YouTube has recently announced that it will offering monetisation for creators who publish Shorts. YouTube will be giving 45% of the revenue generated. Up until now, YouTube has only offered monetisation on longer form videos. YouTube will be splitting the revenue with creators, regardless if they use music or not.
YouTube has said the changes will come into effect starting “early next year” and YouTube is likely hoping that the revenue sharing will help entice some creators back to YouTube, or even bring some new people into YouTube for the first time.
To qualify for YouTube Shorts partner program, creators must have at least 1,000 subscribers to start with – which is the same as the existing system. However, there must have at least 10 million views on Shorts within a 90 day time period. Adverts will appear within the feed, in-between videos which is how TikTok does it.
YouTube will also be offering extra revenue with intergrations into merchandise, super chats, channel memberships and YouTube Premium. YouTube should in theory do very well here and at the same time force TikTok to pay its creators better. For example, Jimmy Donaldson who runs the Mr. Beast YouTube channel said he earned $54 million from YouTube in 2021 alone. In comparison, his TikTok videos made only $15,000 in 2021, depsite having billions of views.
YouTube is also making the task of choosing copyright free music easier. Creator Music has been announced too, which will offer affordable music licences to creators and make the process of music easier for Creators.
The YouTube Partner Program for YouTube Shorts will go live next year.
