With YouTube turning on the advertising taps for its Shorts, it’s also time to start sharing that money with its community of creators – and with music rightsholders. The company has outlined details of its revamped partner program, including (from 1 February) ad revenue-sharing for Shorts.
YouTube explained that it will build a ‘creator pool’ of ad revenue, after carving out rightsholder royalties for Shorts that use music tracks. “If a monetizing creator uploads a Short with 1 track, half of the revenue associated with its views would be allocated to the Creator Pool, and the other half used to cover the costs of music licensing,” is how the company’s support page breaks this down.
“If the Short features 2 music tracks, then one third of the revenue associated with its views would be allocated to the Creator Pool, and the other two thirds used to cover the costs of music licensing.”
The pool will then be divided between creators based on their share of eligible Shorts views, and then a 55-45 split in YouTube’s favour will be applied to calculate the final payment.
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