• News

YouTube Creators Won't Make Money Until They Hit 10,000 Lifetime Views

The move is meant to cull out stolen content, but could discourage smaller channels from gaining traction.

David Craddock

April 6, 2017 4:45 PM

2

In an effort to weed out users who steal original content and re-upload it to their channels, YouTube announced a change to its Partner Program that prevents users from monetizing any video until it reaches 10,000 views.

"Starting today, we will no longer serve ads on YPP [YouTube Partner Program] videos until the channel reaches 10k lifetime views," according to a blog post Ariel Bardin, vice president of product management.

"This new threshold gives us enough information to determine the validity of a channel," Bardin continued. "It also allows us to confirm if a channel is following our community guidelines and advertiser policies. By keeping the threshold to 10k views, we also ensure that there will be minimal impact on our aspiring creators. And, of course, any revenue earned on channels with under 10k views up until today will not be impacted."

YouTube's decision could have a negative side effect. As "YouTubers" know, building an audience large enough to turn a decent profit making videos takes time. Without an assist by a popular creator or a stroke of luck—such as a video getting shared by the right social media account or website—new users looking to make a go of creating videos full-time could find themselves swimming upstream.

YouTube seems to have anticipated such a consequence. "In a few weeks, we’ll also be adding a review process for new creators who apply to be in the YouTube Partner Program," Bardin continued. "After a creator hits 10k lifetime views on their channel, we’ll review their activity against our policies. If everything looks good, we’ll bring this channel into YPP and begin serving ads against their content. Together these new thresholds will help ensure revenue only flows to creators who are playing by the rules."

David Craddock

Long Reads Editor

David L. Craddock writes fiction, nonfiction, and grocery lists. He is the author of the Stay Awhile and Listen series, and the Gairden Chronicles series of fantasy novels for young adults. Outside of writing, he enjoys playing Mario, Zelda, and Dark Souls games, and will be happy to discuss at length the myriad reasons why Dark Souls 2 is the best in the series. Follow him online at davidlcraddock.com and @davidlcraddock.