Instagram Creators Can Now Entertain Subscribers in New Ways

Viral fame is a tricky beast. You get boatloads of social media engagement, but it can be tough to turn that engagement into, you know, actual money. 

Subscription-only services like Patreon have helped in this regard, but the major social media players are finally catching on. For instance, Instagram just announced some new features rolling out to creators to help attract more paying subscribers. 

The image-based social media giant quietly tested out paid subscriptions for creators earlier this year in a closed beta, allowing them the ability to make subscriber-exclusive stories. Today's announcement brings standard Instagram feed posts into the paid subscriber fold. 

That's not all. Creators can now institute group DM chats with paying subscribers, up to 30 people at a time and stream live videos directly to their paying fanbase. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri also said the company is hard at work on a "subscriber home" tab to allow paying users to easily access all of their exclusive content. 

Subscriptions range wildly in price, from $0.99 to $99, though this is up to the creator and not Instagram. 

"This is just one step on a much longer path to provide creators everywhere with a whole range of tools to be able to make a living online," Mosseri said in an official video. 

Instagram has also revealed that business is booming. What started as a closed beta has ballooned into a service for "tens of thousands" of creators.