Building discovery with you, not ‘For You’
Over the past year we’ve been thinking a lot about growth, and how we can build a discovery network that serves creators — not the other way around.
First, we shared our approach.
Then you shared your ideas.
Then we all got together and talked about it.
And today, we’re ready to dive into what we’ve built: a discovery network that will give you better growth, and fans a better discovery experience.
Simply put: while ad-based social platforms are designed to addict you to your phone, our network is designed to help you form meaningful, lasting connections with fans and earn more money, all while feeling more human and less algorithmic.
Our approach to discovery is different because it’s built on interests, not attention. We started by mapping our existing network of creators with overlapping fandoms across genres. Then, to help those fandoms actually discover each other, we added some new features.
A new home feed
The new home feed is a personalized discovery network that uses community overlap to introduce your work to new fans most likely to be interested in what you create, while deepening engagement with your current fans. Fans also have the option to prioritize just the creators they follow.
A new way to create discoverable media: Quips
Quips are a new format you can use to share fun and quick thoughts directly to the new feed. These posts are free, giving you a way to reach new potential fans with your work without spamming your existing members’ inboxes.
Collab posts
Collab posts enable you to co-author a post with another creator in your network to reach both of your audiences, getting your work in front of a new audience full of fans who are already connected to a creator similar to you.
A single identity
Your creator and member identities will merge — because creators are fans, too. Use one unified profile to engage as both a creator and a fan, so your name and work stand out across the platform.
How to get access
We’ve been testing these features slowly and carefully with creators across genres and sizes, and the early results have been incredible: so far creators have seen up to 50% growth in their new members, and up to 33% growth in new paid memberships coming from the feed. Meanwhile, the number of members viewing the creators they follow each day remains the same.
📝 Learn more about our discovery network tools and access eligibility.
Last thoughts
Discovery is a hard problem to solve (if it wasn’t, it’d be solved already!), and we won’t get it right from day one. We’ll experiment, and some of those experiments will fail. But that’s what it means to build something with you, not just ‘For You’.
For a deeper dive into how Patreon is handling discovery, check out our CEO Jack Conte’s recent video on the topic, also shared below.
Comments (38)
Hi there… I’m seeing a lot of clips in my feed from artists and creators that I don’t follow who have managed to tag @Patreon for creators But I can’t figure out how to do this in my own Quips… HELP from a weirdo musician & online body doubling host who’s been on here since 2015 and has literally never had a single signup from Discovery (I’ve introduced 100s of people to the platform over the years though…) Xoxo Maddy
Hey Maddy, To tag an account in a Quip, type the @ symbol and start typing the creator’s name. Their username should appear in the dropdown so you can select it. You can also check out this Help Center article for more info on sharing Quips: https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/39299791825293-Sharing-Quips If you’re still unable to tag someone after following those steps, you can click the “Submit a request” button at the top of the article to contact our Support team.
Am I ready to start know
Looking forward to joining from off the waitlist. Launching a 20 video series on YouTube around southern gothic that I’m also driving folks to Patreon for deeper dives
tu ID de ticket: #3840183I am sending this message because I have exhausted my patience with your top-notch technical support. My business and contractual relationship is exclusively with Patreon, not Payoneer. You advertise and assure that deposits go directly to my bank account, and it is your responsibility to ensure that the fruits of my labor reach their destination. The fact that Patreon uses Payoneer as an "invisible" intermediary is your operational decision, not mine. Therefore, if Payoneer is holding my funds indefinitely, it is Patreon that is failing to pay its creator.
Hello!! long time fan of patreon. Been using the platform for a decade now. This discover feature is an absolute dread, i have no desire to seek out other content when i open the app. I think it’s a great feature for creators especially the ones that need the exposure however that is 98% of the time never what i want as a consumer and is absolutely not what i want to open my app to find. I think having the feature is great but putting it in between me and the content i want creates a barrier and level of resentment that is only negative for the platform and the creators that get between me and the content i consume. Please take into heavy consideration how to better evolve this feature. Thank you! P.S. please figure out and apple watch app/launcher. Would love to use patreon without having my phone with me.
Honestly just want to know how to do collab
We’re a Spanish-speaking community with people all across Latin America, Europe, and North America, and we’re already going into our third year here. It’d be great if more Latin folks knew about the platform — we’ve had to explain it like it’s from another planet haha. If there’s anything we can help with on that front, we’re here
I’m actually really enjoying the new features and look forward to continued development. A feature I wish was there is when I click into a video, if I could just swipe up to go to the next video below in my feed.
I am glad your taking steps to help with discovery! This really needs to be done... Not that anyone will listen to a small artist like me but here's some things I would like to see Searchable creator categories - I think it would be nice for ppl to be able to search. On patreon for artists , band musicians , writers , multi media creators , content creators etc... via categories. In addition to being shown random new creators they might enjoy. Shop You already have stores and shops on patreon .. as an artist and musician I'd like to see patreon have a market place that is like Etsy kind of but only for creator products I feel like this could really help with cross discovery for makers and artists as well as content creators if you did it right and didn't flood it with cheap china crap like Etsy has.... It would get nice for ppl to search music , art , video merch and organically find these things to purchase from creators. 3. Collab posts are great I love this.... Ating ppl also great ....But it doesn't help u if you don't know anyone on the platform... So it would be great to see a space for more creator to creator networking and also maybe work for hire between creators and projects. We all have various skills and maybe we can help each other and work together. 4. Small creators section or feature area where new and small communities can get noticed. The #1 hardest thing I have run into in my time as an artist is trying to grow a community when I live under a rock and have no friends and no one knows ro cares about my work. Spotlight small creators. New creators please!!!! Give them a voice and an chance to be seen. Its hard enough out there... Just because some one doesn't have community or resources to grow one doesn't mean there work is not good. Please give small creators a voice. Just a few thoughts on discovery from me... U have a chance to build an amazing platform for artists and creatives... Don't be like other social media. Do it right give us a space to make and for the ppl who want to support creators to find those projects and support those communities.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us, Carol. We appreciate your feedback!
really, really REALLY want a discovery feed to be formatted as pages rather than endless scroll <3
A thought about the new Quips feature. The idea is nice, but I really do not think the Discovery section should appear directly on the homepage. Right now, when I open my homepage as a member, I see a very small section at the top with posts from the people I actually follow (free or paid), and then everything below that is content from people I do not follow at all. The algorithm is not very accurate yet, so I also see many posts that are not relevant to me. I feel this is not very fair, because people who chose to pay to see our content might now see less of what they actually subscribed for, and more random posts from creators they do not know. I think the homepage should only show creators we follow (free or paid), and then maybe have a separate button at the top labeled “Discovery,” so people can click it only if they want to find new creators. What do you all think?
I'm so excited about all of this!! The only concern I have is that I'd really like the default page to be the one of the creators we follow, and the discovery page should be an opt-in. That would continue to set patreon apart from other social media apps, and allow growth while staying true to the reason we are all here :)
I agree that landing page should be a feed of creators we follow and the discovery page should require an extra click. I would also love to be able to control how things show up on the discovery page, specifically in terms of date posted. “Show by most recent” would be really helpful. Finally, I don’t want a bottomless feed. If there’s a way to limit the number of posts that show up for me I would use the platform more. I tend to delete apps with bottomless feeds from my phone because they’re unhealthy for me.
Hi Slow Spokes, thank you for sharing your feedback with us, appreciate your thoughts here and will share it with our team!
Hello, I have active paid membership, and I'm making content suitable for All Audiences, but I haven't figured out how to get on the waitlist for Quips - would love to utilise these features! Please sign me up for the waitlist, or let me know how I can do this myself. Thanks so much!
Hi Mina, glad to hear you're excited to sign up to the waitlist. In order to sign up, you must make work suitable for All Ages and have earned on Patreon. If you meet this criteria, and you have active paid membership(s), you should see the sign up at the link below: https://www.patreon.com/edit/about If you recently launched your page, or recently earned from your first paid membership, you may not see the sign up form until you’ve completed at least one month of earning on Patreon, so if that's applicable to your account, we'd recommend checking back after your first completed payment cycle. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to our support team at (https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/requests/new) as they'll be able to take a look at your account and help you directly.
Got a question: Would my members see what comments I've made and where once the profiles are merged? That would be really inconvenient.
Hi there. After your member and profiles are merged, your activity across Patreon will show up posted under your creator page name, activity such as Likes and comments on posts and chat messages. This activity would be visible to the creators you are a member of, as well as anyone within their communities where you are engaging, however, your fan-activity from other Patreon communities and memberships will not directly visible on your creator page itself. For example, if you are a participating in a creator's chat, your chat messages will show up under your creator page name, but your activity in that chat will not show up on your creator page itself.
Its cristal clear in my mind. And was clearly expresed when noticed
Jack - I'm always so grateful for your passion, ONGOING heart for creators, platform transparency and care for creator business sustainability. After listening to the negative feedback and as I filter the everyday user who isn't as deep in creator thinking/systems (free members, patrons), I wonder if switching the Membership tab (left) as the default and users can choose to toggle over to the Discovery tab (right)? I'm sure this has come up , but I could see it centering the patron - creator relationship.
I do not want to see creators I'm not paying to see
Can't wait to be part of the waiting list. As of now there are less or almost none who engage with my contents. It's as if I was posting for myself. I hope this new approach will help me reach more organic community that will collab with my contents.
I honestly love the sound of all this. Patreon can be our MAIN platform! FUCK YES!!!🙏🏾🚀
I was a few weeks away from giving up my siege on Google and making a Youtube to promote my work. I'm blessed to have a very good URL for my page so I get a lot of "Internet foot traffic," but my content is hyper niche so I hope this will help share it. I mostly release free content on Patreon and ask for donations, which is important for the integrity of my art but has historically been hard to find people who actually want *my* stuff enough to throw a dollar in the busking bucket. Thank you for the continued efforts for the creator community, especially those of us who are patiently waiting for the board of directors at Alphabet to fire Sundar Pichai before re-engaging with the hydra that owns all human eyeballs.
I'm concerned about the merging of accounts. What does that look like for my Creator account if I support and follow adult-exclusive creators will posts and likes I give their content be visible on my creator account? Would I be forced to mark my own account as adult-content if I engage at all with creators that make that content?
Hi there. After your member and profiles are merged, your activity across Patreon will show up under your creator page name, activity such as Likes and comments on posts and chat messages. This activity would be visible to the creators you are a member of, as well as anyone within their communities where you are engaging, however, your fan-activity from other Patreon communities and memberships will not directly visible on your creator page itself. For example, if you are a participating in a creator's chat, your chat messages will show up under your creator page name, but your activity in that chat will not show up on your creator page itself. Being a member of creators who make work for adult/18+ audiences does not require you yourself to make your creator page 18+ as long as the work you are posting on your creator page is within Patreon's Community Guidelines. If you produce work on Patreon that is intended for an adult/18+ then you must classify your page as such (more details here in Patreon's Community Guidelines: https://www.patreon.com/policy/guidelines#sexually-gratifying-works) If you have any concerns about merging your fan profile with your creator profile, we'd recommend that you do not sign up for early access and await more updates. Or, if you'd like to keep your member profile separate and want to join the waitlist for early access, you can create a new account to keep your member profile completely separate from your creator page.
I'm optimistic. Looking forward to seeing how this will generate growth for memberships and community building.
Early access with these features has been INCREDIBLE! Definitely was a little hesitant about the profile merge (not for any reason in particular, just any *permanent* change is always going to seem a little spooky), but you all nailed it! Everything has been so amazing and totally transformative for growth! Opening the feed is honestly so motivating and makes me so happy. Plus, my fans have LOVED these features and the new feed, so it seems they feel the same way! Here are some of the direct quotes from my members: – “Quips have been great! I wouldn’t have discovered you without them!” – “I like the Quips a lot! They’re nice, quick little snippets that really fill in the space between lengthier posts!” – “I love the Quips. It seems like it's given you a chance to share more often without the pressure of making a full post. And we get to see behind the scenes a little more. It feels genuine and welcoming.” – “I've enjoyed them so far. It's been fun to have these extra snippets and to see more about your art!” Thank you to everyone at Patreon for all the hard work and for being willing to make such impactful changes. There's no way this could have been an easy lift for you all, but you all have certainly made it look that way!
Thank you Katy for all the feedback you've shared thus far in helping us build these new features and experimenting in this early access. We love seeing sneak peeks of your artwork and are looking forward to seeing more from you and your community in Quips!
My take on the new features: Good: * Discoverability * Collaboration * "At"-ing people * A new post type * A library of posts from creators I follow * At least they're keeping a tab for memberships Bad: * "Home" and "Memberships" should be "Discover" and "Home", dammit * I don't want to have just another platform I have to remember to update (and Patreon Quips is basically another platform) * I'm anxious about this new algorithm and what it's going to make creators do on Patreon * A lot of people miss content they want to see on other platforms because the algorithmic feed prioritizes other stuff. (Apparently, YouTubers consider "reminding their viewers that the subscription tab exists" to be a lost battle, so that makes me nervous); Now people are at risk of missing content *they've paid for* by joining a Patreon, and I don't like that at all * It doesn't look like you're making "Instagram but better", you're making "Twitter but worse", and "Twitter but worse" already exists and is called "X"
Love this! Can’t wait to have access to these new tools!!!
That sounds like an improvement. My personal recommendation would be to use the tabbed system "With You | Following". I think it works well and encourages me to spend a reasonable amount of time (not too much, not too little) on social media sites that use a similar one. it's exciting to switch between them. Good luck improving our digital lives!
Seems a bit complicated.
But is definitely interesting.
Yeah, I‘d rather just have my old feed here back. Give it a few years and we‘ll be looking for alternatives again just like we do now for IG.
I've been more and more guarded on Social Media because of their shenanigans. This could mean a feed that is actually *good* for me to be spending time on.