Room Subscriptions started rolling out for creators on February 12.
Today, we’re announcing Playback Room Subscriptions so communities can support their favorite rooms and unlock exclusive benefits
It's always been important for us to help Playback creators build careers and earn resources to grow with. Since 2023, the Playback Creator Fund has compensated creators for building communities. Recently we added a second source of income for creators: fan funding. Fans are especially motivated to fund their favorite Playback creators when they participate in their community. In October 2024 we launched Power Chat where fans can financially support rooms while standing out in chat. We’ve been pleased to see that many Power Chatters are repeat purchasers and with Power Streaks we've noticed that contributions come in batches when the supporters are celebrated.
Reliable income through subscriptions
Now it’s time to convert this desire for fans to support their favorite communities into a more reliable source of income that creators can depend on. When creators can predict their monthly income and anticipate how it will grow over time, they can plan ahead and invest in their business confidently. Rooms earn 70% of Room Subscription revenue after payment processor fees* and Playback’s split is 30%. As with all other room revenue, rooms can split payouts however they choose between their contributors.
*Apple takes 15% on iOS, Google takes 15% on Android, Stripe takes ~3% on web
Subscribers stand out
On Playback, audiences aren’t just comprised of anonymous viewers. Creators get to know their community members by name. With subscriptions, we’re elevating the subscriber to strengthen their connection with their community. To thank fans for generously supporting rooms, Playback gives subscribers special recognition in chat, room profiles, viewer lists, stage requests and everywhere members interact.
Creators can customize the subscription name, color and badge to giver their subscribers a community-branded look. Room visitors can see how long someone has been a subscriber and creators can keep track of their most loyal supporters.
Offer premium interactivity
Even if you keep your content free, there is still plenty to offer your premium members. Interaction is the most valuable utility on Playback.
Choose special moments to turn on subscriber only chat, where anyone can read and react to the chat but only subscribers can send messages. Maybe you want to run giveaways exclusive to subscribers, take subscriber Q&A or just have a more intimate discussion with a smaller group.
The stage is one of the most interactive places on Playback. Stage participants are the most active and loyal population in every room. Creators can turn on subscriber only stage to intentionally create moments where only subscribers can request to join the stage. This is a great way to filter through the noise if you have a high volume of stage requests, while rewarding your community with more direct participation.
Create premium content for subscribers
Now you can choose to make any individual piece of content you create on Playback exclusive for your subscribers.
You can host a live stream that can only be attended by your subscribers.
You can also choose to make the recording of any stream available to watch as a Replay for subscribers only — even if the live stream was open to the public.
Your premium membership program is yours to define
Set your own price and choose what to offer and when to offer it. Configure subscriber access on your Replays, when you’re scheduling a stream, going live or even in the middle of a live stream.
We’re just getting started
We hope Room Subscriptions will be a foundational piece of infrastructure for you on Playback. Over time, we will continue to make rooms more interactive and further allow you to customize what your premium subscribers are able to do in your room. We also plan to improve commerce capabilities like support for multiple tiers, discounts, annual subscriptions, gifting and more.
Launch your Room Subscription
We can’t wait to see how premium memberships help build more loyal, funded communities on Playback. For more info about how Room Subscriptions work, please read our Room Subscriptions doc and watch our stream where we discussed it live.
If you have feedback about Room Subscriptions, please share it with us. Enjoy!
