YouTube Experiments With Giving Creators More Music Options For Their Videos

Source: YouTube

YouTube announced that it is expanding its partnership with music labels and publishers to give creators more music options for their videos. As a result, creators would be able to access copyrighted music and still be eligible for monetization. Previously, they could not earn money from videos with copyrighted music.

YouTube says it’s currently testing this with a limited group of creators and plans on sharing an update in the coming months.

Although details are scarce, YouTube is following a similar path to Meta, which recently announced Music Revenue Sharing, which allows creators for the first time to earn money on Facebook videos that include popular, licensed music.

Like Music Revenue Sharing, the new initiative gives creators flexibility in using popular music in their content instead of generic, royalty-free tunes with the added benefit of making money from them. At the same time, music rights holders will get more discovery and money in their pockets by licensing their music to creators.

What will this mean for brands? Since creators will still be eligible for monetization for videos with copyrighted music, brands may not have to be as strict with the type of music they instruct creators to use for sponsored content in their briefs. Many brands would prefer that creators use trending music for their content since that can help their content to be discovered and resonate. However, as of right now, brands typically would need to secure licensing deals with the owners of that music to comply with platform guidelines around music usage, especially for branded content.