YouTube Shorts long-awaited revenue-sharing scheme for makers is finally beginning
Finally, YouTube Shorts creators have a way to split their videos’ profits. Starting today, the company is introducing a new Partner Program agreement that will allow artists to begin receiving advertising sharing money from the viewers of their Shorts on or before February 1st. YouTube has set the deadline for creator approval of the new Partner Program terms for their platform at July 10th. In an effort to give users more flexibility in determining how they make money on YouTube, the company has released a set of new tools called “Monetization Modules,” but they recommend allowing all of them.
As previously stated, creators can apply for the Partner Program if they have at least 1,000 subscribers and more than 10 million views on Shorts within a 90-day period. They must then give their stamp of approval to the revised “Shorts Monetization Module.” Since the implementation of revenue sharing for YouTube’s Shorts, YouTube has announced the end of its $100 million artist fund. Moreover, the majority of fund participants are expected to make more money through the company’s profit-sharing program than they did through the fund, according to the company’s projections.
YouTube’s method for estimating creator earnings from Shorts is complicated by the inclusion of music licensing costs. When users are watching Shorts on YouTube, the company will have advertisements show up on the Shorts Page. YouTube claims it will use the money made from these ads to pay music publishers and content creators monthly.
The amount of money that goes into the “creator pool” would be proportional to the number of soundtracks used in the Shorts. If a creator uploads a video without audio, all of the revenue from that video will go to the creator pool. However, in the case of a Short that features only one song, thirty percent of the associated earnings will go toward paying for licensing. In a short with two soundtracks, roughly two-thirds will be allocated to licensing.
Once that’s finalized, YouTube will decide how to split the creator’s earnings. The company will divide the profit among the creators based on their collective share of all views of the Shorts. If a creator’s clips accounted for 5% of all qualifying Shorts views in the country in February, regardless of whether the clips contained licensed audio or not, the creator would receive 5% of the total revenue in the fund. After YouTube takes its 55 percent cut, it will keep the remaining 45 percent. At the end of the day, the creators would make $450 if they put $1,000 into the Creator Pool that month.