Instagram users in the United States will soon be able to subscribe to a select group of artists and influencers to have access to exclusive content and features. According to a blog post, the company is commencing a subscription test today, with additional authors to follow in the following weeks.
Subscribers will pay a monthly subscription to have access to subscriber-only content from their favorite creators, such as exclusive Lives and Stories. Subscribers will also receive a purple badge next to their username, indicating their level of commitment to the creator. Creators will be able to choose between price tiers ranging from $0.99 to $99.99 per month for their subscriptions. Instagram will not take a portion of creators’ subscription profits “until at least 2023,” according to co-head of the product Ashley Yuki.
The early test includes basketball player Sedona Prince, Olympian Jordan Chiles, and astrologer Aliza Kelly, among ten creators.
“I’m excited to keep building tools for creators to make a living doing creative work and to put these tools in more creators’ hands soon,” Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, which owns Instagram, wrote in a Facebook post. Facebook also has its version of a subscription program for creators.
Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said in a video today that subscriptions are “one of the finest methods” for influencers and creators to have a consistent income. Some creators have already begun to monetize Instagram features such as Close Friends by charging fans a fee for access to Stories off-platform. Instagram and Facebook aren’t the only firms launching subscription models to fight with TikTok; Twitter launched Super Follows in 2021, and some creators provide extra subscriber content off-platform on Patreon or Substack.
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