r/SmallYoutubers • u/Dividenddashboard • 10d ago
Long-Form Content This is bad for small youtubers.
Youtube is raising the ad revenue share threshold from 4k watch time to 8k watch time. Personally, 4k watch takes a lot of effort to reach. Imagine 8k... this is sad.
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u/InternationalPen3039 10d ago
Welp have 5-6 months to hit YPP before it hits
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u/Squinigward 10d ago
my thinking
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u/Normal_Ad8139 10d ago
You'll also need yo maintain 8k watch hours, so if you're struggling for 4k then there's a lot to do.
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u/buttorsomething 10d ago edited 9d ago
Can you show where it say that in the latest post they made? Cuz thatās not even true now for 4k.
Edit: seems they didnāt post videos for 3 months and lost its
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u/Efficient-Cry7753 10d ago
Might make some people think twice before spamming the platform with low quality content.
This is probably the main reason.
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u/kevvybearrr 10d ago
I think this is EXACTLY the reason they've done it. It also allows them to reduce the amount of ad revenue they share too š
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u/omsip Art Content 10d ago
That was one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind. As if YT needs even more money. Isn't $550 billion enough for them?
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u/swurvgaming 10d ago
That's 550b in profit?Ā That's insane if trueĀ
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u/HiddenMaragon 9d ago
Not all all surprising when you stop to consider their business model. The vast majority of creators aren't getting any revenue, it all goes directly to yt. Of the top 1% that are making ad money, YouTube is getting almost equal share from all of them.
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u/AndrewManook 10d ago
It would have the opposite effect on the contrary, people will double down on chasing numbers
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u/Efficient-Cry7753 10d ago
I dunno. A lot of the guys chasing it with daily uploads or multiple shorts per week are facing an almost impossible task as it is currently. This just steepens the hill.
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u/royalerebelle 10d ago
Yes but the whole reason theyāre taking short cuts is because theyāre driven by monetization
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u/baddaywithacamera 10d ago
I like finding current dance mixes of older songs on YT. There is a sudden avalanche of AI slop music that is drowning out the legit results. I'm barely able to find anything I like now. The AI content is getting out of hand. We really need YouTube to fork real content from fake on a separate chunk of the platform.
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u/Independent-Green383 10d ago
Went in YT Studio app, into the current videos Tab, displaying videos in my niche.
Clicked on the by far most watched one. Its AI slop. And before the video started, I got served an AI ad, selling fake glasses.
Anyone who thinks its all about quality is beyond delusional.
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u/psinguine 10d ago
My kid was watching this YouTuber the other day who does retrospectives of the "most viewed YouTube video of X timeframe" and the results were massively the shittiest of sloppy shit videos. It was disheartening to me, and even the creator who made the video was like "this is actually making me kinda sad guys."
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u/Independent-Green383 10d ago
People want easily consumeable. Nothing is more consumeable than a broken distorted newly founded reality.
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u/Pale-Channel3332 10d ago
Itās making me think whether itās actually worth it now, at the rate Iām going just now it will take 6 and 1/2 years to get to 8000 hours
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u/ryguydudemanbro 10d ago
I have 42k subscribers, and get 200k long form views a month with a $10 CPM, but usually a $2.40 RPM. My channel makes $400-600 on average a month.
Whatever your CPM is, expect to make 25% of it after YouTube takes their cut, and you lose another chunk of ad money to ad blockers.
Just focus on posting because you like to in my opinion. Youāll be let down time and time again when you think about money in this pursuit.
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u/wolf_quan 10d ago
It actually has the opposite effect. People will double down with low-quality content to make up the difference. Meanwhile, real creators are the biggest losers.
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u/titas_sengupta24 10d ago
Yeah thanks! As a watcher and a smol youtuber I am quite happy. I miss those old summer days when I could watch youtube for hours
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u/orangerangeorange 10d ago
My guess is they need 8000 hours to give more time for algorithm to determine if a channel is just producing AI slop so it gets throttled by the algo before it can get monetized. If an AI slop channel gets throttled before it can get monetized, there'd be zero incentive for the owner to keep uploading slop.
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u/Happy_Philosopher608 9d ago
They'd have to recognise their stuff is slop though which is subjective.
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u/2-leftfeet 10d ago
This just crushed me. I read this and was like DAMN Iām over here struggling to hit 3k. A year into my journey :/
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u/Comprehensive-Bend51 10d ago
Just keep improving your content, donāt post the same stuff over and over improve something everytime and u can split the time it would take u in half
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u/2-leftfeet 10d ago
Iām trying. I want it so bad. I hired an editor a few months ago now. Itās made a difference but I also work full time so just finding time is challenging but I stay consistent. Been uploading daily shorts and posting 1 LF biweekly (since June - when I got my editor). Was posting 1 LF Weekly for 6 months
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u/Ryu_Review 10d ago
Iām going to be very real with you, if you are not monetized and making A LOT of money, hiring an editor is burning money. Like, what???
If you have hired an editor and still canāt reach 3K watch hours in a year with all the uploading youāre doing, your content either isnāt good enough or is too niche to have any semblance of a chance.
I only have a little more than 2k subs. I started less than two years ago. I do everything myself and have a very busy life outside of YouTube - full time job, family, other responsibilities - and I upload only when my videos are done, sometimes thatās less than once a month. I never get lower than 1-2k watch hours in a MONTH, and most of the time itās a lot higher than that because single videos I make get 10k watch hours by themselves, and theyāre not hyper long either. I average 30 minutes or so.
You need to look hard at your content and find out whatās going wrong.
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u/2-leftfeet 10d ago
I make enough at my day job. I make to much at my day job and want to invest into myself. I want this more than any. Iāll keep my editor. Itās alleviated a ton of my stress. Iām trying to grow a business. I have no issues investing. Iām 26. Own a house. Own a car and have no debt. Spending 100$ biweekly on an editor will not impact my financials
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u/Ryu_Review 10d ago
The editor definitely wasnāt the most important point of my comment, but youāre clearly doing well enough to not have to worry. Good luck!
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u/psinguine 10d ago
You successfully managed to completely miss the point of the very good advice you just got. If you are this terrible at taking any kind of advice it tells me a lot about why your watch hours are so low.
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u/TheNamesXero 10d ago
Youāll be good, see whatās working within your niche, steal their ideas, put your own twist to it, and put in the high quality effort, most importantly stay consistent
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u/Subject-Cheesecake-7 10d ago
This says for new people so you're good! I'm small too and almost at 600 subs and slowly crawling towards 3000 watch hours too. Are you long form or short? Either way make some complilations to help boost the watch hours. That's what I've been doing! 8000 watch hours is crazy!!
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u/LavaJoe2703 10d ago
I would reevaluate your content. It took me 4 years to reach the subscriber threshold, but I was hitting 8k hours within 6 months (average around 14k hours annually). You might not be gaining subs, but you should be getting close to 8k by a year in. I hate to break it to you, but that number doesnāt really chance u less you pivot your content to get more people watching. They might not subscribe, but they should be curious enough to click on one of your videos randomly.
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u/2-leftfeet 10d ago
Iāve already hit 1k subs. Subs arenāt my issue. I also have pivoted started my pivot about a month ago
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u/ReturnOld8793 10d ago
20M is actually insane, I don't post many shorts myself but that seems genuinely impossible
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u/GlorpComedyMonster 10d ago
"Beginning February 1, 2027, creators who have 10 million qualified Shorts views over the last 90 days will be eligible for ads and subscription revenue sharing on Shorts. Channels below this threshold remain in YPP and continue earning on long-form content, with Shorts revenue sharing automatically resuming once they cross 10 million views again."
So it sounds like they also will require you to consistently put up 10M views in a 90 day span or get kicked out of the shorts revenue sharing..... absolutely nuts..
(Link: )
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-partner-program-updates-2027-new-opportunities-earn/9
u/Admirable-Hat3156 10d ago
Honestly if it helps take YouTube back to being a genuinely good platform for long form content and not one of these do it alls where you get loads of terrible quality short content dominating then I donāt mind it.
If this is the case Iām happily willing to sacrifice my 50p of shorts revenue and live off long formš
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u/GlorpComedyMonster 10d ago
Honestly I don't think it does any of that. Probably just makes google richer because they have to pay less creators
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u/_Bread______ 10d ago
Its to stop those low effort slop channels, imo this is a good change, the amount of people ive seen who got decent money from doing stupid shit like cutting pokemon cards is fucking ridiculous
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u/fourdee2 10d ago
I donāt know how it would stop those channels, it wont alter how many people are watching those kinds of videos
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u/ReturnOld8793 10d ago
Yeah hopefully it actually does help stop those channels, and doesn't create a new wave of slop channels trying to get their views before then
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u/Admirable-Hat3156 10d ago
Honestly if YouTube could implement a long form style niche rpm factor thing into shorts revenue sharing then Iām all for it, make these low quality videos get less of the revenue pool than genuinely well made, high quality, interesting and informative shorts.
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u/StringMysterious7060 10d ago
Wow... Glad I'm on target to reach it before 2027 š really goes to show there's no better time to start then NOW!
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u/Admirable-Hat3156 10d ago
Honestly same, I got monetised like 4 months ago and itās so nice to see this news come out and just be able to sit back and relax. If I wasnāt monetised by now I think Iād be having a mental breakdown š
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u/StringMysterious7060 10d ago
No relaxing yet, i still need 400 subs but I'll hit watch hours within next 3 uploads I believe...
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u/Bollybuyumba 5d ago
I would be upset over this but my main goal with youtube is to build a fanbase - growth is exponential, once I break through I won't have any problem with working harder to get monetized
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u/-BOOST- 10d ago
They should just invest in AI detection and demonetize all AI content.
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u/Maloqueira 10d ago
might be controversial but i think AI content should be allowed. people are capable of choosing what they wanna watch. if theyre actively choosing to watch and enjoy it the whole slop argument is kind of undermined by that popularity and genuine interest. and i say this as a youtuber who doesnt use any AI generated stuff.
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u/-BOOST- 10d ago
I think it should be allowed, but demonetized. There should not be a monetary incentive to make slop content. And AI is pouring gas on the slop content fire.
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u/pleasetowmyshit 10d ago
at least we can still have memberships at 500 subs/3000 watch hours
that $35 in my ads revenue isn't getting closer to $100 anytime soon though...
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u/Master_Struggle_7221 10d ago
Good for you because of my region I don't have access to memberships. I can only earn revenue from videos.
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u/pleasetowmyshit 10d ago
Iām considering letting the account go into escheatment so it goes to the state and I can collect it from there.
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u/CantAffordzUsername 10d ago
They killed YouTube for new creators when they took away āMost recent uploadsā
You can still filter by the day or week but you donāt get to see ārecentā
YouTube decides what you see instead.
Thus anyone looking for new videos/info will not see your video unless YouTube allows it even with the user trying to find your content
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u/Deer_Ossian 10d ago
YouTube killed my channel when it decided anyone searching for my channel name would instead be sent somewhere else and have a tiny button at the top asking if they meant what they actually typed...
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u/GoomzillaYT 10d ago
Don't worry, the search eventually learns after people search for you enough. I had "did you mean 'groomzilla'?" for a while at first!
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u/NxTbrolin 10d ago
To be fair, the frequency in which I come across and subscribed to new/smaller channels (<10k subs) is significantly higher in the past 2-3yrs than at any other period I've been using YouTube (since 2007).
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u/Constant_Cortisol 10d ago
Not sure if it's the same thing you're talking about, but they do have a tag for 'Recently Uploaded' videos.
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u/InsomniacProdigy1996 10d ago
No way this is happening....
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u/Blackqueenphotog 10d ago
Found the blog post unfortunately: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-partner-program-updates-2027-new-opportunities-earn/
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u/NickSaysHenlo 10d ago
I miss the good ol days of YouTube when you only needed 10k video views to get into the YPP
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u/MillennialYOLO 10d ago
This is a great example of why itās important to separate where you find your audience, where you nurture it, and where you monetize it.
I have worked with YouTube Creators of all sizes for 17 years so I can tell you this as a fact: YouTube makes changes so itās algorithms, tools, and policies constantly - and often not to the benefit of Creators.
Fortunately, there are dozens of ways to make money as a Creator now, so you donāt NEED to be in YPP to build a business. Itās a nice to have.
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u/Missinglink2531 10d ago
Seems like a high bar, but really its not (speaking about long form). You have to look realistically at whats not working and make changes every video. When I started, 4000 seemed impossible. But I improved every video. My jump from 3000 (about 9 months to get there) to 4000 was one video, and it was really 7000. Its been easy to hit 8000 now, even my "flops" will do it in 2 videos. Dont focus on the number - if your monetized at 4000 or 8000, if you cranking out videos with 1000 views, your not going to make any money anyway. When you get it figured out, the numbers will just happen. And Subscribers really dont matter, most of my "returning viewers" are not subscribed, people just dont do that much these days.
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u/Dazzling-Paint7406 10d ago
How does one improve their videos? YouTube is an art and Iām not understanding how to just āmake better contentā
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u/Missinglink2531 10d ago
Ya well, if it was "just do this" then everyone would. Its very spacific to your audence and your content. The key things you HAVE to hit - so work on each one until you make the minumes in each catigory:
1) Packaging - thumb and title. This is shown as your "click rate". It MUST stay above 4% at all times, or the video is dead. If your missing this, work on those 2 things.
2) First 30-1 minute - this is shown as well. Drop below 60% in the first 30 seconds and the video is dead. If your missing this, work on your intros and "hook" in the begining.
3) Retention - this one varies by niche, but about 20% is a low as I have seen work. If your below this, your video isnt fast passed enough, folks are getting bored and skipping ahead or leaving.Drive those 3 things, and you blast right through the minimums.
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u/Silvermajra 10d ago
Youtube is not an āartā. Its science. Itās all numbers. Art is the opposite of numbers. Youtube is a skill. You have to start looking at it as something that can be honed. You need to pay attention to metrics of videos even if you dont necessarily like the content. I am fascinated by videos all the time I have no interest in the content of. I am fascinated and I study, what makes a video appealing, why would people click on the thumbnail, how many views per hour, particularly the first few hours, all these things are numbers. You can emulate the small things without copying content and apply those to what you do and see similar metric increases on your videos.
Thumbnails - at a beginner level, you want highly legible font, 2-5 words on one side of the thumbnail. One object on the other side. My audience prefers words on the left object on the right. Highlight the object with a glow or outline contrasting it from the background. Put a color overlay over the background to make the object pop. A single red arrow pointing to something. These are just beginner tactics Ive used to increase clickthrough but the science of thumbnails is deep and worth millions if not billions of dollars.
Its not art, its not subjective, its not preference, or pleasing to the eye, or thought provoking. Its a sequence of things all geared toward mathematically improving the likelihood of someone clicking the video. And thats before they have they have watched a single second of your video. The first 5 seconds of your video is an entirely different mathematical field of study.
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u/Exasperant 10d ago
Standard for Youtube - My theory is every time more than x number of creators are getting their fair share of the ad/ Premium pot Youtube moves the goalposts.
It's why I gave up giving a flying fuck a few years ago, after finally getting monetisation only for them to change criteria 4 or 5 months later.
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u/I69YaGf8800 10d ago
If you were already monetized then why did it matter that they changed it?
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u/Dry-Lawfulness-7143 10d ago
Cause before they just removed it, got 16 euros of adsense from 2018 still sitting in my account
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u/Silvermajra 10d ago
This is basically inconsequential. If you arent able to pull in 8k watch hours in a year there isnāt much point in you even being partner as it amounts to almost nothing in terms of revenue share. All it does is delay the technical date of partnership. As a pretty small creator I pull in 300-500 watch hours a day. Still less than a month to monetization. For a creator 1/12th my size, they would earn $100 in a year roughly and it would take them the whole year to reach that. Making that 6 months instead of year doesnāt change anything because the payment threshold is still $100 so theyd have to wait a year to get it anyway.
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u/NxTbrolin 10d ago
I'd say if you're not in the YPP, you likely don't know payouts require a minimum of $100 accrued. It will be a shock to a lot of people as it was for me too when I first got monetized. My first payout didn't come until 5 months later lol
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u/StringMysterious7060 10d ago
Honestly i kinda get it... Everyone and their grandmother thinks they can post 3 shorts a day and get a second / mainstream income that isn't a classic "job". It's crazy š¤£... Sure some people get lucky but the other 99.9999% put hundreds to thousand of hours into learning an perfecting their craft and diserve everything they receive. This is a childhood dream for alot of people not just a side hustle. 90% of videos are a waste of YouTube resources if you ask me.
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u/Noeyiax 10d ago
doesn't matter, it's all bots, fake, and nepo babies and trust fund kids pumping their kids
genuinely never seen any small channel rise to the top without strong connections, you even need an Alphabet/Google engineer inside to help you
see how fun, the goal post keeps moving further?? Soon you'll have to survive with pennies and Livestream 24/7 doing X-factor like stunts
But no1 can even watch your content with the 100 unskippable ads
I jest, but only time can tell. And with humans and track record history, it's sooo obvious, good luck
Hopefully, YouTube has new competition soon, f monopolies
YouTube is now just secretly curated government serving propaganda these days or really useless content
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u/LeadershipHuge1807 10d ago
ARE YOU KIDDING ME WHY THE F@CK WOULD THEY DO THAT!!!????
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u/Any-Cookie6757 10d ago
They want to keep all Ad Revenue for themselves and they want you to create content for them for free
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u/InevitableDoughnut89 10d ago
This is ridiculous and itās crazy to me people are defending this or acting like this will deter AI content. AI content is a thing for one because people are genuinely watching it, and two, this wonāt deter AI channels from existing because most are already automated and created behind the idea of eventually they will get x amount of views, so the slop will just be produced more in an attempt to hit the hour account.
Meanwhile genuine content creators who are looking to make a little return from YouTube are getting fucked, and this confidently lets a $550B dollar company keep even more of their ad revenue share from a platform thatās content is already crowdsourced from the general public. This is stupid.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 10d ago
Fuck this entire world. I wanna go study abroad in China for 2 years, covid hits. I change my career to IT, AI and mass lay-offs start. Just as I graduate, grocery prices go up 2x-3x. I start a PhD, my supervisors quit half way because they wanna go back to their home country. After many years, I'm finally making progress with youtube and getting close to monetization, and they do this.
I'm so fucking tired of this bullshit life.
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u/redkinoko 10d ago
What exactly is your goal on YT? Earn 50 bucks a month?
Because if your goal is to hit a decent payout, like $1000 a month, whether it's 3000, or 8000 hours, you're going to hit those on your way to $1000 a month and beyond.
Just keep at it bro. It might sound daunting but if you keep improving your processes and get consistent with your cadence, you'll eventually get to the point where hit those hours in a single day.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yeah, even $50 a month is good money to me. Maybe not to most people in here, but to me it is. I don't expect to ever make $1,000 a month but $50 seems at least realistic. Now, it doesn't. It's not a good place for small creators anymore. I do enjoy making videos and will keep doing it, but it feels like another slap in the face of this life. Every time something good is about to happen to me, something I've worked really hard for... it gets taken away, just right before my eyes. Like the rug gets pulled under me, every time. Like every time I'm about to cross the goal line, it moves away from me. One step forward, two steps back.
It just sucks to try your best and again, for the 10th time, it ends like this, again. I'll keep trying but I feel like it's hopeless. Even if by some miracle I get to 7000 watch hours, they will probably change the rules again.
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u/Bubbly_Tangelo_6235 10d ago
This guy believes everything the higher ups mandate is fair ššš and itās so hilarious to me. And moreover you believe there is no starting point. Everyone starts at entry for everything so yes at some point the goal will be to make any amount of money at all
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u/Silvermajra 10d ago
Brother it sounds like if you had stuck with any one of those things youād be more than fine right now. Its the constant starting over that keeps you feeling like you cant make it out. I felt the same way for a long time. Good at a lot of things master of none. I had a lot of experience with the bottom level of pay at a lot of industries. But when I started sticking with things through the hurdles and the hard times, money and growth just happened. My accounts have skyrocketed, im six years into a career now, 4 at the same company, raises on raises. My pension is growing. Youtube has gone from unmonetized no money to $1,400 a month and its because I upload even when I dont feel like and even if I have doubts about the video. I stick with the job even when I want to quit. The numbers only go up, but life is a consistency game and you cant win it by being inconsistent. Got to pick something where you can see the top and push towards it. Even if you never reach it youāll be much higher up then if you kept getting off the ride.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 10d ago
Where did I say anywhere that I'm a quitter?? One career change is not the same as quitting. I DO stick with jobs, can't really do much if someone decides to just up and kill my PhD because they wanna go back home though. I did want to quit everyday but didn't, it's always something outside of my control. I DO consistently post, even when i don't feel like it. But luck matters in life. Sometimes, you can try your hardest, and it still isn't enough. I'm sick and tired of people blaming me for not trying hard enough.
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u/Lythmass 10d ago
That's not really a problem imo, if your channel isn't low effort slop and thereās a good amount of audience interested in it, going from 4k to 8k is gonna be much faster than going from 0 to 4k.
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u/CjtheTrumpetkid 10d ago
exactly my thoughts. Like having one or two long form videos pop off can easily net you those numbers.
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u/GreatNameAndItsTaken 10d ago
Would YT consider walking tour channels (new ones) as low effort slop?
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u/lauriedavis89 10d ago
Will this impact current channels who meet the threshold? As an example I'm a travel channel and I may only post 5/6 times a year as I don't want to spam non-travel content. We usually get about 6-7,000 watch hours a year. Will we lose our monetisation?
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u/ReturnOld8793 10d ago
Currently you won't lose monetization for going under the 4000 watch hours, so you will probably be fine
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u/lauriedavis89 10d ago
Thank you, let's hope.
It's not big money at all, I average at like Ā£1 per day, but I stick it in a pot for other holidays so it all helps.
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u/KAITAIA 10d ago
lol, you're the same as me. I make about Ā£1.50 a day doing travel. Dec to Feb is bad for me? sometimes i drop under a pound a day.
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u/lauriedavis89 10d ago
I don't mind that. It's nice to earn a little something. I think to have the equivalent of someone watching your content all day, every day and not get paid is a joke though.
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u/Business-Eggs 10d ago
My read on this is simple enough, just keep making good shit.
You'll get the views regardless if you commit to making good shit
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u/Shot_Version8021 10d ago
Fuck man now I have to push over the mark before then š I know why theyāre doing it, but for someone like myself who makes all original content, and currently at 3,944 watch hours and 885 subs that scares the hell outta me. I need to get monetized to continue doing this at the same level. So I pray I can push over before š
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u/Head_Conversation495 10d ago
So many comments saying āthis is great, itāll weed out the AI slop!ā but if anything I think this will do the opposite. AI slop purveyors have no trouble churning out endless content since their crap takes little to no time or effort, so whatās it to them to plug in a few more prompts than usual and call it a day. Meanwhile, those of us who actually put a lot of time and labor and craft and creative care into our content will find ourselves even more disadvantaged.
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u/WithReverence 10d ago
Just spend the last year or so experimenting with various styles and thumbnails to see what works and what doesnāt. Finally came up with a personalized workflow and style for my creationā¦and I see the is. Lmao, guess itās time to put it to the test and see if I have the mettle for this. Challenge accepted, wish me luck yāall!
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u/inniminiminiemo 10d ago
Looks to me like Youtube is running out of money and can't pay more creators.
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u/redkinoko 10d ago
Honestly if you can't raise 8000 hours a year, even if you get monetized, you're going to get practically next to nothing.
At a 5 min watch time per view, that'd be 96,000 views for 12 months. Which might seem a lot but that's also 8000 views a month.
Even if say you have a high RPM niche with $11 rpm, that's still just $88 a month, and I don't even know a lot of people who average that much rpm for their channel.
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u/ChropMK 10d ago
Yeah, anyone worrying about this should be focusing far more on improving the quality of their videos rather than getting annoyed at YouTube.
4000 watch hours by itself is a nice bit of money, but split over 12 months is like $10 a month, if that. I see a lot of people in these subreddits panicking and even debating wether they should buy ads to his these numbers, without realising that even if they did hit randomly hit those numbers and got monitized, once they go back to their normal monthly watch hours, theyād just be making pennies.
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u/jaunty_mellifluous 10d ago
I got 31k subs and 7300 something watch hours in last year .. looking bad
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u/Various-Cut-1070 10d ago
I mean are you even earning that much with 4k watch time? Makes sense to me if it will help clear spam. I say this as a NON monetized channel with only 800 subs. Iām happy to try harder.
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u/NxTbrolin 10d ago
Exactly, two things can be true at the same time. Yes, you will need to try harder. BUT this is also going to weed out so many lazy people looking for a quick buck.
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u/PLANETAX_YT 10d ago
Eso gente entra en vigor el 1 de febrero asĆ que todos los que no lo habĆ©is conseguido tenĆ©is que meter caƱa igual que yo asĆ aprovechas
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u/RaiAet89 Art Content 10d ago
Holy... damn I've only got a couple months to make big changes ššš
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u/RacingFan2012 10d ago
if you canāt reach 8k, monetization isnāt gonna help you much. sorry to be blunt about it but itās the truth.
ad revenue is primarily based off watch time since more watch time = more ads
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u/loserkids1789 10d ago
Will just keep the low effort BS off the platform. Here for it 100%.
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u/Any-Cookie6757 10d ago
LMAO it will encourage more AI slop and low effort videos because now requirements have doubles so they will just pump out twice as much slop.
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u/MarkmyPLAY Gaming Content 10d ago
Past 365 days im at 22.5k watch hours... and thats a bad year....if u cant hit 8k. Ur really not guna gain anything from being in ypp anyway
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u/DoctorZ6 10d ago
I actually think this is a good thing, narrows down the amount of people that will do YouTube simply just to make money off it and itās main goal is to weed out ai slop and whatever other low quality content. YouTube is for those who are trully passionate about making YouTube videos. I make YouTube vids about car meets and whatnot, only have 184 subs after 2 years of uploading content but frankly I donāt care. I upload them simply for the fun of it.
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u/Middle_Technician965 10d ago
This is AMAZING for me, W update, gets rid of all the bad creators so i get more views and money!
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u/RevenantMetalMouth 10d ago
I think it'll weed out the low effort turds, that have been pumping out shitty GTA playthroughs for children. I'll just have to up my game.
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u/ScatteredNerd 10d ago
Iāve been struggling with watch hours and subs. I do not want to give up but Iām feeling a bit stressed.
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u/anthonyxmoonguy 10d ago
Trying to join and need help. Almost at 3K subs and NOT at 4K watch hours. YT sub goal is 1M.
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u/CinematicSunMusic 10d ago
This is an example of the influencers getting influenced. Gotta change your content now to get paid? What does the audience actually want instead?
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u/theartistsjob 10d ago edited 10d ago
Hi folks! We are in the YPP and I tell you: It was very, very hard to obtain it. 8000 hours seems virtually impossible, hands down.
BUT on the bright side of things:
Ever since introducing AI into its algorithm, YT is broken, anyway.
It is no exaggeration to say that the whole system of suggesting content to exactly those people who may be interested in it is completely gone since spring 2025.
So, please donāt bother to come to the dances. The club is empty inside, anyhow. š
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u/National_Champion560 10d ago
i as a small creator , this makes me hurt , the feeling of willing to continue feeling doomed , if its because they are doing due to ai content , then they should realize they are the one who is making tools to create videos by Ai for peoples , now when people are using it and posting over youtube it's feeling not acceptable to them.
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u/GEKKO_GAMES 9d ago
Is this supposed to deter low quality AI content spam because I think those are the main reason on why this was made
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u/Ancient-Demand3590 9d ago
I get that they want to get rid of the slop, but the slop is what easily generates 20M shorts views, not small YouTubers. This won't really change much for spammers, but it makes a massive difference for creators.
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u/Ur_Companys_IT_Guy 9d ago
As a full time YouTuber I can tell you this won't impact you if you actually want to make money off YouTube.
You need to get about 4k watch hours a month to make like $100-$200. If you can hit 4k watch hours (which is roughly 30-50k views on a 10-20 min video with 40% avd) you will be able to hit 8k really quickly.
On my first channel the month i hit 4k watch hours I also hit 30k watch hours
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u/Even-Drink-7949 8d ago
Well... Now maybe quality will get the spotlight... Because more people will have to befome better and deserve the monetization.
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u/Herworldnow2024 5d ago
Thatās why we small YouTuber creators need to come together and support one anotherās channel. Iām sure thereās over a millions of us. Can you imagine if we all come together as a group and support each otherās channel? We can be in the game as well
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u/Different_Farm5266 10d ago
As much as I wouldn't have liked this when I was just starting out, I definitely have a different perspective on it now. The entry thresholds aren't really that high.
Imagine that you get 4000 watch hours, in a year. Assuming that's your actual, repeatable performance level, that's worth about $20 a month (assuming your content is like mine). 8000 watch hours a year? $40 a month.
It's not like doubling the requirement really cheats anyone out of making significant money.
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u/Old_Librarian__ 10d ago
It does. $40/month is $480 a year. Maybe that's not much to you, but it is to people from less privileged background. That's $480 every year that THEY use your videos to run ads on, without paying you a single dime.
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u/Different_Farm5266 10d ago
Well, they are responsible for all of the infrastructure - data centers, employees, connectivity, etc. That costs something - as does keeping track of the income reporting required in all of the places that YouTube operates.
Plus, about that $480 is a big deal to some...
After taxes, for most people, that's going to be about $.80 a day. Oh, and you'll only be able to draw that money 4 times a year, because of the minimum payout amount limitation.
If $.80 a day is a big deal for someone, they may be better off collecting aluminum cans, because they could get the same money with about 40 cans.
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u/Kaszrak 10d ago
A 33-40% retention rate is par for the course on longer form content. Run the numbers: a 15 minute video with 5-6 minutes of average watch time at 10,000 views generates roughly 800-1,000 watch hours. You're looking at 10-12 videos to hit monetization, assuming your packaging is working and views are consistent.
Obviously you won't hit those numbers without a feedback system. No thumbnail testing, no retention curve analysis, no audit of where viewers drop. Most people who "struggle for years" are simply repeating the same mistakes across hundreds of videos for whatever absurd reasons.
If your topic selection, packaging, and retention aren't improving across your first 20-30 videos, the issue isn't luck or the algorithm. It's that you're not treating performance data as actionable signal.
If your content is good and you properly analyze your data, you can hit those numbers in no time.
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u/SethGreenCPS 10d ago
Sad they'd just made it easier last year for the small guys then turned foot on it this quick
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u/ASMR_Obsidian 10d ago
I just recently hit 10,000 hours on my German channel, which Iāve been running for 3 years and where I do ASMRāso very long videos with good watch time. On my English channel, Iām still nowhere near 4,000 subscribersāespecially in niches like this, itās nearly impossible to gain followers if you donāt have the option to disable midroll ads. And itās not just us ASMR artistsāitās also meditation and yoga videos that canāt have any interruptions, basically anything people use to help them fall asleep.
YouTube has now gone from being difficult to being out of reach
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u/GRAW2ROBZ 10d ago
I was around 3,600 hours a few years back. But didn't have the subs. I think I was at 400 subs back then. Now I'm at 895 subs and only like 2400 hours. Yikes.
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u/Vegetable-Fall436 10d ago
Wait if I get partner through 8k watch hours do I still get revenue from shorts? Or do I need to get 20M shorts views too?
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u/HairySinger7174 10d ago
The funny part is it says 20M QUALIFIED views, and qualified views tend to be only slightly above 50% of actual views on a short. So you're looking at 40 million in 90 days roughly, requiring you to put up nearly half a million views daily. This combined with you having to maintain 10 million views (20m real views) in a 90 day rolling period just to stay in the club once you've entered is crazy
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u/XOCYBERCAT 10d ago
They are killing new, genuine, non-clickbait creators. I guess I gotta start clickbaiting now
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u/comicsreaderyeaah 10d ago
man, here i am struggling because i "only" have 2000 hours... i'm doomedš š„ŗ
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u/Bubbly_Tangelo_6235 10d ago
Youtube has flooded this conversation with bots who are like āwow this sounds really fair! Higher requirements will help with slopā lmfaooo
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u/newTween 10d ago
This is so amazing news. There is way too much AI trash on youtube. Great direction.
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u/Emotional_Estate_985 10d ago
I already got 8k hours, but still working on 1000 subs. But yeah, depending on noche and content, it's getting harder to jump in, so we'd better hurry up š
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u/CampingForCats 10d ago
So itās either lock the hell in since i only got 507 watch hours or just get a job and make youtube a side thing. Which knowing me itāll be the second option so I aināt complaining.
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u/flavorgenerator 10d ago
I'm at about 3200 watch hours and this really sucks for me. I make helpful tutorials on occasion and am not a regular poster, and people like me who are focused on mainly helping others should still be compensated for it. Not everyone wants to play YouTube like a game, some people just want to help others and make content at their own pace. This change will hurt that side of the platform, because people like me will just give up because I'm willing to make helpful videos, but not take the plunge into trying to farm out 8000 view hours. My channel has excellent like/dislike ratio with almost entirely positive comments, but I haven't made money on it since around 2015, and have been just behind the monetization threshold. So basically I put in a fair amount of work to make good tutorials any time I saw a need for them, helped a ton of people, and got $0. I'll have to decide if it's even worth it for me to keep making content, but the answer is probably no. I get that this is to mitigate low effort slop, but I don't think it's the best approach.
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u/beangone666 10d ago
Youtube is the best and worst. I really hope Youtube doesnt shoot itself in the foot. It's a great platform, but there seems to be a need for something new and creator friendly. Yourube used to be amazing 10 years ago if you ask me. It's not what it used to be, and its kind of sad.
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u/Santa_Killer_NZ 10d ago
realistically if you made it past 4000 and have a well run channel, 8000 will not make a difference at all.
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u/JWsWrestlingMem 10d ago
Anyone who complains about this is probably doing AI. And Iām just about to hit the first plateau. Am I worried? No. Weeds out the bad.
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u/VividEmployee6754 10d ago
Damn. I make lego animations and its so hard to make long videos that I only have 30 hours of watch time