Right, so scratch any plans for a normal post, this has gotten a little too serious right now.
So announced yesterday, Youtube have decided to bring in a new system to test out. In this system, they've decided to do a random sample of smaller youtubers and monetize them.
Sounds good, no?
But, here's the bad thing:
-You don't know if you've been chosen
-You don't get a single penny from those adverts
-You can't opt out of these adverts on your videos
So, not only will they be adding adverts on smaller creators and NOT pay them, but they won't let you opt out of this system. The Youtube monetisation system is a fickle thing to begin with, but adding even more confusion and a potentially illegal thing in place isn't something you'd want to see.
For the full update, here's the link to it - https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/83733719?hl=en&msgid=83733719
But for our purposes, we're focusing on this segment in particular:
Right now, there's no specification as to how many people they're going to monetise, or if it'll be you, but you won't know what ads they'll be showing on your content either. It makes no sense as to why they wished to add this feature in, especially when they've made it too random. While this is in place, it'll be unfair on a channel with 100 subscribers to have ads on vs a channel with 950 subscribers, as people might tune off the lower subbed person, giving them less likely a chance to be eligible to become monetised in the first place.
For those who haven't seen on the website yet, or don't know me too well, I have my own Youtube channel, and I edit for one called Astounding Cameron. Both of those channels are relatively small (my main channel moreso), which means both of them can potentially be given this badge of shame and not be able to rise up in the standings as creators.
Creators have already called out to Youtube on social media about this change, especially with the knowledge that it's already hard for them to get monetised to begin with. For those who are unaware, in order to potentially become monetised, it requires the channel to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours total watch time within 12 months.
Long story short - that's an uphill struggle that a lot of people are going through right now.
With all the issues of monetisation in the past (thanks to a lot of unforseen circumstances... and Jake Paul), it's been even harder than ever to not only get monetised, but stay monetised too. Some of our favourite creators today even have to tailor their content in order to stay on Youtube's good side, not allowing them the creativity they usually have.
If the decision of making content for children or not wasn't grinding your gears whenever you made a video (trust me, that was an experience), then this is just going too far in the long run.
If Youtube is reading this now, please can you give a very clear and concise explanation as for why this is happening, rather than just explaining what it is.
For all content creators small and big out there, please keep up the fight as this is important to all of us. If you would also like a little more detail to this, a link to The Verge's article will be left here too : https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21573937/youtube-ads-creators-partner-program-revenue-terms-of-service-update
Welp, time to make a video on this too (hopefully without ads)
-R (19/11/2020)
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