Exclusive and paywalled content has become a cornerstone of the buzzy "creator economy."
It's how many influencers are making money: Turning their communities into direct streams of income. And startups like Patreon, Cameo, and OnlyFans have paved the way.
Now, Meta-owned Instagram is getting into the market by testing its own exclusive content feature.
On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook that "Subscriptions" would begin testing in the US with a small group of content creators on Instagram.
It's not Meta's first foray into this territory. Facebook unveiled its own "Fan Subscriptions" feature in 2018, then seen as a move to compete with Patreon as it gained traction. Since launching, the feature has faced hurdles with Apple's fees and rebranded to just "Subscriptions" in November last year. But Instagram is a much bigger platform for creators.
Like with Facebook's subscription tools, the company will not take a share of the revenue generated from subscriptions on Instagram through 2023.
Instagram's top exec, Adam Mosseri, took to Twitter and Instagram on Wednesday to explain the new creator monetization tools.
"Subscriptions are one of the best ways to have a predictable income," Mosseri said in a video.
Creators will be able to set the price points for their subscriptions, but are limited to monthly options of $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $4.99, $9.99, $19.99, $49.99, or $99.99.
Here are three ways creators will be able to use Subscriptions on Instagram:
- Creators can share exclusive Instagram Stories to their accounts, similar to the "close friends" tool that lets users limit who can see their stories. Subscriber-Only Stories will appear in the stories feed with a purple ring around it, according to the company. Creators will also be able to share exclusive highlight tabs to their Instagram page (as they already can with regular Stories).
- Exclusive livestreams are also part of this initial test. These will work like any other IG Live, but will only be accessible to subscribers.
- Fans who purchase subscriptions will receive a purple "subscriber" badge next to their username across the platform for creators to see. A creator could then identify who their subscribers are in the comments of a post, or in their DMs.
But what about screenshots or screen recordings?
As of now, there is not a "specific technology" built to prevent screenshots or resharing exclusive content during Instagram's testing phase of Subscriptions, according to a Meta spokesperson.
But resharing is also "against our terms of use," the spokesperson added. "We encourage creators to let us know if they notice subscribers screenshotting and/or recording subscriber content."
Mosseri also alluded to ways creators would be able to assert ownership over their list of subscribers built on Instagram.
"We're working on ways that creators can take their subscriber list and bring them off of Instagram onto other apps and websites built by other companies," Mosseri said in a video posted Wednesday.
