YouTube announces new ways for creators to make money, supporting the next wave of global creative entrepreneurs. The platform discloses that over the past three years, YouTube has paid creators, artists, and media firms more than $50B during its first Made on YouTube event.
The next stage in rewarding creativity on YouTube was unveiled today. At its first Made on YouTube event, YouTube announced that it is opening up ads monetization for those who include music in their videos, expanding the platform’s monetization system, the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), to allow more creators to join the program, and introducing new ways for creators to earn money through Shorts.
YouTube announces new ways for creators to make money, supporting the next wave of global creative entrepreneurs. With today’s announcement, YouTube’s over 2M monetizing artists can now earn money in every kind of creative format, reflecting the diversity of the platform’s expanding creator community. The important news of today includes:
- Expanding access to YPP: Starting in early 2023, Shorts-focused creators can apply to YPP by meeting a threshold of 1K subscribers and 10M Shorts views over 90 days. These new partners will enjoy all the benefits YPP offers, including ads monetization across Shorts and long-form YouTube videos. This is in another option to the existing criteria where long-form creators can still apply to YPP when they reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Creators can choose the one option that best fits their channel while YouTube maintains the same level of brand safety for advertisers. To support creators who are early in their YouTube journey, YouTube will also introduce a new level of YPP with lower requirements that will offer earlier access to Fan Funding features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Channel Memberships.
- Introducing a first-of-its-kind revenue sharing model for Shorts: With 30B+ daily views and 1.5B+ monthly logged-in users, Shorts are exploding around the world. To reward this new creative class, beginning in early 2023, we’ll be moving away from a fixed fund and doubling down on a unique revenue sharing model for Shorts for both current and future YPP creators. Because ads run between videos in the Shorts Feed, every month, revenue from these ads will be added together and used to reward Shorts creators and help cover costs of music licensing. From the overall amount allocated to creators, they will keep 45% of the revenue, distributed based on their share of total Shorts views. The revenue share remains the same, no matter if they use music or not.
- Launching Creator Music: The complexities of music licensing has meant that most long-form videos that feature music don’t result in creators being paid. To build a bridge between the music industry and creators, YouTube is introducing Creator Music, a new destination that gives creators easy access to an ever-growing catalog of music for use in their videos, while providing artists and music rights holders with a new revenue stream for their music on YouTube. Creators can now buy affordable, high-quality music licenses that offer them full monetizing potential—they will keep the same revenue share they’d usually make on videos without any music. And for creators who don’t want to buy a license up front, they’ll be able to use songs and share revenue with the track’s artist and associated rights holders. Creator Music is currently in beta in the U.S. will expand to more countries in 2023.
The YouTube Partner Program was innovative when it was introduced in 2007 and is remains revolutionary now, according to Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube. YouTube has paid media firms, artists, and producers more than $50 billion over the past three years. The $50 billion has impacted the lives of artists all across the world and made it possible for new voices and narratives to be shared. We’re not done yet, though. We placed a significant wager when we launched the YouTube Partner Program: we will only be successful if our creators are successful. We’re doubling down today. By opening up our YouTube Partner program to more people, we’re starting the next chapter in how we reward innovation on our platform.
The first-of-its-kind, industry-leading Partner Program on YouTube, according to Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, “changed the rules for long-form video.” And now we’re altering the rules once more, this time by allowing makers of short-form content to participate and adding income sharing to shorts. With this addition to the existing 10 ways creators can make money on YouTube, revenue sharing for short-form video is being enabled for the first time on a large scale on any platform. All YPP participants will have access to it, even the newest, mobile-first innovators who will be registering for the first time.
Creator music is the future, according to YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen. It’s a win-win-win situation for artists, composers, creators, and fans as we construct a bridge between creators and artists on YouTube to raise the soundtrack of the creator economy. Musicians now have a new outlet for their music thanks to Creator Music; fans can now find their favorite artists on the channels of their favorite creators; and both creators and artists will have new chances for monetization.
In order to pioneer the next phase of the creative economy and explain how the announcements made today will affect the larger ecosystem, the following creators and artists are using YouTube:
Producer/DJ Marshmello stated: “As artists, Creator Music gives us a chance to engage with the vast community of YouTube creators and gain new followers. Creator Music feels like one of the most recent developments that makes it such a significant venue for my music and, more importantly, my listeners. I’ve created a fantastic global audience on YouTube.
“Over the previous three years, YouTube has paid out $50 billion to over 2 million creators, artists, and media companies,” according to YouTube creators Colin and Samir. more than any other platform, through its Partner Program. That works out to $45 million every day. $528 per second and $1.9 million per hour. every instant. throughout the previous three years. The announcements made today demonstrate how committed YouTube is to supporting all creators.
“So many creators find themselves needing to pick between video formats to best fulfill their specific aims,” multiformat developer Kallmekris stated. From a commercial standpoint, the main advantage of Shorts for me is that they encourage people to join my neighborhood. For longform, though, it generates a lot more money. This is why the partner program coming to Shorts is such exciting news. Whatever the medium, my work will be supported in a similar manner. It will no longer be necessary to analyze the benefits and negatives in a strategic trade-off.
