Instagram to Introduce Paid Membership?

While Instagram itself remains free, it already started testing a new feature enabling content creators to separate paid content. This way, Instagram thinks, the service will motivate its active users to deliver more quality content.

The name of the new feature is Subscriptions. This means that it’s not system-level access that lets paid users view all the premium content. Paid-only content is defined by its creators, so subscribers will have to subscribe to each of them individually if they want to read more than a one paid channel. At least until 2023, Instagram does not plan to introduce any fees for creators. They are to receive 100% of their earnings and handle their taxes on their own.

To highlight paid posts and stories, Instagram introduces a special purple frame for them. The creators, in their turn, will see paid subscribers with a purple pictogram at the name (similar to the “confirmed” symbol for celebrities). This will let both subscribers and creators see the premium content at a glance.

According to Adam Mosseri, the feature is already being tested in the USA. So far, there are only ten popular bloggers that try Subscriptions on their accounts. If everything works as planned, the feature will roll out globally in the next months. No exact dates have been given so far.

No, there hasn’t been any rumor that Instagram may legalize adult pics and videos among subscription-only content. Rivalry with OnlyFans is not implied (though isn’t what you thought about when you saw the headline?) Neither does it mean the absence of moderation; nothing of this sort has been articulated. So hardly will these subscription-only channels be used for drug dealing or hate speech broadcasting.

Would you pay for premium content on Instagram? And if so, what content would it be? Educational, entertaining, or even political? And are there any bloggers on Instagram who you’d like to support? Let’s drop some names in the comments!