I’m not making this up.
Back in November 2008, I bought the domains Patronat.us and Patronatus.com and wanted to start a site / business that was… exactly what Patreon has become! Patreon was founded by Jack Conte and Sam Yam in 2013: that’s five years later. Of course, someone was going to come up with this same idea and succeed with it. But it’s eerie how specific the details are! I registered the domains on November 1, 2008, but I let them expire long ago.
This is evidence that Derek Sivers was right when he said: Ideas Are Just a Multiplier of Execution.
Below are emails between me and my friend John La Grou about it.
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Date: 2008-11-02T03:19:40+00:00
From: CarlKingCreative.com carl@carlkingcreative.com
To: “John La Grou”
Subject: Patronatus
Hey John,
In response to the changing music industry (and as an expansion of Echelon), I have a concept for a website / business.
It would be called Patronatus. The web addresses would be:
http://www.patronat.us
or
http://www.patronatus.com
…both of which I own.
The word is Latin, and it means: “the formal relationship between a Patronus and his Clientes.”
What this website would do is (almost) directly connect an artist and his patrons, allowing them to donate money to Artists. The website could work on (ideally) a subscription basis, drawing small amounts of money (I am thinking $5 or so at the minimum) from a credit card or PayPal each month. (Or any other way, really.)
Perhaps once a month, the Patron would allocate / divide up the funds to which Artist / Project / Band he wants to support, with a simple selection. Patronatus would interface directly with the Artist and make sure that the money collected (after fees) goes directly to them.
The site would be paid for by taking a small transaction fee, which would be marginal and would cover the costs of providing the service, in the way that any other money transfer service would work — like PayPal or something comparable.
The entire point of this is for fans to make small, consistent donations to their favorite artists in a central location. A sort of “Arts Donation Manager.” It’s a way for patrons to “pay it forward” and support the arts. The “artist” page could have a list of Patrons, with perhaps a simple link to their website. Much like the back of a classical music program guide. No banners, no huge graphics, nothing distasteful or intrusive. Of course, they could also choose to stay anonymous.
One of the best aspects is that Patrons would know that a very large portion (probably 85-90%) of the money is going to the Artist instead of things like iTunes or manufacturing costs of CDs, or printing of T-shirts, or whatever else someone spends money on just to support their favorite artists. A lot of people go to concerts and buy CDs and Shirts just to support the band, and this is as undiluted as it can get aside from handing the Artist cash.
If an artist had 100 (or 1000) fans all giving $5 a month, it would add up and make a huge difference. The Patronage would most likely be asymmetrical, and some would give much larger amounts than others.
The website would be minimalist and functional, a la the look of Twitter. The artist page would have very limited info: one picture (size-restricted) and a character-limited description with a link, then (perhaps on a second page, which doesn’t show at first) a list of Patrons who can opt-in to have a link displayed. No media files, no massive amounts of data. It would not include custom html like the horrible mess that is Myspace. The artists would use a simple button on their site to direct to their page. Example:
http://www.patronatus.com/artist
All of the Artist accounts would have to be verified somehow, to make sure the money is not sent to a fraud.
The Patrons can optionally provide contact info, so they can receive special offers or communications from their Artists.
What do you think of this concept?
-Carl.
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Date: 2008-11-02T13:45:39+00:00
From: John La Grou
To: CarlKingCreative.com carl@carlkingcreative.com
Subject: Re: Patronatus
It sounds like a good idea, but seems secondary to the central draw of a music site. Seems like you would need to combine giving with a comprehensive backline which sold music, perhaps handled aspects of artist mgmt, and other creative and commercial tools. I think people are looking mostly for an artist, their music, information / bio / photo – some kind of “connection” with the artist… first. After the essential artist-fan relationship is satisfied, a “giving” platform is a good feature. But don’t most artists already have that feature on their personal sites – thru buying?