YouTube has announced that it is lowering the eligibility requirements for the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP), as well as introducing a few monetization methods for smaller creators, such as paid chat, tipping, channel memberships, and shopping features.

According to IANS, the new policy will make the YPP available to creators after they reach 500 subscribers, which is half of what YouTube previously required.

Rather than 4,000 valid watch hours, creators will only need 3,000, or 3 mn shorts views, as opposed to the previous 10 mn.

Lower requirements will be implemented first in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea.

The company also stated that the same YPP rules will apply to revenue sharing, which means that smaller creators will still need to grow their audience to profit from ad revenue.

The shopping affiliate program, which was previously available only by invitation to select creators, is now available to YPP participants in the US with a minimum of 20,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, in February of this year, the company launched Creator Music, a new marketplace that allows creators in the YPP in the US to easily access an ever-growing catalog of music for use in their videos while still being able to monetize.