Music Ally Focus #12: Fan-funding platform Patreon has raised $155m – so what does its success mean for artists, and what does it suggest about the future of artists' income?

Music business news, analysed in brief by Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow. Patreon is now valued at $4bn and their focus on the ‘creator’ economy seems to be working – so does this mean that we can assume that artists will now generate a substantial part of their money from superfans via platforms like Patreon? How do artists persuade fans to support them on these platforms - and will labels be shoved out of the picture or do they still have an important role to play?  Stu and Joe analyse what it means for artists, and what it suggests about the future of artists' income. 👋 Sign up for Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter, The Knowledge – an at-a-glance overview of the whirling, weird maelstrom that is the modern music industry. NB: As promised in this episode, here's a video of Joey "Jaws" Chestnut eating 75 hot dogs in 10 mins: youtube.com/watch?v=rE85Rjr5Nyg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb