Another day, another row about whether creators will get paid for use of their content during a free trial.
This time, Taylor Swift isn’t involved: it’s YouTubers wondering whether they’ll get paid for views of their videos during the 30-day free trial of YouTube Red.
The video giant’s new subscription service launched yesterday in the US only, with users getting a month of free access before starting to pay $9.99 a month.
The row? MCN Fullscreen revealed in a blog post for its network of creators that “if a YouTube Red user views one of your videos during his/her free trial period, you will not earn income from that video view”.
Once people start paying, YouTube will set aside a pool of revenues for creators to be divided up by their watch time.
Yet YouTube added a twist in its own blog post yesterday: “With Google Play Music subscribers instantly joining YouTube Red, we will pay a portion of the revenue we receive from these subscribers to our creators on day one,” claimed the company.
“Even with 30 day free trials, our creator community will make as much or more as they would have without YouTube Red.”
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