YouTube Shorts has been rapidly gaining popularity since its launch in September 2020. The video giant currently has 10 different ways to earn money off of the platform including merch, Fan Funding, long-form videos, and more. The main disadvantage of Shorts is that a creator cannot earn ad revenue from them like a long-form video, and therefore YouTube is looking to solve that problem.
Starting February 1st, content creators will be able to monetise their Shorts and earn Ad revenue from each video if they are a part of the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP). This ad revenue-sharing model comes in as a replacement for the YouTube Shorts Fund (YSF). As part of the YSF, YouTube had a total fund of $100 million and would send out invites to Shorts creators once they are eligible to receive a certain amount from the fund based on their monthly channel activities and statistics.
There was a cap on how much you could earn as a creator in the YSF, however, this fun is being phased out by this month. Their new sharing model looks at rewarding creators based on their content and growth, which means if you have a wider reach and your videos reach more people, you’ll make more from YPP, this also positively incentivises creators to grow their channel and fanbase.
To avail of any benefit that comes with uploading on the platform, the creator has to be a part of the YPP. Additionally, if you are a creator who is already a part of the YPP and has Shorts uploaded, you are not going to be able to get a cut of the ad revenue until you sign the applicable agreement.
To join the YPP and earn ad revenue, your content also has to be eligible, which means you cannot post unedited clips from movies or TV shows, or re-upload content from other creators without adding in any original content; this also applies to those uploading long-form videos. The videos also have to be advertiser-friendly. Moreover, YouTube will be launching the Super Thanks for Shorts worldwide early this year. Super Thanks is a feature on the platform that allows the creator to earn revenue from a viewer, it was first seen on YouTube’s live streams.
Starting mid-January 2023, content creators can join the YouTube Partnership Program in two different ways, which is either by accumulating 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 valid public watch hours in the last 12 months or by accumulating 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days – keep in mind, if you choose the former option, watch hours only apply to long-form videos and any views accumulated from Shorts do not count.
YouTube is also slowly rolling out Creator Music to YPP partners in the US. Creators Music is a large catalog of music that creators can utilise in their long-form videos and Shorts. Currently using licensed music in long-form videos can lead to a creator receiving a copyright takedown or getting Content ID until they remove the defaulting audio. By utilising Creators Music, creators can make sure that they can keep earning revenue. According to YouTube, there are two ways to utilise licensed tracks.
First, you can buy the license by paying an upfront fee; doing so ensures that you’ll still be making the same amount of revenue as you would without having the track in the video. Secondly, you can share the revenue, this means that a part of your total revenue will be split with the track’s right holders.
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