Social audio app Clubhouse will let all users pay other creators starting Monday. It’s the first monetization tool built right into the app. Clubhouse says it won’t take a cut of payments, meaning that creators get the entirety of what somebody sends them. Not everyone will be able to receive payments just yet, though; that will be rolling out in waves, “starting with a small test group,” Clubhouse says.
To pay a Clubhouse creator who can receive payments, tap on their profile, then tap on the “Send Money” button, and then choose how much you send them. You’ll also have to pay a “small card processing fee” that goes to Stripe, which is Clubhouse’s payments processing partner. The first time to try to pay someone, Clubhouse will ask you to add a credit or debit card.
The news of direct payments comes a few weeks after Clubhouse announced its first creator accelerator program, Clubhouse Creator First, which will take on 20 aspiring hosts and creators to help them build their audiences and monetize their shows.
The accelerator and the new direct payments could give creators more incentive to stay on Clubhouse instead of jumping to one of the many other social media platforms that have copied Clubhouse’s social audio format. Right now, Clubhouse is only available on iOS as an invite-only app, though an Android version is in the works.