YouTube announces new ways for creators to make money with content

Online sharing platform, YouTube has today unveiled the next phase of its commitment to encouraging creativity on the platform during its inaugural Made on YouTube event.

During the event, the online video-sharing platform made the announcement about the expansion of the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), the platform’s monetisation system. The YPP was introduced in 2007 with the goal of providing content creators with a chance to profit from their work.

Today’s announcement reflects the diversity of the platform’s growing creator community and allows over 2M monetizing creators to make money on YouTube across any creative format.

Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, said:

“The YouTube Partner Program was revolutionary when we launched it back in 2007, and it’s still revolutionary today. Over the last three years, YouTube has paid creators, artists, and media companies more than $50 billion dollars. That $50 billion dollars has changed the lives of creators around the world. We’re introducing the next chapter in how we reward creativity on our platform by expanding access to our YouTube Partner program.”

One of the major ideas of this new scheme is to reimagine the relationship between creators and the music industry by allowing people who use music in their videos to monetize their advertisements and allowing creators to now earn money through YouTube’s short-form video stream, Shorts.

When this program first began, it only had ads as its primary revenue source and just one creative format. Today, however, the online video sharing site offers 10 various options for its 2 million+ partners to monetize their channels which means more creators and artists will have the opportunity to make money on YouTube across different creative formats.

According to YouTube, it has compensated creators, artists, and media firms more than $50 billion for their work over the past three years.

Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, said:

“YouTube’s first-of-its-kind, industry-leading Partner Program changed the game for long-form video. And now we’re changing the game again, this time by opening it up to Short-form creators and introducing revenue sharing to Shorts. This is the first time revenue sharing is being offered for short-form video on any platform at scale, adding to the 10 ways creators can already earn revenue on YouTube.”

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How the new YouTube monetisation works

For Shorts-focused creators: Beginning in early 2023, YPP will launch a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing model for Shorts. These creators can apply to YPP after accumulating 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. These new partners will receive all of the program’s benefits, including ad monetization across Shorts and long-form videos.

They will keep 45% of the revenue from the total amount allocated to creators, which will be distributed based on their share of total Shorts views. The revenue share remains the same whether or not they use music.

Early YouTube Creators: YouTube will also introduce a new level of YPP with lower requirements to support creators who are just starting out on the platform, giving them earlier access to Fan Funding features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships.

Existing creators can still apply to YPP when they reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.

Launching Creator Music: YouTube is also launching Creator Music, which enables simple access to a constantly expanding library of music for use in long-form videos. Since music licensing is so complicated, most long-form videos with music don’t end in producers getting paid.

Now that reasonable, high-quality music licenses are available, creators may fully monetize their works and keep the same income share they would have on music-free movies. Currently, in beta in the US, Creator Music will roll out to other nations in 2023.

The diversity of the expanding creator community is reflected in these adjustments.