We’re adding more to Medium membership
Audio joins the growing list of member-only features
One of my favorite things about working on Medium is our member-supported model. Unlike much of the internet these days, we don’t have to rely on annoying ads or selling your data to keep the lights on. Our subscription model means we can stay focused on building the best place to read and write on the internet with simple, thoughtful publishing tools and curated recommendations that surface high-quality stories.
Medium is more than a place to read and write, though; we’re building a community for connection, learning, self-expression, and discussion. As a Medium member, your subscription directly supports the writers you read most and helps us continue to invest in Medium as an independent platform.
Membership already grants you access to the best stories about the topics that are important to you. But our full vision is bigger: We want Medium membership to be a must-have for every smart, curious person on the internet. So this year, we’re going beyond the core benefit of content access to bring new features to membership.
Here are some of the new member benefits we’ve added in just the last few months:
Listen to stories
Last year, we introduced text-to-speech audio capabilities to Medium’s website and mobile apps, transforming every story into a listenable experience. Now that our audio feature has successfully transitioned out of beta, we’ve decided to make it exclusive to members, allowing us to continue to invest in its improvement and ensure that members have access to the best possible listening experience.
Read stories offline
As a member, you now have the convenience of downloading stories to read offline on your mobile device. Offline reading is perfect for times when you find yourself in a location with poor connectivity or when you simply want to save on data usage. It’s also a great way to enjoy your Medium reading list while avoiding distractions from other apps and notifications.
Join our Mastodon community
Mastodon is an emerging social platform that’s drawing crowds from Twitter and elsewhere. For those interested in exploring or building a presence there, we recently launched our own Mastodon community at me.dm exclusively for Medium members. With me.dm, we’ve made it much easier to create a Mastodon account and start connecting with its growing network.
Get early access to new features
Members are eligible to receive early access to some beta features before everyone else on Medium. Feedback from members has been especially valuable for our product, design, and engineering teams because it helps us iterate on new features faster. In fact, this feedback helped us design and refine the new Audio and Offline Reading features mentioned above.
And of course, membership continues to include these core benefits:
Access the best of Medium
Pay once, get everything. Medium’s bundled approach means that your membership supports the writers you love — without having to manage multiple subscriptions. Your membership unlocks every member-only story on Medium, granting you access to a vast library of ideas and knowledge shared by authors with real-world experience and expertise.
Create publications
Publications on Medium are communities that cover a particular topic or niche. They’re created by individual writers, organizations, and teams to publish stories to a wider audience under a shared imprint. Many of these publications are open to submissions from writers. While anyone (including non-members) can submit their stories to publications, only Medium members can create new publications and decide which stories to curate. Building your own publication is a powerful way to collaborate with other writers and build a community around your common interests.
Connect your custom domain
As a member, you can build your brand or use Medium as a personal portfolio with a custom domain name for your profile and stories. We’ve created a simple step-by-step process that makes setting up your custom domain easy, even if you’re new to working with domains.
Support writers
When you read member-only stories, you’re directly supporting the authors who write them. That’s because authors in our Partner Program earn money when you read their stories, directly from your membership fee. We believe in creating a publishing ecosystem that supports writers directly, and your membership allows us to make it happen.
There’s much more planned for membership, and we can’t wait to share it with you. What new features do you most want us to build? Let us know in the comments.
