After Twitter started experimenting with subscription-based content, it was the turn of Instagram creators to receive similar capabilities. Meta subsidiary has announced that it will begin a trial period in which several content creators on its platform will be able to charge subscribers for monthly subscriptions. They will be able to provide content exclusively on the basis of the subscription, which does not appear in the original feed.
Instagram content creators will have a new source of income
Currently, three “influencers” from Instagram are included, all from the USA in this test: basketball player Sedona Prince, Olympian Jordan Chiles and astrologer Aliza Kelly. They will give viewers the chance to pay a monthly subscription, to have access to extra, exclusive content that they will not be able to see elsewhere.
For example, they will be able to offer certain stories exclusively to subscribers, or live only to those who pay, and will only be able to offer certain posts for a fee. Also, those who are subscribers receive in the comments badges next to their name, which differentiates them from those who do not pay.
Instagram will give content creators a chance to set the price of these subscriptions, which can range from $ 0.99 per month to $ 99.99. Of this amount, at least in the first phase, the creators will not pay commissions to the platform. The company’s representatives say that this “offer” should last at least until 2023. So in the first year, Instagram will not “pay attention” to the income of content creators.
This capability comes as a response to what some of the creators were already doing on Instagram. There were influencers who demanded monthly fees through alternative payment methods to include certain followers in the “Close Friends” list, and may set certain posts to be visible only to them.
The feature is similar to Super Follow on Twitter, and TikTok seems to be testing something similar.
source: The Verge