Removed from YouTube Partner Program for Reused Content? You must read this

YouTube Partner Program (YPP), as many of you may already know, is a provision given by Google’s video-sharing website YouTube that offers channel holders an opportunity to earn from their videos by the means of advertisements placed on their channels.

That’s how creators get to be part of YouTube’s revenue generation program by monetizing the content (or videos) they create. But all that happens only after creators meet the eligibility criteria and get through YouTube’s review process successfully (which ain’t no cake walk).

At times, creators have to wait for months to get their channel reviewed, as YouTube says “all the YPP applications are manually reviewed, so it does take a bit of time.”

Forget the channels that are still under review, for past some time, many creators who were already approved and part of YouTube Partner Program have reported about losing monetization (or getting demonetized) with a Reused Content notification.

Confused users have been routing to the company’s official help forum and social media platforms to fetch some clarity as to why it is being done. Here’s what a couple of users said on Twitter:

One of the affected users even shared the Reused Content message that they get to see after being removed from YPP:

Considering the huge number of users that have been removed from YouTube Partner Program for Reused Content, YouTube has come up with an FAQ to shed more some light on the matter and what the affected users can do.

Here’s a gist of what it says:

What’s meant by Reused Content?

Simply put, instead of coming up with original content, when creators “reupload or repurpose” already existing stuff, it’s considered as reusing the content. And if that’s the case, that means, there’s no value addition offered by your created stuff, which is why the channel will be considered ineligible for YPP.

YouTube says the whole purpose behind this is to assure they provide incentive only for the original or unique content and protect as well as reward creators who do the actual hard work.

What about those who have taken permission to reuse?

Well, even after seeking the required permission to reuse the content on you channel, you still need to make sure that you creatively add some value to it, else you won’t be eligible for YPP.

FYI, these Reused Content guidelines are different form YouTube’s Copyright enforcement, and are included in YPP policies’ Content Quality section. In the meantime, YouTube is in the process of updating the Reused Content message in the Creator Studio itself for users’ better understanding.

No Copyright strikes or Contend ID claims, still removed for Reused Content?

As already mentioned above, Reused Content is different form Copyright enforcement. Here’s the key take away – despite of using copyrighted material and/ or having Content ID claim, you may continue to be eligible for YPP if only your videos add a unique value.

On the contrary, you may be equally ineligible for YPP even without any Content ID claims. Reason being, your videos aren’t unique which means no value addition.

A few examples of what kind of Reused Content won’t be considered eligible for YPP are clips from a show joined to make a video, collection of songs from various artists despite their permission, short videos compiled from other social media websites. Meaning, originality is all it asks for.

One of the company suggested use-cases of how to add unique value that can make the content eligible for YPP is a channel that composes different scenes from movies and adds high quality edits and special effects to change the content and create a totally different trailer. YouTube explains this use-case saying:

This channel makes it super clear that the content is transformed to create something unique with information in the channel description and a video trailer front and center on the channel homepage. The creator also appears on screen in many videos, or has voice-overs to describe the editing work. Note: this particular channel does have commercial use rights to use the content too!

BTW before you even consider using the copyrighted material in your videos, better get clarity about how the Copyright on YouTube works. Better be cautious than sorry.

Removed for Reused content despite creating original and transformed videos?

This may occur if your channel lacks context or information about how you acted creatively to make the video different and unique. Absence of such information/content can be taken negatively during the review process which is done manually.

YouTube says “significant original commentary, narration, or clear educational value to the repurposed content” is basically indicative of your value addition to the content and is helpful during the review process.

Made changes and re-applied, still not approved?

What’s good is that once you get demonetized, you can make the required changes and re-apply for YPP in 30 days.

But YouTube stresses that minor tweaking is not going to help. If your content is driven from other sources, they suggest you to transform it creatively to add a new perspective. Users are rather suggested to change their overall content strategy, and go for adding more context to their channel before re-applying.

That’s all for now.

Hope after reading this, as a creator you’ll have more clarity about what to and what not to do in order to get monetization back.

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