Fast Company

BEYOND CROWDFUNDING

Patreon is changing how creative types make a living. Now it wants to help them build media empires.
Fan favorite Musician and Patreon cofounder Conte is helping artists find ongoing support for their work.

In the spring of 2013, musician Jack Conte was frustrated with the challenge of supporting himself as a creative person in the internet age. Conte, who performs both solo and—with his wife, Nataly Dawn—as part of an indie-rock duo called Pomplamoose, had sunk $10,000 of his own money into a wildly inventive sci-fi–themed music video, complete with a singing robotic head. It soon racked up a million YouTube views. But Conte’s share of revenue from the ads the site stuck on his work amounted to a pittance: about $150.

“It was so weird to see such a

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