It’s Creator Week at Meta, and along with various showcase events and panels, Meta has also announced some new features. Some of these features include expanded monetization opportunities. It also involves new tools to facilitate creation and selling of NFTs.
Creators Will Have A Swell Time – Meta
First off, Instagram’s making fan subscriptions available to all eligible creators in the US. This will enable a lot more people to monetize their Instagram audience. They will do this via direct, ongoing support from their communities.
Instagram first launched fan subscriptions with selected creators back in January. This was done as part of its expanding suite of creator monetization tools, which are designed to keep top talent aligned to its app.
With subscriptions, creators (with over 10k followers) are able to charge a monthly fee – between $0.99 and $99.99. This fee will then gives paying members access to subscribers-only live-streams. Not only that but also subscribers-only posts and Stories and badges in comment streams. All of this is in a bid to help creators identify their supporters.
Furthermore, Instagram takes no cut from subscriber revenue at this stage. However, any fees paid are subject to Google and Apple’s 30% in fees for in-app purchases. But outside of that, any money raised is yours. This provides another avenue for creators to make money from their IG content.
In addition, Meta’s also launching new gifts in Instagram Reels. This will enable viewers to send virtual Gifts to Reels creators, which then allocate the cost of that gift as donation.
So, it’s like Facebook Stars, but in a different form, considering these illustrative, animated gift types. One that will potentially drawing more attention and engagement.
Meta is testing gifts on Reels in the US to begin with, before considering broader expansion.
Speaking of Stars, over on Facebook, more creators will now also be able to access its fan donation feature. This will enable your supporters to allocate funds to you during videos and live-streams.
More On the Stars Project?
Meta is also testing automatic Stars onboarding for creators. This means that the ability to receive Stars will automatically appear on their content. However, it’s also making Stars available on photo and text posts, in addition to videos, live-streams and Reels.
“Stars Party is a celebratory moment that happens when a spike of Stars are sent from your fans on live or reels. When the spike occurs, an overlay with a countdown will appear on the screen with a progress toward a goal. This will encourage fans to send Stars and meet the Stars goal.”
Lastly, Meta’s looking to lean further into NFTs and digital art. They intend to do this via a new process which will enable users to create and sell NFTs within Instagram.
Meta says that creators will have ’an end-to-end toolkit’ to facilitate NFT trading, with fans. Furthermore, collectors will be able to purchase digital collectibles directly within Instagram.
Testing Of NFTs On Instagram By Meta
In addition, Meta’s also testing video digital collectibles on Instagram, and adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet. NFTs will also now be enhanced with additional metadata from OpenSea to provide further context.
I’m still not sure that NFTs are going to be the transformative vehicle for artists that some had initially projected at the start of the boom period last year. However, there is a clear niche interest in these artworks as collectible pieces. Consequently, it makes sense for Instagram to lean into this, and facilitate engagement for the NFT community.