Make Music Happen

The most potent way for people who love music to connect with music they love.

How Patronism Works For Patrons

What is Patronism?

Patronism is the ultimate band engagement site. It's an exclusive membership community created by your favorite band to enrich your experience with their music.

No other platform brings you closer to your favorite musician and their work.

Unlimited access

Musicians have more than their commercially released material. On Patronism you'll get new songs, live recordings, archived material, back stage videos, blogs, and more.

What you get is only limited by your favorite artist's imagination, which makes every community unique.

Empower the musician

Your ongoing subscription empowers the musician to make more of that thing you love, music. They will be able to concentrate 100% on being musicians and produce more.

Getting Started

More of your subscription goes to the musician than ever before.

Patronism passes 85% of it directly to the artist.



Pay-what-you-feel subscriptions

Your emotional connection to your favorite band dictates the price. For the first time ever you can show them what they mean to you.

All Access

Get unlimited access to a stream of music and other creative content from your favorite band.

Join an exclusive community

Engage with other music lovers and musicians who are making music happen together.

Build a sustainable relationship

Your ongoing subscription empowers them to make more music, which benefits everyone.

How Bands Describe Their Community

"It's our own VH1 Behind The Scenes documentary."
- Dave Insley


"If www.quietcompanymusic.com was a DVD, it would be the feature film. Patronism is that movie on DVD with all of the commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers, & bonus footage, all in one."
- Quiet Company

Press and Awards


Music Site Gives Bands New Way to Lure 'Pay What You Want' Fans
10 New Ideas That Could Save The Music Industry

Harvard Business School and Berklee College of Music Business Model Competition
5 Big Ideas for the Future at SXSW

How Patronage Is Different

Being a Patron versus buying a CD, it makes a world of difference:

Many fans prefer to purchase an artist's CD, but artists make very little on the sale of an album.

But as a Patron more of your dollars go directly to the artist. Not only do you get more than one CD, you get access to THEIR ENTIRE LIBRARY of music on Patronism. The real power of being a Patron is demonstrated below.

Making Minimum Wage:

For a SOLO artist to make U.S. minimum wage on different platforms an artist must:

  • Sell 155 self produced albums per month via Amazon or CD Baby. That's over 1,700 CDs each year. Keep in mind that only 5% of musicians EVER sell over 1,000 albums.
  • Sell 12,388 tracks per month on iTunes.
  • Reach 880,000 plays per month on Rhapsody.
  • Reach 1.5 million plays per month on Last.fm.
  • Reach 4.5 million plays per month on Spotify.
(data from thecynicalmusician.com and David McCandless)


Or they can have 137 patrons with an average subscription of $10.00 per month and out-earn them all.

Micro-patronage really adds up:

You can directly empower the musician to do more.

For instance,

  • A $2/month subscription is the same as if you bought three of their CDs per year.
  • A $5/month subscription covers one professional guitar tune-up per year, but you would have to buy 10 of their CDs to provide that same tune-up.
  • With a $10/month subscription you can provide two hours in a professional studio per year. That's like buying 20 of their CDs per year.
  • Seven patrons at $10/month can cover one studio-quality microphone per year so that artist can produce better recordings at home. The same number of fans would have to buy 140 CDs from that artist.
  • $15/month covers two sets of strings per month.
  • $20/month covers half a day in a studio per year.
  • $50/month covers a full day in a studio per year.

How much artists really make on the sale of a CD:

Many fans prefer to purchase an artist's CD, but artists make very little on the sale of an album, anywhere from 30 cents, a typical record label deal, to $1.00 if the artist has a REALLY GOOD record label deal. In the best case scenario an artist can make $7.00-$8.00 per CD if they self produced the album. (This amount does not cover studio time, just the physical cost of making the CD.)

More dollars to the artists:

Artists receive 85% percent of the revenue collected by Patronism. Out of the remaining 15% we handle payment processing, streaming, hosting and site development costs, as well as deliver a host of resources to the artists to help grow their careers.