YouTube Pays Creators, Artists, Media Firms $50bn In 3yrs

YouTube has disclosed that it has paid creators, artists, and media companies more than $50 billion over the last three years, even as it announced new ways for creators to make money, supporting the next wave of global creative entrepreneurs.

CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki, at YouTube inaugural Made on YouTube event, said, over the last three years, YouTube has paid creators, artists, and media companies more than $50 billion, changing the lives of creators around the world and enabled new voices and stories to be told.

YouTube introduced the next chapter in rewarding creativity on the platform, expanding the platform’s monetisation system, the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP), to allow more creators to join the programme, introducing new ways for creators to earn revenue through shorts, and re-imagining the music industry and creator dynamic by opening up ads monetisation for those who feature music in their videos.

Starting in early 2023, shorts-focused creators can apply to YPP by meeting a threshold of 1K subscribers and 10 million shorts views over 90 days. These new partners will enjoy all the benefits YPP offers, including ads monetisation across Shorts and long-form YouTube videos.

This is in another option to the existing criteria where long-form creators can still apply to YPP when they reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Creators can choose the one option that best fits their channel while YouTube maintains the same level of brand safety for advertisers.

To support creators who are early in their YouTube journey, YouTube will also introduce a new level of YPP with lower requirements that will offer earlier access to Fan Funding features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers and Channel Memberships.

“The YouTube Partner Program was revolutionary when we launched it back in 2007, and it’s still revolutionary today. Today’s announcement reflects the diversity of the platform’s growing creator community and allows its over two million monetizing creators to make money on YouTube across any creative format.

“When we introduced the YouTube Partner Programme, we made a big bet: we succeed only when our creators succeed. And today, we’re doubling down. We’re introducing the next chapter in how we reward creativity on our platform by expanding access to our YouTube Partner programme,” Wojcicki stated.

YouTube’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan,  said: “YouTube’s first-of-its-kind, industry-leading Partner Programme changed the game for long-form video. And now we’re changing the game again, this time by opening it up to Short-form creators and introducing revenue sharing to Shorts.”

YouTube’s global head of music, Lyor Cohen, said, “Creator Music is the future. We’re building the bridge between artists and creators on YouTube to elevate the soundtrack of the creator economy; it’s a win-win-win for artists, songwriters, creators and fans. With Creator Music, artists have a new way to get their music out into the world; fans can now discover music they love on their favorite creator’s channels, and both creators and artists will have new revenue opportunities.”