YouTube establishes a $100M fund to award creators for producing the top YouTube Shorts videos of the month.
The YouTube Shorts Fund, to be distributed monthly through the end of 2022, becomes the first way for users to make money from producing Shorts content.
YouTube doesn’t allow Shorts to be monetized through advertising like other videos on the site. Creators who are regularly paid for what they upload to YouTube may have found themselves with little incentive to invest in Shorts.
Now everyone is eligible to be awarded money for creating YouTube Shorts, whether they have a regular account or they’re part of the YouTube Partner Program.
The criteria for determining which videos are deserving of prize money is unclear at this time. Here’s all the information currently available about the YouTube Shorts Fund.
About the YouTube Shorts Fund
The YouTube Shorts Fund is an opportunity for all users to earn prize money for creating the top performing Shorts of the month.
Users do not have to apply to be eligible for consideration. YouTube will reach out to creators who receive the most engagement and views each month to reward them for their content.
The only criteria required for consideration is the content must be original and adhere to the YouTube Community Guidelines.
YouTube doesn’t state how much money a creator could potentially make each month, or whether they can win for more than one video.
The company says it will pay thousands of creators each month. Doing the math, $100M paid through 2022 to thousands of people a month, that works out to a rough estimate of at least $1,000 per winning video.
Not bad for 60 seconds of content (or less).
The YouTube Shorts Fund will officially launch in the coming months, during which time the company plans to share further details.
Future Plans For YouTube Shorts Monetization
YouTube acknowledges the Shorts Fund is the first step to monetization for this new content format. Monetization of Shorts is a top priority for YouTube, and something it’s actively working on.
When a monetization program eventually launches it will be designed specifically for YouTube Shorts.
It sounds like the company won’t recycle the same ads used on channels in YouTube Partner Program. Although that would be difficult to do considering Shorts videos are vertical.
YouTube assures users that it’s still committed to paying them, noting that over $30 billion has been paid out to creators, artists, and media companies over the last 3 years.
New YouTube Shorts Features
YouTube glossed over the addition of a new feature in its announcement of the Shorts Fund, but it’s a fairly significant one.
Everyone that has access to the Shorts creation tools can now remix audio from videos across YouTube, which includes billions of videos.
This creates a limitless potential for new content, as creators can take dialogue or sounds from existing videos and add a new twist.
Remixed videos regularly go viral on platforms like TikTok, and have become an effective way for users to grow their audience. This feature could have the same impact for YouTube creators.
I imagine remixed content would be ineligible for prize money from the Shorts Fund since it wouldn’t be 100% original. But it’s still a good way to keep audiences entertained.
For more on what’s new in YouTube Shorts see: YouTube Shorts Launches 4 New Creation Tools
Source: YouTube Official Blog
