Previously unable to collect YouTube ad revenue, smaller YouTube channels can now monetize videos using free music available at the Syfonix web app.

In 2018 YouTube revised its eligibility requirements for the Youtube Partner Program, thereby preventing millions of content creators from receiving YouTube ad revenue. Before the policy change, YouTube channels were required only to have 10,000 total views in order to join the YouTube Partner Program which allows YouTube channels to monetize content. The new restrictions now required a content creator’s channel to have 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 total watch hours within the previous 12 months.

Syfonix LLC is currently beta testing a web app which uses music to monetize those content creators who are currently shut out of the YouTube Partner Program. Hawaii resident and Syfonix owner Joshua Kaye began working on the app in 2020 as the pandemic had curtailed his previous work as a pianist. “As a professional musician watching all my gigs disappear, I began looking at the possibilities of using the online platforms as a way to reach new audiences with my music”, says Joshua. “I did some live Facebook performances and started uploading more music to YouTube. I realized that my music could also be used by content creators who would incorporate music into the videos they posted on YouTube. It was then that I saw that rather than licensing my music to content creators in the traditional method, there was an an opportunity to provide content creators a share of the revenue that I would receive from You Tube as a composer.”

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Syfonix patent pending technology allows content creators to download music from the Syfonix web app for free and then incorporate the music into their video content. After a video is posted, YouTube’s Content ID system detects the Syfonix music within the video and pays ad revenue to Syfonix. In addition, YouTube pays Syfonix each time a YouTube Premium subscriber views the video. Syfonix then splits the revenue it receives from YouTube evenly with the content creator.

YouTube created Content ID and began paying music owners as a way to avoid infringement conflicts with music companies. Music owners upload their music into the Content ID system so that their music can be identified whenever it used in videos which are posted to the platform. In June of 2021, YouTube reported that it had paid 3 billion dollars to music owners for music used in content creators’ videos in the last twelve months.

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For content creators who are struggling to gain enough subscribers to qualify for the YouTube Partner program, Syfonix provides free music along with the ability to monetize their videos as they build up views and subscribers. Content creators can also be assured that they will make money if they happen to post a video which goes viral before they have qualified for the YouTube partner program. Without Syfonix, a viral video could generate substantial revenue for YouTube, while providing no revenue for the content creator.

Syfonix also monetizes content on Facebook Reels and Stories, Instagram Reels and Stories, and TikTok. The payment structure is different on those platforms in that a small payment (less than one cent) is paid each time the content creator uses Syfonix music in a Reel, Story, or TikTok video. The payment is the same regardless of how many views the post receives.