This is a question musicians may be wondering about when considering launching a Patreon campaign as an additional income source.

What is the minimum number of fans or social media followers I need to have a chance of earning success on Patreon?

Since there are no discovery features on Patreon, it’s entirely up to you to funnel your fans to become paying patrons for your membership business.

As someone who has been working with artists and managing their Patreon accounts for 6 years now, this was a question I wondered about myself but never found an answer.

So in 2020, I did some research to come up with my own theory. I revisited these numbers in late 2023 while I was updating my Patreon For Musicians eBook to see if anything has changed since.

Of course, there are a lot of variables we can’t account for as every musician is different, but this should provide a rough estimate. Before we dig into the data, we must define what success looks like on Patreon.
 

What does success look like on Patreon?

 
Every musician is going to have an idea of what “success” on a platform is on Patreon. Some may be content with generating an additional $1,000 a month while others may be aiming higher. For our purposes, we need to define success in a quantifiable way with the data we have available.

Naturally, we would define success on the platform by how much money is generated monthly. Unfortunately, a lot of creators make that information private. Instead, we can look at the number of paid members, which is less likely to be kept hidden.

As of this writing, there are around 15,500 creators in the music category with at least 1 paying member according to Graphtreon.

What I did was look at the top 1% of musicians on Patreon, which consists of about 155 creators, and examine their numbers.

Quick Note: The music category on Patreon includes all types of content creators, not just musicians. This includes people who do music reactions, reviews, podcasts, Discord bots, run music venues and potentially other non-related music content that were miscategorized. For our purposes, we want data specifically for performing musicians, producers, singer-songwriters and even music teachers. The following numbers were filtered to exclude all the creators in the music category who did not meet the criteria.

As of October 2023, the top 1% of musicians and music educators in the music category have on average:

• 1,308 total members
• 777 paid members
• 530 free members

To reach this 1% upper echelon is what I would consider to be “very successful” on Patreon, but it is unlikely for your typical independent artist to get 777 paying members. At the very least, we can still draw some conclusions from this group.

On the other hand, only 6% of creators in the music category had over 100 members. So I would even go as far as to say becoming one of the top 750 out of 15,500 is still relatively successful.
 

How large of a fan base do you need to grow on Patreon?

 
With the baseline of 100 paid members as a marker for success, what is the minimum number of fans one should have before considering Patreon?

Because there’s no easy way to quantify how many fans an artist has, the best metric we can look towards as an outsider is the number of social media followers.

We all know that social media followers aren’t the most accurate measure of fandom for an artist because not all followers or subscribers are actual fans, let alone fans willing to pay for anything from the artist. An email list could have been a better measure, but unfortunately, it wouldn’t be realistic to get access to that information.

When I dug into the social media numbers of the top 1% (128 creators at that time) of musicians on Patreon in 2020, I found that you would need at least 11,000 social media followers on one major platform like YouTube or Instagram.

I did this again with a new data set from late 2023 and found that the average was 17,211. It increased by about 5,000 in about 3 years, so the bar is rising. But it was much easier to get fans to support their favorite artists during the height of COVID-19 than it is now, which explains this increase.

How did I come up with this number? Starting with the data from Graphtreon, I went through the top 1% of music creators on Patreon and found their highest follower/subscriber count for a single platform. Then, I took 20 music creators with the lowest number of followers/subscribers found in the top 1% and got the average.

The only platforms I looked into were YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I realized after the fact that TikTok and Twitch should have been included, so that will be for a future update.

For comparison, creators in the top 1% had an average of 791,606 followers/subscribers on their most popular platform. In 2023, this number went down to 593,288. These are big numbers, but you don’t need that many social media followers/subscribers to be successful on Patreon as an independent artist.

So if the goal is to reach a baseline of 100 paying members on Patreon, you’re more likely to find success with a social media following of over 11,000 fans on a single platform. To be safe, I would say it is closer to 17,000 to 20,000.

These are not definitive numbers as there were musicians with 3,000 Facebook followers as their highest social media following and had over 300 patrons. There are a lot of factors to account for, but this should give you a general idea.
 

Interesting Discovery

 
One interesting discovery I found was that, on average, the number of paying patrons a top music creator had was 1% of the total number of their largest social media accounts. So if a musician in the top 1% has 50,000 Facebook fans/followers as their largest social media following, they would likely have 500 patrons (1% of 50,000). This also held true when I calculated it with the 2023 data set as well.

Another way to look at it is that the most successful musicians on Patreon were only able to convert 1% of their social media following.

It may not seem much, but getting 1% of 10,000 fans to join you on Patreon is considered relatively successful considering 94% of music creators on the platform have less than 100 patrons.

Using this information should give you an estimate of how many social media followers you should have to reach the specific income you’re looking to earn through Patreon.

So if you’re looking to generate $1,000 a month from Patreon with a $5 tier, you would need a following of roughly 20,000 to 40,000 to get 200 members.
 

Conclusion

 
The number one mistake I consistently see is artists/creators launching a Patreon without a fan base or an established following on at least one platform.

Because even if you have a large following, I find that it is still challenging to get fans to convert into monthly paying members on a platform outside the online ecosystem of what most use daily, like Instagram.

The artists I’ve helped launch Patreon with all have different fan base sizes ranging from 10,000 to close to 1,000,000. The one that had the most success had 95,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram combined with 30,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.

Although the focus has been on size, it’s not the only thing that matters. It’s also about how much your fan base resonates with you as a brand and how dedicated you are to growing your Patreon. It’s a lot harder than it seems.

If you feel like Patreon is something you’ve been wanting to start, I share everything I’ve learned in the past 6 years in my Patreon For Musicians eBook to help artists set up, launch and grow their Patreon. I include all the best practices, tactics for growth and mistakes to avoid.

patreonformusicians.com

The post How Many Fans Do Musicians Need to Be Successful on Patreon? appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

So when you come across a business model that pays creators monthly directly from the support of fans, it’s easy to see the allure of a platform like Patreon. It is free to start a page, but does it mean you should invest your time to do it?

According to the data I gathered from Graphtreon in 2023, 64% of creators in the music category on Patreon do not have more than 10 fans supporting their page! If you’re lucky, that can work out to $100 a month, which is definitely not enough to impact your career.

The question then becomes, why are there so many Patreon pages not thriving? A lot of it has to do with the fact that many artists, who are starting on Patreon, just aren’t ready yet. Even well-established musicians don’t come fully prepared to handle the workload.

In this blog, I will go over 6 key factors you should evaluate before deciding on starting a membership for you as an artist. These are based on my own experiences launching and managing 5 Patreon campaigns, one of which had ranked in the top 125 pages in the music category for years with over 500 paying members.

This information can spare you loads of frustration and save you a lot of time that could be better used in other areas of your career.
 

1. Following Size

 
One of the first things you need to consider is the size of your fanbase, whether it’s your social media following, YouTube subscribers or email subscribers. Patreon provides you all the tools you need to run a successful membership / subscription business model, but discoverability and promotion is solely on you.

This is the most common factor musicians overlook when starting Patreon. It would explain why a majority of music creators on the platform have less than 10 members.

There’s no real secret to growing on Patreon. You just have to look at it as a numbers game. The more people are familiar with your work and feel emotionally invested in what you do, the more you can potentially recruit them to become paying members or patrons. After all, it’s very difficult to convince strangers who don’t know you to make an ongoing financial commitment.

You might be wondering, how large of a following do you need? Based on my research from 2020, I would say you needed at least 11,000 on one single platform. However, that number has changed when I redid the calculations using data from late 2023.

Another observation I noticed was that, on average, the number of patrons a top music creator has for their membership page is 1% of the total number of their largest following on a single platform (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Instagram). This is from looking at the top 128 creators with the most patrons in the music category.

That may have been confusing so let me give an example. So let’s say a musician at the top of the music category on Patreon has 50,000 Facebook fans/followers as their largest social media following. They are likely to have 1% of 50,000 or 500 patrons.

Aiming for 100 patrons would be a good start. On average, you would need at least 10,000 social media followers, assuming you do proper promotion.
 

2. Brand Affinity

 
Building a fan base isn’t only about exposure and reach, but you also have to consider the depth of your fan relationships. Do you have fans that have a strong emotional connection to your brand? Are you doing or saying anything that resonates with fans on a deeper level outside of music?

Because music is naturally an emotional outlet, people who like your songs are going to have some degree of connection. But you need to keep a pulse on how your listeners resonate with your brand.

Branding is a powerful tool to develop a strong fan relationship. This is why I emphasized it so much and wrote an eBook on it.

This is something you have to evaluate based on the feedback you’ve received. Do you get a lot of comments or messages from fans that your songs really resonate with them? Do you have super fans who buy and support everything you put out? Do you have fans tattooing your song lyrics?

You’re more likely to get someone to join Patreon when they trust you. After all, paying an artist monthly is a commitment only truly invested fans are willing to make.
 

3. Community

 
Even if you don’t have a large fanbase, support from a community can be just as powerful. Do you have a community that can rally behind you? It could be a local community you’re affiliated with or an online community based on a shared interest, lifestyle, hobby, goal or attitude.

To be clear, a fanbase is not automatically considered a community, but you can create a community from a fanbase.

What’s the difference? A fanbase implies a hierarchy where the relationship or line of communication is predominately between the artist and each individual fan. In a community, the connections are more decentralized so fans are all communicating with each other on the same level as you.

Patreon is a great place to build a private online community, but you have to be the one to bring them there. Not every musician has community support. It’s not necessary, but it can help build a stronger rapport between fans and potentially keep them around longer.
 

4. Unique Selling Propositions

In order to convert fans into paying members, you need to have unique offers or selling propositions that fans can’t get anywhere else. This can be a lot of different things and not only tangible offerings. Here are some examples:

Community – A private online space for fans who share a common interest can interact with each other. Aside from Facebook Groups, your typical social media platforms aren’t structured to support a private community environment. Discord is a wonderful tool for this and integrates well with Patreon.

Access – Allowing fans to see a more personal side of you or insight into your creative process. Super fans love behind-the-scenes content.

Exclusivity – Giving fans exclusive content or physical goods that can’t be found anywhere else. This could be a bunch of songs that never made the cut for an album or merch specially made for your patrons only.

Direct financial support – A membership model is the best way to fund your art and the creation of new content directly. Not all fans want “things” so providing an option for them to support you, where most of it goes to you, can be gratifying for them.

Having more selling propositions can help create a stronger perception of value that your Patreon offers. However, you need to be able to clearly communicate it in a way that doesn’t confuse people. More importantly, you need to know how to promote it properly.
 

5. Ability to Promote

 
If there’s anything I know, it’s that you need to be consistent and persistent with getting fans to join Patreon. You need a plan and strategy to funnel fans to becoming paid members. Posting about your Patreon once a month isn’t going to cut it.

Do you have enough going on in your career to produce quality content and be creative with how you direct attention to your Patreon? Do you have the time and resources to properly invest in promotion?

If you only have a few thousand fans, you need to be able to reach them. Relying on social media alone is not the most effective way to promote to your fans because algorithms determine who sees your posts. This means you may need a budget for Facebook and Instagram ads to get the word out. Is that an expense you can afford?

Email marketing will fare better, so hopefully you have an email list. Without these resources, you’re severely limiting your ability to grow your Patreon membership.

This ties in with the first point about having a sizable following. You need fans who are familiar with you so you can promote to them!
 

6. Commitment

 
The idea of earning a monthly income directly from fans is very attractive, but it comes with a lot of work and patience. You need to be committed to building a membership experience for the long run.

Don’t think that you can cruise once you reach a certain level. Even with over 600 patrons, my client constantly recruits members every day just to maintain. People will drop off as quickly as they join. You need to invest time in not only growing your patrons, but figuring out how to keep them on.

I realize one of the best ways to keep fans around is to provide a sense of community. For that to happen, you need to be present on the platform. If you want to build a community of supporters, you need to engage with fans there until fans begin to interact with each other. The more time you hang out with them, the better.

Do whatever it takes to keep fans interested. After a while, you may have to shake things up and change up tiers to keep things fresh. Get feedback from members and try out new ideas.

This is the type of commitment you need to be ready for if you want to be successful on Patreon.
 

Conclusion

 
The best way to be succeed on Patreon is to only start if you’re actually ready for it. Doesn’t matter if you just uploaded your first song on SoundCloud or you’ve had a 20 year career as an independent.

Of course, there’s no real harm in trying it out since it’s free to sign up. The only drawback is the opportunity costs. Your time may be better served in another aspect of your career that may be more beneficial for the time being.

If you feel you have what it takes to take the next step with a membership model for your music, check out my Patreon for Musicians eBook. I have over 6 years of experience helping artist manage their Patreon pages and share as much information I can to put you in a better position to succeed.

The post 6 Key Factors to Determine If You’re Ready for Patreon appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.

What people may not know is that I currently manage one of the top-ranked music creator pages on Patreon. I’ve helped launch and manage Patreon campaigns for 3 separate artists so I’m quite familiar with the platform. In this eBook, I wanted to reveal everything I know on how to set up, launch and grow a membership business.

As much as I advocate and support a membership model through a platform like Patreon, I want to emphasize that Patreon is not for everyone. The concept sounds great for artists, but in reality, it’s not easy to execute. This is especially true if you’ve not an established artist with a larger following.

If you’ve thought about Patreon or just want to learn more, check out the articles I’ve written below and consider downloading the eBook. Keep in mind that I’m making the first edition free. I plan to charge for future editions when I add more content to it.

Crowdsourced Music Video from Patreon

 
While on the topic of Patreon, I wanted to share a music video I did for a song inspired by this global pandemic. Due to the current circumstances of having to stay home, we had to crowdsource most of the video footage for the music video from the artists’ fans, friends and family. We exclusive reached out to his Patreon members and it turned out beautifully. They were all excited and it brought the Patreon community closer together.

It’s my first official music video for an original song. I’ve always wanted to make music videos and this is definitely a big personal milestone. I make a short cameo in it as well. I wanted to share this as an example of how you can use Patreon to build something special between the artist and fans.

If you’re interested in doing your own crowdsourced video, I wrote “7 Tips For Making A Crowdsourced Music Video With Help From Your Fans” for you to check out.
 

The post Patreon for Musicians: My eBook Preview + Guest Blogs appeared first on D4 Music Marketing.