One of YouTube’s most controversial changes is taking effect from today (Feb 20th) as it looks to make it harder for smaller channels to join the Partner Program.
Seemingly spurred into action by the many controversies surrounding the platform and its stars, which have led to falling ad earnings across the board for creators, YouTube announced on January 16th that they would be removing monetisation from channels that don’t meet the minimum requirements.
Previously, all channels were eligible to join the YPP, but now they must have 1000 subscribers as well as over 4000 hours of watch time over the last twelve months. They had previously implemented a limit of 10,000 views to meet the minimum requirements.
At this time of writing, the Partner Program had yet to boot us out, so it’s likely that the change will take place at some point today; expect an email from YouTube with confirmation.
The change will impact smaller channels from today with the platform claiming that those under the threshold typically earned less than $100 per year and with the majority earning below $2.50 for the previous month. If you want to claim the money left in your AdSense account, you will need to cancel it, though this may cause problems in the long run if you want to start again.
If you’re being kicked out of YPP, you can still use plenty of the same features. Custom thumbnails are such a huge part of success on the platform, so it’s good that you can still use them by assigning a phone number to your account and verifying it. Small mercies, I guess.
This culling from YouTube might protect their bottom line, but it comes at the expense of the platform’s backbone. It’s not a good look to constantly be embroiled in controversies, fail to act, and then punish those who have nothing to do with it. The only consolation in all of this is that there’s been a lot of solidarity from smaller creators who have banded together to try to meet the minimum requirements.
Are you affected by these changes? Would you have liked to see a different direction from YouTube? Let us know down in the comments below. If you want more information about the changes, check out the official blog here. Oh, hey, we’re also on YouTube.
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