YouTube is taking on Patreon and other creator-monetization
platforms with “Top Fans,” a beta feature that allows music creators to select and share exclusive content with their most devoted supporters.
Originally previewed during YouTube’s
“Made On” presentation last year, Top Fans was described as a way for musicians and musical artists
to reward loyal fans with “pre-save functionality” that enables them to bookmark a forthcoming album or single before it drops — as well as exclusive video and merchandise drops.
Now in
beta, Top Fans has been screenshotted by a handful of users.
The feature allows musicians to share content exclusively with “the top 1% of users” who have watched and listened to
the creator’s content since their channel was created.
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“Other users will be unable to view it, even with a link,” the screenshot states.
The Top Fans feature will be found in the
“Visibility” publishing page, alongside options to share a video publicly, privately, or for members only.
YouTube creator Nate Curtiss, who has access to Top Fans, wrote about the
possible impact of the feature in a LinkedIn post, noting that the more followers a creator has, the more this could add to the feature’s effectiveness.
“If you have 100,000 subscribers,
your top 1% is 1,000 loyal people. That is a real audience,” Curtiss writes. “You can post behind the scenes content, early access, raw unfiltered videos, and build a tier of relationship
that no membership paywall required.”
While Top Fans is only testing the feature with music creators, there is a possibility that YouTube will expand the feature to all types of creators
in the future.
