a patron of mine. You’ve been supporting me on Patreon for awhile, and I’m incredibly grateful for your support. I wanted to let you know that I will be leaving Patreon to join another platform called Ampled. Ampled is like Patreon, but it’s for music -- and it’s a co-op that is collectively owned by its community!If it’s not too inconvenient, would you consider cancelling your pledge to me on Patreon, and supporting me on Ampled? My page is here <insert url>.Anything you pledge is hugely appreciated!If you have any questions or need any help, let me know!Thank you so much!<your name>
2. Reminders on Patreon: As you transition, there may be an awkward few weeks where you decide to post on both Ampled and Patreon. If you do this, include a message in your Patreon posts to direct your supporters to Ampled, along with explaining again why you came to this decision.
3. Follow up with individual emails to patrons: Some people may need a reminder before they move to join you on Ampled. Jonathan’s approach was to send a semi-individualized email to each of his patrons. He followed a simple template with a sentence or two that he customized based on the recipient. This personal touch compelled supporters to switch over to Ampled who hadn’t by this point.
<name>,You’ve been supporting me on Patreon for ___ months. That’s amazing!I wanted to send a reminder that I am moving from Patreon to a platform called Ampled. If you’d consider cancelling your subscription with Patreon and re-supporting me on my Ampled page (www.ampled.com/artist/yoururl), I’d really appreciate it.The reason why I am moving to Ampled is because it’s owned by the community! There’s no venture capital involved: the artists and the workers all own a stake in the company. I think that’s rad.Let me know if you have any questions or would like any help. I appreciate your support so much either way!Thanks,<your name>
4. Update links, buttons, and calls to action: Go through your website and social links and make sure to point people to Ampled moving forward instead of Patreon. For example, if you click on the Patreon icon on Jonathan’s website, it now redirects you to his Ampled profile.
Leaving Patreon for good can seem intimidating, but at the end of the day your patrons are there to support you—no matter which platform you’re on. (Perhaps it’ll only take a few messages to move them all to Ampled and join our cooperative community!)
Take it from Jonathan Mann. In his view, switching to Ampled comes down to being honest with your audience as well as with yourself: “If it aligns with your values, it’s kind of a no-brainer. That’s how it felt for me.”
Last modified 10mo ago