When you think of an art patron, you might imagine something like this:

But modern patronage offers a different image. Gone are the days of starving artists. Patreon is a crowdfunding platform started in 2013 for artists to receive a steady income for work they are already creating, and for fans to support their favourite artists and content creators. Unlike Kickstarter, funding is provided on a regularly and not a project-basis. Patrons can interact with artists and access exclusive content such as limited edition art, presale concert tickets, and Google Hangouts sessions. It’s a model that challenges the conventional thinking that artists have to provide content if they are paid, and fans will only pay if forced to. Successful artists can earn approximately $2,000 per month and top earners rake in $10,000 a month. But if we look closely, Patreon is simply just an old model that has existed for hundreds of years in shiny new packaging. Growing up as a little wannabe-artist, I thought that artists had very few career options: slave all day working for a company drawing what they tell you to, or work on commission and starve. I’m constantly amazed by how technology has made it easy people around the world to have relationships such as these as well as provide means for people to do what they love and make a living out of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH-IDF809fQ

Sources:

https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606315-What-is-Patreon-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patreon

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34423932