Patreon introduces a gifting feature and other creator tools

Patreon, the paid membership platform for creators, announced Tuesday the release of new features designed to help creators monetize their non-paying followers and tap into new revenue streams. This includes the ability to sell individual posts, a gifting feature for creators to gift limited-time subscriptions to fans, and promotional tools for sharing clips on social media.  

The new features reflect Patreon’s ongoing efforts to expand beyond its role as a monetization platform. Last year, Patreon launched free membership options, enabling fans to follow their favorite influencers without having to commit to a monthly subscription. The company revealed in today’s blog post that the move has already seen more than 30 million sign-ups.

Now, Patreon is introducing one-time purchases for content like posts and collections, so followers can access paywalled content without paying for a membership. The company previously allowed one-time purchases for various digital products, such as videos, podcast episodes and images. 

The platform is also testing a gifting offering that lets creators give limited-time subscriptions to fans. For instance, influencers can send someone a one-month membership as a gift for being a loyal follower.

Additionally, Patreon is improving communication by opening up community chat sections to both free and paid members, as well as introducing features like a countdown clock and a live chat feature to promote new and upcoming content. There will also be a new tool for auto-generating audio and video clips of Patreon posts to use as teasers on social media platforms. 

All of these new features will become available in the coming months, the company said.

Updated 6/25/24 at 12:52 p.m. ET with correction to the statement that fans can gift subscriptions to their friends. The tool only allows creators to gift memberships to fans.