Patreon: Jack Conte and Sam Yam

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 January 2021

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As part of the band Pomplamoose, musician Jack Conte had a sizeable fan base in the late 2000s and was making thousands of dollars a month from iTunes sales. But when streaming services like Spotify took over the music scene, Jack's income dwindled. So he called up his college roommate Sam Yam, who had spent his post-college years launching startup after startup. Together, Sam and Jack created Patreon, a platform where artists' most passionate fans can sponsor them for just a few dollars a month. Following a Covid-era surge in new members, Patreon is now valued at over a billion dollars and supports over 200,000 musicians, artists, and content creators.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	So how much should it cost you to make that music video?
0:32.0	It ended up costing 10 grand.
0:35.0	If I had known that, I wouldn't have done it.
0:37.0	And it wasn't until about February that I kind of...
0:42.0	It almost felt like waking up after a dream.
0:46.0	And you know, watching my savings account go down basically to zero.
0:50.0	And I was like, I'm going to upload this video to YouTube.
0:54.0	It's going to get a million views.
0:56.0	And I knew that that video would bring in maybe 100 bucks.
1:01.0	From NPR, it's how I built this.
1:10.0	A show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:18.0	I'm Guy Raaz, and on the show today, how Jack Conti's frustration with the music business led him to launch Patreon.
1:25.0	A crowdfunding platform where fans can support and connect with creators for just a few dollars a month.
1:34.0	A teen solo hiker is terrorized for days by unknown figures dressed in white.
1:39.0	Two cops quit their jobs at a local theater because of encounters with an alleged demon,
1:44.0	an isolated forest in Canada where people keep turning up headless.
	...

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