Considered inevitable by some, and following in the footsteps of Revver, eefoof and the like, YouTube has announced it will be sharing revenue with its users.

Chad Hurely, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, announced new platforms that would allow the popular video site to share revenue with their users and with copyright holders whose intellectual property may be used in such videos without consent.

In a video posted on YouTube from the World Economic Forum, Hurley discusses YouTube’s future.

YouTube is developing audio fingerprinting, which will allow them to identify music that is being used in one of their users’ videos. If a copyrighted song is identified, some of the ad revenue generated from other people viewing that video will then be shared with copyright holders. Hurley says YouTube is currently “talking with the studios, networks and labels.”

In the next part of the interview, Hurley announces plans that would pay users for content they have uploaded.

While he says they are certainly going to move in that direction, he explains the lag by saying they did not want to develop a system based solely on monetary rewards.

Rather, they wanted to establish a strong user base and a large community before engaging in revenue sharing.

“When you start out with giving money to people from day one, they will just switch to the next provider that’s paying more. We feel that we are at a scale now that will be able to do that and really still have a true community around video.”

While this probably won’t make you rich, exact details are still unkown.






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