YouTube will lower its eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), so more creators with smaller followings can monetize their channels.
New eligibility threshold
YouTube’s previous eligibility threshold requires creators to have 1,000 subscribers with 4,000 watch time for the last 12 months or 10 million Shorts views for the last 3 months. The new conditions to be qualified for YPP are 500 channel subscribers with 3 public uploads and 3,000 valid watch time or 3 million Shorts views.
This allows smaller creators to get access to the platform’s monetization methods, such as channel memberships, YouTube Shopping and tipping tools. However, its revenue-sharing requirements will stay as is.
Looking to gain more creators in its community
YouTube is also expanding its Shopping affiliate launch to more US creators. Creators with more than 20K subscribers and who are already part of the YPP will be able to tag products in their videos and Shorts. This way, creators will have another way of earning money through commissions on these tagged products.
Last February, YouTube started ad revenue on Shorts, which allowed more creators to earn money on their short-form video platform. Creators of Shorts will earn 45% of ad revenue from their videos. Since Shorts is gearing to be TikTok’s direct competition, YouTube is experimenting so they can pull more creators and audiences into the platform.
YouTube also announced Creator Music last year. It’s a tool for creators where they can easily browse songs to use for their content with easy-to-understand licensing terms. Creators then can opt to directly purchase the songs or share the revenue with the rights holder.
With TikTok being a competitor and threat to YouTube, the latter has been making all these changes to encourage more creators to create content on its platform, both with short-form and long-form videos.