Get Ready For A Big Increase In Your YouTube Views
YouTube is increasingly becoming more and more important to artists, producers, songwriters, and podcasters, as the service is now the most watched platform in the world (yes, even more than Netflix). That said, the way it counted views was different from the way every other video platform counted them. Now the company says that’s all about to change, and that change will cause your YouTube views to skyrocket.
Shorter Watch Time
YouTube announced that starting on Monday, even if a viewer plays as little as one frame, of a video it will count as a view. Previously a viewer had to watch for at least 30 seconds for the view to count.
The big reason is the fact that the way it counted views on Shorts and long form videos on YouTube were different. Shorts counted a view that moment a user hit play, and now YouTube does the same.
This is all well and good, but it doesn’t tell you much except that someone landed on your video for a second. The good thing about the 30 second goalpost was the fact that anyone who stayed that long really wanted to see the content and therefore was very engaged.
YouTube will still count these views, but now they’ll be called “Engaged Views” in YouTube analytics.
More Creator Revenue?
The big question for those content creators that actually make money from YouTube will be “How much will this change my royalty payout?”
It turns out not all that much, although YouTube did change its Partner Program eligibility earlier in the year.
As of last February, new creators need 8,000 qualified watch hours over the previous year or 20 million qualified Shorts views within 90 days to earn advertising and YouTube Premium revenue.
Both figures are double YouTube’s previous requirements of 4,000 watch hours or 10 million Shorts views. Creators must also have at least 1,000 channel subscribers to qualify.
Bottom line, watch for your view count to take a leap, but temper your joy in understanding that you probably didn’t go viral – it’s just being measured differently.
