Google to pay creators for YouTube Shorts video views

Beginning in February, Google will pay YouTube creators for the video views of their Short videos. YouTube Shorts are vertical videos up to 60 seconds long recorded on a smartphone with the Shorts camera in the YouTube app.

Starting next month, Google will introduce a Shorts Monetization Module in YouTube Partner Program (YPP), enabling creators to share revenue from ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed.

Google to pay 45% rev share to creators, but only after paying the music licensing.

Creators are eligible for the YPP by gaining 1,000 subscribers with 10 million valid public Shorts views in the last 90 days.

Non-original Shorts and artificial or fake views of Shorts are ineligible for monetization.

YouTube Analytics will start displaying estimated daily Shorts Feed ad revenue along with other performance metrics on February 1, 2023.

Creators lose revenue with the music licensing

Google has created a Creator Pool, with Shorts Feed ad revenue per country. Google then allocates the ad revenue based on views, per country, and music usage across Shorts.

If a creator uploads a Short with music in it, YouTube will split the revenue associated with its views between the Creator Pool and music partners based on the number of tracks used. If a creator uploads a Short with no music, all the revenue associated with its views goes into the Creator Pool.

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.

According to Google, the ad revenue in the Creator Poll is then distributed to creators based on their share of total views from monetizing creators’ Shorts in each country. From the Creator Poll, Google applies a revenue share rate of 45% to creators. Google takes 55%.

Google says it will also pay 45% of the net revenue from YouTube Premium that is allocated to monetizing creators for Shorts. It says that a portion of YouTube Premium revenues are allocated to help cover costs of music licensing, and payments to each creator are based on their share of subscription Shorts views within each country.