As YouTube starts sharing ad-revenue from Shorts with creators, RouteNote artists too will benefit from this change.

Until now, short-form platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels have paid select creators from a designated pot, in the form of the TikTok Creator Fund, YouTube Shorts Fund and Instagram Reels Play. This method of paying creators has issues for a variety of reasons, well detailed in this video by Hank Green. This has forced short-form video creators to find other avenues to generate a living, such as creating content for other platforms (long-form YouTube videos, live-streaming, TV, etc.), selling merch and sponsorship deals.

As announced in September last year, YouTube are changing the way monetization on their short-form video platform works. This move has the potential to see many creators switch from a TikTok-first approach to a stronger focus on generating content primarily for YouTube Shorts.

YouTube are taking a leaf out of their own book for Shorts. Similarly to YouTube’s Partner Program, from February 1st, YouTube Shorts creators who meet the Partner Program requirements will start getting paid a percentage of the revenue from ads placed between videos viewed in the Shorts Feed. For more details on how YouTube Shorts monetization works, as well as eligibility requirements, click here.

How Shorts ad revenue sharing works. A graph
Image Credit: YouTube

All RouteNote artists will likely benefit from this change too, with the potential to earn revenue from viral Shorts that use their sound. Short-video platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts (prior to this update) pay artists based on the number of videos that use their track, with no regard to the number of views each video gets (unlike most music streaming services). After this update, YouTube will pay artists based on the number of Premium/ad-supported views a video that features their music gets.

Get your own music on YouTube Shorts for free and start generating revenue from your music.