Skip to main content

Kickstarter lets you subscribe to creators with Drip

Kickstarter let's you subscribe to creators with Drip
Kickstarter
Kickstarter initially acquired Drip back in March of 2016, though it was launched six years ago by Sam Valenti IV and partner Miguel Senquiz. The crowdfunding giant hasn’t done much with Drip since it was acquired, but that’s about to change. Drip is a crowdfunding tool that allows people to subscribe to a creator and give them monthly payments. This is in contrast to the Kickstarter model, which is to pledge money to one single project. Drip now functions much like Patreon does, with a couple of features that sets it apart.

Currently, Drip is in a limited beta period, and is invite-only for creators. It will open up for more artists early next year. At the moment, a total of 61 artists have subscription pages.

Recommended Videos

“We’re at the very beginning stages,” Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen told TechCrunch. “I think there are a lot of people that haven’t seen the tools that currently exist as fitting for their practice. There’s been a good amount of ground gained with serial content creators, and I think the question is can a broader group of content creators find this kind of model as something that can work for them. We’re trying to see if we can have an impact in this space, and honestly, the more the merrier.”

Kickstarter requires creators to get fully funded within in a certain amount of time. Drip doesn’t operate this way, however. Instead, the user account will remain active no matter how much money has been pledged. The platform encourages more people to join and subscribe by allowing creators to choose from anywhere between seven and 30 days for funders to become founding members. They will be rewarded with special perks if they are able to pledge within that time window.

With Drip, you’re also able to move funders and projects over to a completely different crowdfunding platform with ease. This helps to sell the idea that Drip is absolutely all-in as far as supporting creators and artists. “We’re not basing our success or failure primarily on growth,” Kickstarter’s new chief product officer, Jamie Wilkinson, told The Verge. “It’s about, are we succeeding in our mission? Are we helping creator projects come to life?”

Stephen Jordan
Stephen is a freelance writer and blogger, as well as an aspiring screenwriter. Working in front of a computer and digesting…
YouTube hides dislike button count, drawing criticism from users and creators
Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube is currently the second-most-used platform in the world, and it has introduced a number of beneficial updates recently, such as offering translation options in the comments section of a YouTube video and introducing a "Media Literacy" campaign that empowers users to prevent misinformation. However, a recent update that hides the dislike button count has not gone down well with the creative community.

An announcement on the official YouTube blog has revealed the company would be making dislike counts private across its platform. While the creators will be able to see dislike counts, users will not. YouTube's justification for this is that it's seeking to reduce harassment of content creators, irrespective of their reach. YouTube revealed that it conducted an experiment earlier this year where the dislike button was available to viewers, but the dislike count was hidden. Because the count was hidden, it found that viewers or commenters were less likely to leave a dislike and engage in targeted harassment, which tends to occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels.

Read more
Apple will now let you fix your own iPhone in win for right-to-repair campaigners
iPhone 13 Pro style shot.

Apple will finally let iPhone users repair their own iPhones, the company announced this week. It will start this effort with the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series, with an expansion to older iPhones and more of its product lines in the near future. Dubbed Self Service Repair, it is aimed at those customers who have the experience, skills, and willingness to get hands-on with product repairs. The company will send (or rather, sell) people parts, tools, and a manual in what is a huge win for right-to-repair campaigners.

The new Apple Self Service Repair Online Store will offer more than 200 individual parts and tools for sale.  Apple also noted that these customers who get access to the parts, tools, and manuals join a club of more than 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers and 2,800 Independent Repair Providers.

Read more
Windows 11 is blocking an app that lets you switch browsers to Google Chrome
Empty folders on Windows 11.

Windows 11 is now blocking the popular app EdgeDeflector, which provides better ability to select alternative web browsers.

The discovery was made in a new build of Windows 11 through the Insider Program, where Microsoft is now blocking applications that sidestep certain restrictions to change web browsers within the operating system.

Read more