When I set out to move away from Advertising in my shows in late 2015, only Patreon had something close to what I was looking for…a platform where supporters could get early access to high-quality Audio releases of episodes that were Ad-Free. Since moving away from Advertising completely (Thank you everyone for your support that allowed me to do that!) I also added Apple Podcasts subscriptions when that became a thing as well as YouTube Memberships which frankly, haven’t really taken off because YouTube is about scale and making freeze frames where you pull a funny face to get attention. (Not doing that)
Today I’m launching initial support for both Ko-Fi and for Buy Me A Coffee as alternative support pathways. All the same tiers and levels are exactly the same as Patreon with all the same benefits, as supported by their respective platforms. Ko-Fi does not have an app yet for Android or for iOS however audio content can be played back via their website. Buy Me A Coffee supports web playback but they also have an iOS app that allows background playback of Audio.
Neither site has the same Podcast RSS feeds that Patreon supports nor the integration out of the box that Apple Podcasts does, so you might be wondering why I’m doing this.
There are two reasons. Firstly my understanding of what show supporters are looking for has evolved. Based on nearly ten years of interaction with paid supporters the vast majority don’t care about the RSS feeds in Patreon and that’s not why they support me via Patreon at all. Yes it’s a perk…it’s just one that don’t need or really want. Those that want a seamless integration tend to support via Apple Podcasts and I’ve had many people start on Patreon and then shift to Apple Podcasts simply because it’s cleaner and simpler for them.
Secondly I’m aware that there’s a segment of supporters that really, really don’t like Apple and also have issues with Patreon as a company. Namely how they have treated some creators in the past, some creators that they’ve allowed on their platform and how much they skim off the top as the person-in-the-middle. Absolutely understand.
Whatever your concerns, you now have two more options if you want to support my work and don’t want Apple or Patreon in the middle of it. I’ve summarised the current options below in this hopefully handy table:
| Service | Podcast App Integration | Tiered Support | Name Call-out Possible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patreon | Private RSS / Any Podcast App | All 7 Tiers | Supported |
| Buy Me A Coffee | In-App / Website Only | All 7 Tiers | Supported |
| Ko-Fi | Website Only | All 7 Tiers | Supported |
| Apple Podcasts | Apple Podcasts Only | Premium Only | Not Possible |
Because I’m starting out by back-porting episodes and content progressively into both platforms, you’ll notice that some of the older posts from Patreon haven’t be ported. For example: I’m not re-posting publicly available posts and the Raw Notes I used to post in the early days of Causality, but otherwise they’ll all be there when I’m finished. Since neither platform supports back-dating of posts they’ll appear in the correct order of publishing but not have their original published date. Please keep in mind that back-porting is a time-consuming manual task that I’m chipping away at so hopefully in a few weeks time it will be at parity with Patreon and Apple Podcasts.
Ultimately however you choose to support my work it’s all greatly appreciated and without that support I’d likely just pack it in. So as always, thank you so much and take care.