Tube Mastery and Monetization

 Review of Tube Mastery and Monetization

When YouTube decided to pay creators themselves more than half of the money it made from displaying adverts on videos, it transformed what had previously been just a hobby into a vocation. 15 years later, the creator cut of 55% still provides for the almost 400,000 US YouTubers who put in 40 hours per week.

The way people are compensated for creating short-form videos is also undergoing a similar transformation on YouTube. Despite their enormous popularity, these videos have never given their creators a cut of the platform's lucrative ad revenue. 

YouTube Shorts, the under-60-second videos the company released in 2020 to compete with TikTok, will now, for the first time, share ad revenue with their creators, the company revealed on September 20.

It's a clever ruse to entice more producers away from that competing platform since TikTok's monetization model pays out, on average, less than a cent for every thousand views.

 

Because so much of short video is built on record labels' copyrighted earworms, YouTube has promised that starting in 2023, it will divide Shorts ad revenue into two separate pools: one to pay video creators and one to pay record labels to use their music. Shorts creators will receive 45% of the creator pool.

Creators seemed enthusiastic about this new method of converting views into money after the announcement. Press pressure on TikTok to respond was covered by media sources, who emphasized the 45% figure.

However, a vital query remains unanswered: exactly what would authors receive in the amount of 45%? Hank Green, a veteran YouTuber, made the observation that YouTube hasn't been explicit about exactly how much of the Shorts' advertising money will go into these pools. 

So, despite the hoopla around its implementation, we are unsure of how much money people could potentially make under the new system.

The MIT Technology Review repeatedly requested clarification, but the video behemoth declined.

A YouTube spokeswoman declined to comment when asked what proportion of the Shorts ad money will go to this creative pool. The spokesman was pressed in a subsequent email and responded, "We don't have further specifics to provide beyond what's here," referring to a blog post by YouTube outlining the new plan, which likewise omits that information.

In conclusion, it's difficult to predict how revolutionary YouTube's offer is and how alluring it will be for TikTok users.

The company's approach will undoubtedly still be an improvement over what has previously been provided to Shorts creators—as well as what is currently provided to TikTok users. 

Both platforms have recently adopted the same kind of compensation: creator funds, which are separate from ad revenue and are static pots of money provided by the platform to be awarded to creators of very compelling content. 

But even while more people are watching and more new producers are vying for a piece of the action, the quantity doesn't always increase as a platform expands.

For instance, Green reported earlier this year that while expanding his fan base, his TikTok earnings dropped from 5 cents per thousand views in 2020 to 2.5 cents per thousand in 2022. All creative income may decrease further as the platform gains in popularity.

According to TikTok, it established its creator fund to aid those who want to "transform their passion into a livelihood." However, the declining returns from these accounts prevent it from happening.

Instead of depending on the minimal revenues from platforms, short-form creators have learned to seek out brand arrangements. If these payouts are tied to the real revenue that short videos produce, it may result in more consistent income for those who have succeeded in building an audience in this manner.

The firm is "moving away from a fixed fund and doubling down on the revenue sharing model because we've seen that it works, and it's the one way to ensure that artists continue to profit as the platform and community development," a YouTube spokeswoman wrote in an email, trying to draw a contrast.

However, the guarantee that they will receive slightly less than half of something unknown is currently all that YouTube can provide producers.

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