YouTube launches ‘Creator Music’ to help content creators search for and use hit songs in their videos

YouTube has announced that Creator Music is now live. This is a new and easy way for creators who are part of the YouTube Partner Program to use music in their videos while still being able to make money.

The online hub, which was first announced last September, provides a sizable catalogue of songs that creators can search, browse, and purchase, with the terms of the music rights spelt out in clear terms. As an alternative to purchasing a licence, creators can opt for revenue-sharing models that allow them to share profits with the music’s original owners.

The company acknowledged the longstanding frustration of creators when it explained the problems with music rights last year. Currently, content creators who use a song for which they do not have a licence must hand over 100% of their ad revenue. This has had negative consequences for everyone involved, including YouTubers, their audiences, and the musicians who provide the music.

YouTube, therefore, hopes that Creator Music will streamline the licencing of these hit songs. Using a centralised online dashboard, content creators can search for specific songs, browse by albums, styles, and emotions, and see how much it will cost to licence the music they need. They can also sort the songs by price to find the most affordable ones for their project.

After reviewing the terms of an eligible track, creators can purchase a license or enter into a rev share agreement. The former allows content makers to preview and download the song for use in their project without interrupting their editing process. They have the option of picking a song with a rev share option rather than paying an upfront cost for the use of the music if they do not wish to do so.

Smaller creators who haven’t been able to afford commercial music in their videos in the past may be able to afford it through this type of marketplace, and vice versa for larger creators who want more precise control over production costs.

However, the new service is merely an addition to YouTube’s existing Audio Library of free songs. Creators can search across Creator Music and set the price filter to “0” to keep seeing free songs, even ones from the Audio Library.

With YouTube facing more competition from TikTok in the short-form video space, creators of longer-form content have a greater need for high-quality audio and visual accompaniment. Because TikTok loves popular music, it has a lot of power over the Billboard charts and the top charts in streaming apps. This is because viral videos make more people stream and download music.

A recent rumour suggests that TikTok, like YouTube, is planning to expand into the music streaming market. TikTok has been increasing the maximum length of its videos, moving closer to YouTube’s norms, prompting the Google-owned platform to make changes so as to stay competitive.

Creator Music was slowly made available to YPP creators in the U.S., but the company says that it is now available to everyone in that group. YouTube says it plans to eventually roll out the service to more countries and provide more music from artists outside of the YouTube Partner Program.