Apple only supports the common subscription model that is widespread among payment processors and crowdfunding platforms. They do not want to have to support the innovative things that Patreon was doing, so they told Patreon that to be compatible with Apple, it could only offer the same thing all the other platforms offered.

At least on the iOS app.

To be absolutely crystal clear: Patreon presumably could have complied by, instead, simply making it such that users of the iOS app cannot access or subscribe to or manage their subscriptions to creators that used non-compatible services, and allowed the creators to go on using them.

But instead, it paved its own orchard to give Apple a place to park.

This is not a surprise, in that at least one of the two offerings it is canceling is something those of us who use it have long suspected Patreon was just itching to get rid of.

2/n

I assure you, at this point no creator who uses Patreon to earn any substantial part of their income for any length of time is using it because they *like* it. We all learn to hate Patreon in due course.

No, if a serious creator is using Patreon at this point it is usually because none of the abundant supposed "alternatives" actually support their use case or are otherwise usable for them.

Maybe it's because Patreon is the only place to buy what they need. Maybe it's because it's the only one that is sufficiently handicapped accessible. Maybe it's because it's so integrated into their workflow, the switching costs are extreme. Maybe it's for some other reason I don't even know about.

But it's not because they're thinking, "This is great! The software is so stable and there's so rarely any problem with charging my patrons and everything works really well and there's never any sudden drama upsetting my ability to earn a living here! Why would I ever want to leave?" Promise.

3/3