YouTube announced today that its new marketplace, Creator Music, is now open to all YouTube Partner Program participants in the United States. The online destination, which was first announced in September, offers a large catalogue of songs that creators can browse, search through, and purchase, with the terms of the music rights spelled out in plain language so creators can understand the costs involved.
In addition to purchasing licences, creators can select tracks that offer revenue-sharing options, in which both the creators and the rights holders profit from the use of the music. As the company explained last year, music rights have long been a source of frustration for creators. When a creator today uses a song that they do not own, they must give the music licence holder all ad revenue from their video. As a result, commercial music is frequently not used in YouTube videos, which harms creators, their fans, and artists and songwriters.