YouTube Adds Member-Only Shorts, Allowing Creators to Provide Exclusive Shorts to Paying Subscribers

YouTube

YouTube has added Members-Only Shorts, exclusive Shorts that creators can share with paying subscribers.

Creators can designate a Short as "Members Only" during the upload workflow or apply this setting to an existing Short. They can also schedule the release of Members-Only Shorts by making them available to all viewers after a certain period, offering early access to paying members.

These Shorts will be visible in the Shorts tab, Subscriptions feed, and the creator's channel, marked with a star icon indicating their exclusive nature.

Why It Matters: Members-Only Shorts provide creators with a new method to encourage sign-ups for paid memberships. This feature allows them to offer exclusive content, such as special announcements, Q&A sessions, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of upcoming videos, appealing to their most dedicated fans.

This update continues to enhance YouTube’s monetization options for Shorts. The platform recently revealed that 25% of channels in the YouTube Partner Program now generate revenue through its ad revenue sharing program for Shorts, highlighting some of the early progress YouTube has made.

This update follows closely on the heels of TikTok’s recent rebranding of LIVE Subscriptions to Subscriptions, which now enables non-LIVE creators to provide exclusive videos to their paying subscribers. YouTube and TikTok’s efforts are part of a broader trend among platforms aiming to expand the various ways creators can monetize, particularly for short-form videos, a key content format for creators today.