From February 1, YouTube will start sharing advertising funds with the creators of Shorts
YouTube announced that creators can start earning ad revenue on short videos, starting from February 1. This change will be part of a broader update to the YouTube Partner Program, which will require all participants to sign new terms of the agreement, whether or not they want to monetize their short videos, reports The Verge.
Creators have been able to make money on the format, which launched in 2021, for a while with SuperChats and shopping integrations, as well as a company-created creator fund, but the model wasn’t much better than TikTok’s monetization scheme. What TikTok doesn’t do is share ad revenue directly with creators, something YouTube has done for years with traditional videos and is now bringing to Shorts.
Creators don’t have to enable monetization for short videos if they don’t want to. YouTube says it’s implementing a modular system for partner program terms: each program participant will be required to sign a basic agreement that defines what you can post on the site and how you’ll get paid.
This applies to creators who are already YouTube Partners. The company says they will have until July 10, 2023, to accept the new terms or their ability to monetize through the platform will be turned off and they will have to reapply for the program.
In addition, there are additional “Watch Page” and Shorts monetization agreements that you may agree to separately. The Shorts agreement, which will be available on February 1st, is basically what it says on the tin, giving you a cut of the revenue from “ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed.” The Watch Page agreement essentially covers the other stuff; livestreams and traditional “long-form” videos on YouTube, YouTube Music, or YouTube Kids.
In general, the content you see on the page looks something like this:
There’s also an app for “commercial products” like memberships, super chats, super stickers and super thanks, though the company says you won’t have to agree to those terms again if you’ve already enabled those features for your channel.
YouTube says this modular approach will allow it to “add new monetization opportunities in the future without having to update or change the entire monetization agreement.”
The company also states that you can opt out of certain monetization modules after you sign up for them.