Tumblr is opening its paid subscription options to extra customers. Post+, the subscription providing it in July, is shifting into an open beta, the corporate introduced. Until now, solely a handful of creators had entry to Post+, however with the subsequent section of the rollout, any US-based blogger can begin experimenting with subscription-backed content material (Tumblr says it plans to make Post+ accessible in additional international locations later this yr). For now, Post+ permits bloggers to supply subscriptions at $2, $4, $6 or $10 a month, although creators can proceed to supply a mixture of free content material as nicely.

With the replace, Tumblr is becoming a member of an discipline of firms hoping to lure customers with the promise of subscription income. But the corporate is hoping it might carve out a distinct segment amongst youthful customers desperate to experiment with the sort of artistic — and sometimes — content material the running a blog platform has lengthy been recognized for.

“This is not reserved for professionals,” Tumblr’s Head of Product, Lance Willet, tells Engadget. “On other places — [when] I think of either Patreon or Substack, you gotta kind of start with your content and then go out and find people. We are flipping that around and saying: you already kind of have a niche, why not just start asking for people to become a supporter.”

What’s much less clear is that if the Tumblr consumer base will probably be keen to begin paying for content material they used to get totally free. Just hours after the corporate first introduced plans for Post+ in July, the corporate posted a message to its decrying the “targeted harassment and threats” creators had been going through over their participation within the preliminary Post+ beta. But Willet says the corporate has additionally seen a considerable amount of curiosity from customers who wish to attempt the instruments out. Post+, he says, is for anybody with a distinct segment on Tumblr, from Gen Z “meme lords and shitposters,” to artists and podcasters and bloggers. “People can have five followers, or 15 or 500 — it doesn’t matter.”