Архив метки: Partner Program

YouTube launches its new commercial music licensing resource, Creator Music

YouTube today announced its new marketplace, Creator Music, is now fully open to all YouTube Partner Program participants in the U.S. First announced last September, the online destination offers a large catalog of songs that creators can browse, search through, and purchase where the terms of the music rights are spelled out in plain language, so creators can understand the costs involved. In addition to being able to purchase licenses, creators are also able to choose tracks offering revenue-sharing options where both creators and the rights holders earn money from the music’s use.
As the company explained last year, the issues around music rights have been a longtime pain point for creators.
When a creator today uses a song they don’t own, they end up having to give away all the ad revenue on their video to the music license holder. That means commercial music is often not used in YouTube videos, which hurts creators, their fans, as well as artists and songwriters.
With the launch of Creator Music, the idea is to simplify the process of licensing popular music. Through an online dashboard, creators can search for songs they have in mind or browse by collections, genres, or moods, then view the associated licensing costs. In addition, creators can search for tracks based on a budget they have set for their project.
Image Credits: YouTube
When they find an eligible track, creators can choose to either buy a license after reviewing the terms or opt into a rev share agreement. With the former, creators can check out and immediately download the song to add to their video while editing. If they don’t want to pay an upfront cost for the music’s use, they can choose a track with the rev share option instead.
This type of marketplace could benefit larger creators who more precisely want to control the costs associated with their productions, as well as smaller creators who haven’t historically been able to afford commercial music in their videos.
The new service doesn’t replace YouTube’s existing Audio Library of free tracks, however; it just provides another option. To continue to view free songs, including those from the Audio Library, creators can set the price filter to “$0” when searching across Creator Music.

As YouTube now increasingly competes with TikTok on short-form video, the need for better backing tracks for creators’ long-form video content has grown. TikTok’s embrace of popular music has led to the video app having a heavy influence over the Billboard charts and the top charts in streaming apps, as viral videos prompt more streams and music downloads. More recently, TikTok has been rumored to be expanding its own streaming music service as well — another market where YouTube operates. And as TikTok lengthens the max time for its videos, inching into YouTube territory, the Google-owned video site needed to remain competitive.
Of course, YouTube already offers popular music for use on Shorts through its Shorts Music Library, but many of those same songs wouldn’t have been viable for use on YouTube itself until now because of their associated costs and rights.
At launch, YouTube said it was working with indie partners, including Empire, Believe, Downtown, and Merlin. It hasn’t announced any partnerships with the majors at this time.
The Creator Music project was introduced last fall alongside other larger YouTube initiatives, including its plan to monetize Shorts and revamp its Partner Program to include a new Shorts-specific threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days. 
While Creator Music was gradually launched to YPP creators in the U.S., the company says it’s now fully available to that group. YouTube says it aims to bring the service to more countries over time and expand the music options for non-YPP creators as well.
YouTube launches its new commercial music licensing resource, Creator Music by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
YouTube launches its new commercial music licensing resource, Creator Music

YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1

YouTube will begin sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators on February 1, the company revealed on Monday. To prepare for the upcoming change, YouTube is starting to roll out new terms for all creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators need to accept the new terms by July 10 to remain in the program.
The major change to YouTube’s Partner Program will allow creators to earn money from ads that are viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed. Although the new revenue sharing model will replace the YouTube Shorts Fund, the company says it expects the majority of its Shorts Fund recipients to earn more with the new Shorts revenue sharing model. As previously announced, creators can apply to the program if they meet a new Shorts-specific threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over 90 days.
As part of the new terms, creators need to accept specific monetization modules. The first module is called the “Watch Page Monetization Module” and allows creators to earn money from ads served on their long-form videos and YouTube Premium. The next module is called the “Shorts Monetization Module” and lets you earn money from ads that play between Shorts in the Shorts Feed and YouTube Premium. The last module is called the “Commerce Product Addendum” and is for features like Channel Memberships and Supers.
YouTube recommends that creators accept all of the modules to unlock their full earning potential on the platform. Creators that make Shorts and have accepted the new Shorts Monetization Module will become eligible for Shorts ads revenue sharing on their Shorts views starting next month.
As for how exactly the Shorts revenue sharing will work, it’s a bit complex due to music licensing. Each month, revenue from the ads appearing between Shorts will be added together and used to reward monetizing Shorts creators and cover the costs of music licensing. A portion of the total revenue will be allocated to the creator pool based on views and music usage across all watched Shorts. If a creator uploads a Short without music, all of the revenue associated with its views goes toward the creator pool. If a creator uploads a Short with music, the revenue based on its views will be split among the Creator Pool and music partners based on the number of tracks used.
Next, the creator pool is allocated to creators. YouTube explains that it will allocate revenue to monetizing Shorts creators based on their share of total Shorts views in the Creator Pool. If a creator got 5% eligible views out of all Shorts uploaded by monetizing creators, they will then be allocated 5% of the revenue in the creator pool. Creators will keep 45% of their allocated Shorts revenue. For instance, if a creator is allocated $1,000 from the creator pool, they will be paid $450.
It’s worth noting that non-original Shorts are not eligible for revenue sharing. Non-original Shorts are those that include unedited clips from movies or TV shows, re-uploaded content from other creators on YouTube or another platform, or compilations with no original content added. Shorts that receive artificial or fake views, such as from automated clicks or scroll bots, are also ineligible for revenue sharing.
With these upcoming changes, YouTube Shorts is poised to become TikTok’s biggest competitor. If creators can make more money via YouTube Shorts than on TikTok, they’re incentivized to make original content for the YouTube platform. No short-form video platform has quite figured out how to share ad revenue up until now, which gives Shorts a notable leg up on the competition.

YouTube targets TikTok with revenue sharing for Shorts, Partner Program expansion

YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1 by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
YouTube rolls out new Partner Program terms as Shorts revenue sharing begins on February 1