They've changed their TOS. If you want a cut of the ad revenues you've still got to be part of the Partner Program.
To become eligible for the YouTube Partner Program, a creator has to be living in a country where it’s active, has to have 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months and has to have over 1,000 subscribers. YouTube only used to run ads on videos from channels that don’t meet those criteria under special circumstances, such as if the channel was previously a YPP member. Going forward, though, the website can monetize any video, so long as it meets its ad-friendly guidelines.
I wonder if this is a way to push their ad-free service or just a way to tap an unmined source of revenue? An ad seen by 100,000 sets of eyes, probably costs the same, if it's split between 1 or 2 channels or a 1000 channels.
So it seems they're following the Gold Rush model. Individually, a small content creator who has a small number of followers and views would, if properly compensated, be in line for pennies, or fractions thereof, a month-the massive overhead and distribution costs of servicing 10's - 100's? of millions of small accounts would significantly outweigh any potential payouts. But like the tons of dirt the Gold Rush guys sift to get a few grams of gold, YT is most assuredly set up to make money on the massive volumes they'll sift. It's as if you walked up to that dump truck of dirt and added a teaspoon of dirt. Your share would be miniscule fractions of a penny, but hey, at least they give you a teaspoon and offer to carry your contribution to the sifter. So your options are to stop posting, gripe fruitlessly, grin and bear it while trying to get big enough to qualify or just enjoy your ability to view, create and post content at no cost-save for watching those ads, lol.
Before anyone jumps in to tell me how greedy YouTube is, I already know. The content creators I follow have all been regularly complaining about that for the last year or two.
The underlying truth is that nothing is free. You watch "free" TV, you gotta watch the ads. You don't want to watch ads, you pay for a service provider and FF through the ads on the PVR you rent or bought or you subscribe to an ad free streaming service like Netflix. "Free" Facebook mines all your personal data. Free to play games are an ad every 2 minutes. You want to use YouTube, watch their ads or pay to not. You want a platform to host and share your popular and now, not so popular content, pay through the nose for the "privilege". Like I said before, you have options.
Thank you for a balanced and eloquent post carbontech. Personally I think YouTube is greedy and hinky- but anyone or thing as prolific and wealthy as YouTube would be- so I don’t know why people seem surprised; especially when we create our own monsters. If YouTube tries to launch a paid membership program to generate revenue- they are the devil. They put ads, the devil. People block ads and YouTube takes measures to secure income... devil. Basically every time YouTube tries a model to make money the internet is ablaze with anger to YouTube.
Now, one other thing that could use a mention- YouTube doesn’t have the “cost of entry” that most other avenues to fame do. Unlike Hollywood or music etc- you don’t have to make it past a “gate keeper” like agents or producers or scouts to show the world your stuff. YouTube provides creators access to a distribution network that few could dream of otherwise. So I’m not saying it is ok for YouTube or any other media company to abuse talent or take ridiculous profits from the work of others; the opportunities and such presented by the platform do have a value to them.
The truth is probably that a good number- the majority of individuals in fact, really might just put morality and codes of ethics in front of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars in personal revenue- if in a position where they had to choose between being “decent” or “fair” or letting money slip through their hands. But the fact is that not so coincidentally... a good number, the majority of individuals aren’t rich and making these sorts of high level decisions. Why, one might even say that an inherent underpinning of most dominant systems of social and economic conduct in history tend to reward the people willing to compromise ethics for power and wealth, while keeping those with these strong morals generally at the lower rungs of the ladder.
Now this isn’t some sort of revelation- it is well known. But yet... we continue to support these systems because of what we get out of them. YouTube abuses creators and yet... creators still fill YouTube with new ones all the time. People still watch YouTube even if they moan about all the terrible and greedy things they do. YouTube competitors come up, and perhaps someone will come along and take their place as the “household name” of online video sharing. But undoubtedly, anyone able to compete with YouTube would be terrible too. Perhaps terrible in other ways- but still terrible. Because we make our own monsters.
To become eligible for the YouTube Partner Program, a creator has to be living in a country where it’s active, has to have 4,000 public watch hours in the last 12 months and has to have over 1,000 subscribers. YouTube only used to run ads on videos from channels that don’t meet those criteria under special circumstances, such as if the channel was previously a YPP member. Going forward, though, the website can monetize any video, so long as it meets its ad-friendly guidelines.
I wonder if this is a way to push their ad-free service or just a way to tap an unmined source of revenue? An ad seen by 100,000 sets of eyes, probably costs the same, if it's split between 1 or 2 channels or a 1000 channels.
The underlying truth is that nothing is free. You watch "free" TV, you gotta watch the ads. You don't want to watch ads, you pay for a service provider and FF through the ads on the PVR you rent or bought or you subscribe to an ad free streaming service like Netflix. "Free" Facebook mines all your personal data. Free to play games are an ad every 2 minutes. You want to use YouTube, watch their ads or pay to not. You want a platform to host and share your popular and now, not so popular content, pay through the nose for the "privilege". Like I said before, you have options.