Paying Creators and Being So Cool
Thoughts on Instagram's new Creator Subscription plus excitement for NEW music
Welcome to Notes From Erin, a newsletter about all things music and reading-related. If you like what you see, consider subscribing - and add me on Instagram or Twitter.
This week, I am talking about Instagram’s new Subscription feature and the two albums I am most excited for tomorrow - hint, it’s Amber Mark’s debut album and Sinead Harnett’s re-release.
Last week, Instagram began rolling out their new Subscription feature for Creators. The premise of Instagram Subscriptions is the following:
Creators will be able to set a monthly price of their choice (ranging from $0.99 to $99 per month), unlock a “subscribe” button on their profile, and offer the following benefits to their subscribers:
Subscriber Stories: Create stories just for your subscribers - share exclusive content and use interactive story stickers with only your most engaged followers.
With Instagram Subscriptions, you can earn recurring, monthly income by offering exclusive benefits and experiences to your most engaged followers, right here within the same platform where you interact with them already.
Subscriber Lives: Broadcast exclusive Lives to your subscribers, allowing them to engage more deeply.
Subscriber Badges: Subscribers get a purple badge on their page to signal to the creators that they have purchased a subscription.
When I first saw that Instagram was rolling out these subscriptions, it was a hard pass for your girl.
As I continuously mention, I am ALWAYS on a budget, and I often get annoyed with the need to pay for EVERYTHING. I also asked two different friends their feelings on paying for subscriptions on Instagram, and they said the following:
“My thoughts are I don’t want to pay for it, but I’d like to profit from it. I would have to be totally invested in whoever I am subscribing to. It will probably make me confront my social media addiction because I will have to assess what is actually adding value to my life and what is filling my brain with useless debris, and another component of this is that I’m glad creators will get paid for their work, but part of me also wishes there was a small, small cents-level fee that Instagram collected in exchange for them not tracking the shit out of me.” - Leah (she creates great content on Instagram)
“I pay for access to two Patreon memberships, so if the creator is developing content that grants me access to information I wouldn’t otherwise get, I would be willing to pay.” - Andrea
Both are excellent points, and the more I thought about it, I think it’s a great idea. Let me explain:
First and foremost, in terms of creators and influence, there are different tiers of influencers:
Mega-Influencers have 1M+ Followers
Macro-Influencers have 100K - 1M followers
Micro-Influencers have 10K - 100K Followers
Nano-Influencers have 10K followers or less
Personally, the macro, micro, and nano-influencers I follow on Instagram hold more weight for me in terms of influence than the mega-influencers do (Harpo, who are those people? I don’t follow any). I value their opinions and even buy the products they recommend in some cases. Being that they are not mega-influencers like Charlie D’Amelio for instance, big sponsorships with brands like Dunkin’ Donuts or Hollister aren’t knocking down their doors, BUT they should be able to earn around the work they do because… it’s a lot of work. These creators put in a lot of work creating video content, shooting photo content, curating their content feeds, working on collaborations, batching content, all the while still finding time to interact with the communities they cultivate.
Secondly, when I thought about it, although I don’t pay influencers for content through a platform, I already do support their content.
I pay for subscriptions to some of my favorite newsletters like Ann Friedman’s weekly newsletter, Hitha Palepu’s daily #5SmartReads newsletter, Claire & Emma of Rich Text, and Polina Marinova’s The Profile.
When they have product launches, I support. I got a candle from Alex Hill, which smells beautiful (she was just featured in Washington Post), and I even got Ciera Rogers’ Shop Babes leggings, and let me tell you if you have curves and a high Gluteus Maximus, RUN to get these - I look stacked like a baby Stallion when I have them on.
I also purchase their cookbooks - my favorite lately has been The Defined Dish’s the comfortable kitchen, and Half Baked Harvest’s cookbook.
I also buy products from their Amazon The Drop Fashion collections: I got a cute dress from Courtney Kerr’s launch, a pair of shoes from Jacey Duprie’s, AND I am patiently waiting for Marche Robinson’s line launch as well.
So yes, this shows two things: (1) I am all for it (2) this is why sis is always on a budget.
However, there are also already several influencers who are already earning money from the platform by charging people on outside platforms like Venmo, or Cash App, adding people who are in the group to “Close Friends” to earn exclusive content. The good thing with the Instagram platform is that they will not be taking a percentage of the money from creators that they make until 2023.
A few questions I have about subscriptions:
I thought of several use-cases for creators that I follow, from fitness instructors who could host short or daily classes on their Instagrams to food influencers who could host cooking demos on the platform. And although I think this is an excellent opportunity to reward creators, I have some questions in my overly curious nature.
How did Instagram determine which creators they would be rolling the subscription out to first?
Not sure that this matters, but I am curious considering the influencers they are testing it out with first, I haven’t heard of any of them before.
When/how will the rollout start?
Is there a threshold for the number of followers someone has to have in order to be invited to have this feature or is it something with analytics looking at traffic and engagement?
What percent will Instagram take out of the money earned from subscriptions?
This is a big question for me about the feature. Although Instagram will not take money from creators until 2023, I would like to know how much the platform will be taking. Apple takes 30% I believe from iOS payments. Keeping this number in mind I am hopeful (although I think this is not the case) that the fee Instagram will take is 3%.
Also in a weird way, if this is the case, would it be better for a creator to have an Android? I feel like no but I did think about that when I first read about Apple payments fee.
How sustainable will this be for creators?
Another question I have is about the sustainability of this model for the creator.
It’s honestly a question or thought that had been top of mind for me when thinking about this because it seems like it can lead to burnout.
If creators create the original content they have been doing on the platform like:
Batching content.
Curating their feeds.
Editing their stories.
Engaging the community, etc.
Adding more to the fold seems like a lot.
Will creators create additional content for this exclusive community and create engaging content for their main feed to market and attract users to subscribe to them? Again, it seems like a lot and an excessive amount of content churn.
Will this model make its way to other social media platforms?
The last question I had is what does this mean for other social platforms since they all kind of bite off of each other.
I know Twitter has Super Follow, and TikTok is also working towards creating a paid content model for creators, but where will Instagram’s subscription feature live in the world. Depending on how TikTok attempts to brand their feature AND if they continue to push things like lives, TikTok COULD be a better platform for content.
TikTok in-app video editing is elite. You can duet with people, play around with better filters, and in general, the video experience is just better.
For a creator looking to build an audience, it’s easier to build a tribe, I believe on TikTok because of the discovery feature. On IG, I’ve heard many creators saying that when they take a break on creating/sharing content because they want to relax, the algorithm leaves them out there. They can’t get the same number of engagement on their content, and it’s a lot of work to get their numbers back up.
Those are just a few of my thoughts - let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email me.
What I’m Listening To:
Although I’m not listening to it yet, tomorrow is the day - Amber Mark’s debut album, Three Dimension, is out, and I am very excited. Also, Sinead Harnett is re-releasing her album; Ready is Always Too Late, with a new song and four covers, including the Isley Brothers “At Your Best,” although it’s the Aaliyah version.
Secondly, something that made me very happy is that Big K.R.I.T is finally releasing new music. His latest project, Digital Roses Don’t Die, comes out on February 18th, and from the project so far, he released the new single/video for “So Cool,” and I’m in love. If you know me, you know that I LOVE Big K.R.I.T, so this has made my week. Watch the video below because LOVE.
Still, here’s a shameless plug to save/listen to my cozy playlist. It’s a great time and every eclectic. I also made a new playlist called SPRING/SUMMER MOOD because I’m ready to dance - where I don’t know because I can’t dance battle Omarion right now. Yes, I did laugh at that as I wrote it because it reminded me of You Got Served.
I’ve been listening to Joey Bada$$ debut album, 1999, a lot lately and loved this new podcast episode featuring him on Angela Yee’s Lip Service. I would also like this to be a plug to say I can’t wait for Raising Kanan to return. I also can’t wait for SNOWFALL next month and Atlanta on my dad’s birthday on 3/24.
I also found the latest episode of Marianna Hewitt’s podcast, Life with Marianna on Instagram Best Practices for Creators, to be timely given today’s newsletter topic.
What I’m Reading:
‘My Daughter Had a Life’: Family of Lauren Smith-Fields on What Would Have Been Her 24th Birthday, Rolling Stone
Also, donate to her GoFundMe - such a sad and tragic story.
Why Simply Hustling Harder Won’t Help You With the Big Problems in Life, GQ
Lena Dunham on Her First Film in a Decade, Youthful Blind Spots and Hope to Reboot ‘Girls,’ The Hollywood Reporter
A Tinder Revenge Story, NYMag
Is Old Music Killing New Music, The Atlantic