YouTube will (finally) share ad revenue with short film makers.

YouTube will allow sharing ad revenue with short film makers by expanding its partner program. Music should also be easier to manage.

YouTube has just made major changes to its affiliate program. This will soon allow Shorts creators to earn more money on the platform. The company has indeed announced that it will share advertising revenue with the creators of YouTube Shorts. These changes will go into effect “early next year”and should help YouTube attract creators from TikTok. “This is the first time a platform of this size has offered a real short video revenue sharing,” said Neil Mohan, YouTube product manager.

YouTube to allow sharing ad revenue with short film creators

Through the new Revenue Sharing Program, creators with at least 1,000 subscribers and 10 million short film views in a 90-day period are eligible to apply for the Partner Program. Like TikTok, shorts ads appear between videos in the feed. The company began testing ads on shorts in May. According to Neil Mohan, the ad revenue will be shared among the creators. Creators will receive 45% whether they use music or not.

“Each creator is paid for their share of the total Shorts views, and that share of revenue stays the same even if they use music,” he explained. The company also said it will begin testing a donation feature dubbed Super Thank in Shorts, “expected to be fully rolled out next year.”

So far, YouTube has had a $100 million fund dedicated to short film makers, but short film makers have complained about the small amount of this fund and have not come close or far to what long video makers could earn by sharing revenue from advertising.

For example, Jimmy Donaldson, also known as Mister Beast, recently shared that he only made $15,000 on TikTok despite having over a billion views on the app. Jimmy Donaldson is recognized as one of the biggest creators on YouTube, with over $54 million posted on the platform in 2021. In May, TikTok said it was starting to test a revenue-sharing program dubbed TikTok Pulse.

expanding affiliate program

YouTube also announced a new offering for its affiliate program, designed and intended to facilitate the entry of new creators looking to monetize their content. Called “Fan Funding”, it has “lower requirements”to access features such as Super Thank, Super Chat, stickers, and channel subscribers. YouTube will reveal more details in 2023.

Music should also be easier to control

The American giant is also announcing Creator Music, a section of YouTube Studio where creators can purchase “affordable, high-quality music licenses that offer them full monetization potential.”Those who buy these licenses will “receive the same revenue share as from videos without music”. Creator Music will also offer the option to use songs without prepayment. The creator and artist will share the revenue from the video.

This change could solve one of the biggest headaches for YouTubers, who have long complained about copyright issues from overzealous music labels, resulting in deletions and loss of revenue. In a blog post, YouTube says it hopes the feature will help “build a bridge between the music industry and creators on [this] platform.”