YouTube Partner Changes and Demonetization – January 17th, 2018
In a very surprise announcement YouTube has made significant changes to its Partner Program.
For those not aware the partner program is the program that pays creators Adsense revenue for posting videos.
Heres is a link to the blog article:
https://youtube-creators.googleblog.com/2018/01/additional-changes-to-youtube-partner.html
The biggest change:
Creators with less than 1,000 subs and less than 4,000 hours (that’s a whopping 240,000 minutes of watch time!) in the last 12 months will get De-monetized!
Say what ?
That’s right, all small creators now who currently have monetization are de-monetized after February 20th, 2018 whether or not you were approved for a long time!
Anyone who’s been waiting to get monetized, you are out of luck unless you are over the requirements.
There is no grandfathering in clauses.
What does this mean ?
Most of YouTube for smaller creators will stay the same except that now you will not be paid for your content until you reach those threshold i mentioned at which time you will get automatically reviewed and either approved or not.
This is not the first time YouTube has made changes to its platform in regards to advertising income.
Who’s to blame ? Although not fixed or specific thing, Logan Paul being the most recent example of bad sensationalism and poor judgement on that particular video he posted back at the beginning of January may have contributed to and already in progress move by YouTube to secure its failing revenue streams.
Advertisers have been leaving the platform over increasing concerns about YouTube’s practices and technology to prevent things like advertising on channels that are not family friendly. The big debacle last year was that there were channels that appeared child friendly but were in fact doing very serious immoral things in front of children or exposing them to things most parents would consider strictly off-limits. 2016 saw Adapocalypse 2 which was due in part some other big YouTubers doing and saying things that were not tolerable.
Given that there currently is no platform like YouTube, The platform is learning some very steep lessons.
I do believe that YouTube has gone to far however with this recent change.
Instead of relying on technology to implement better systems at detecting spammers or channels that go against the policies YouTube has declared a blanket approach that affects all Small YouTube’s including yours truly!
Some of you may say that well you only made about $50.00 total.. so not much of a loss but here is the main point of my argument.
Its a contract. YouTube is breaking the contract with me without even consulting me on this fact. Growth is also a concern now. let me explain.
If YouTube’s primary job is strengthening its revenue (like all businesses) then what is to stop them from running ads on my content without my consent ?
Further to that.. What is to stop YouTube in the future of preferential treatment and their algorithm of suggesting certain videos that are monetized over my videos that are not ?
I have no control now. This doesn’t seem right. On a platform that’s message is that they are all for helping small creators they certainly are not showing it here.
I will note that none of the major tools on the platform are being taken away and YouTube still has the viewership. Billions of people around the world watching this platform..
but there still is that problem of growth and income.
You can’t earn income without a reasonably sized audience. You can’t build an audience with growth and you can’t reinvest into your channel without income.
What happens when you reach 1000 subs and 4000 hours of watch time ? By the time that happens will Youtube again raise the requirements ?
Whats clear is that whether or not YouTube realizes their mistake here.. They are sending a clear message. Small YouTuber’s don’t matter as much to them. It does not matter that the money we actually end up with its pennies or in some cases a few dollars a month. The incentive to work even harder in a medium that is difficult enough for certain genres to pull off one video a week is a tough pill to swallow.
It’s not all bad news as there may in fact be good news on the horizon.
Amazon has registered some interesting domain names called “AmazonTube” and “OpenTube” which may be a new platform similar to YouTube that could be in the works. No details yet on what it’s all about but one things for sure, they could give YouTube a run for its money. It’s yet to see whether that is a good thing or bad thing for creators.
One thing is for sure, if they support smaller creators, have learned the lessons that YouTube is paving the way and can make smaller Youtubers profitable and succeed, they might just be an alternative. Only time will tell. Amazon if you are listening, a simple lesson here, do not treat your creators the way you treat your sellers on your platform, if you can manage that you will succeed.
2018 is going to interesting!
For all those creators like me who’ve been affected, keep doing what you love, creating videos. No one can take that away from you. You own your content as you are the original artist, not YouTube. YouTube is still a great platform and will continue to be but always figure out where your content is best viewed and if profit is your main motivation, make different choices. With more options coming, there are a lot of choices.
One things for certain, We all have to find ways of making money to survive. YouTubes latest decision is definitely another hurdle to that goal but one that shouldn’t stop things entirely.
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Sincerely,
Kevin
Karr Galaxy Studios
