Reddit has struck a partnership with membership services platform Patreon that will let creatives use Subreddits to raise funds, and directly interact with their paying supporters. A close integration of the two services is already being tested with a subset of creators, and both companies have plans to open up the feature to additional creators by the end of the month.
After creators connect their Patreon account to Reddit, they can direct their Patreon fans to to their Subreddit to interact with their fan community. And on Reddit, paying members receive a special badge, also known as flair in Reddit lingo, to signal their support. Subreddits will also include a direct link to a creator’s Patreon page.
One of the first creators to take advantage of the new feature is musician Amanda Palmer, who has some 12,000 paying members supporting her on Patreon, and a Subreddit with 1800 subscribers. “Patreon is where my entire community gathers, and this integration with Reddit will make it easier for us to have better, deeper and more organized conversations with one another,” Palmer said, adding: “And god knows, we really need that right now.”
For Patreon, this is just the latest link-up with third-party sites and services to extend the reach of its membership services. The company launched its developer program about a year ago, which allowed creators to integrate their Patreon memberships into WordPress blogs, web forums and elsewhere.
The partnership with Reddit could be a match made in heaven: For Patreon and its creators, it adds a massive funnel to turn fans into paying members. The integration also takes off some pressure from creators to constantly engage their audience with new posts, instead giving the community an outlet to take initiative on its own. And for Reddit, integrating Patreon is an instant way to become more relevant to creators and offer them another reason to directly interact with their audience on its platform.