As you can see, all but six (6) of the top 30 most viewed all-time YouTube videos are music videos. The top two each have more than 7 billion views, and all of the top 30 are all in excess of 2.5 billion views. So while musical artists once made their money from album sales or later... downloads, they now have the potential to make profits through streaming service royalties such as Spotify and ... you guessed it ... YouTube.

 

So how much does the artist make through YouTube views?

 

How many views does it take to make money on YouTube? This is a common question asked and it really depends on who you ask. You may have heard that you’ll make one dollar per thousand views or that it’s $1,000 per Million Views. Some say it’s $5 per thousand views. Well, we’re asking the wrong question. We should be asking, “How much ENGAGEMENT does it take to make money on YouTube?”

 

You don’t make money based on the amount of views you have. You make money based on people’s engagement with the ad. Engagement here means clicking or watching a ad for more than a specified time. YouTube Advertising is managed in the AdWords platform. Advertisers choose ads on a Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per View (CPV) model. This gets simplified further to CPM (Cost Per Milli (1000 engagements)). 

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Advertisers only pay when someone clicks an ad or watches for a set duration. This is why you can’t tie your channel views to dollars. If your video gets ten million views but nobody watches or click the ads, you don’t make any money. Some videos are able to make $1 per 25 views for example by targeting a specific demographic. They can do this by relating the actual video relates to someone's potential clients/buyers. Advertisers pay big money to get their ad in front of specific and targeted audience.

 

Understand this, Certain Key Words Pay More than Others. Advertisers will pay more for the keyword, “home mortgage” (CPC $17.63) than “cheap phone cases” (CPC $1.38) because the end return is a lot higher. If someone ends up closing on a home loan that could make them upwards of $5,000+, whereas the end return on a cheap phone case would only be $15.

 

Scenario 1

You make a video reviewing the new iPhone that gets 1,000,000 views.

The ad Click Through Rate (CTR) is 0.1%. Meaning 1,000 people clicked the ad.

If the Cost Per Click (CPC) is $1.38 the total advertising dollars made would be $1,380.

Google keeps around 45% making your payout $759. This gives you $1 per 1,317 views

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Scenario 2

You make a video teaching people about home loans that gets 10,000 views.

The ad Click Through Rate (CTR) is 0.8%. Meaning 80 people clicked the ad.

If the CPC is $17.63 the total advertising dollars the total advertising made would be $1,410.

Google keeps around 45% leaving your payout $776. This gives you about $1 per 13 views.

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These scenarios are exaggerated to show the point. The money you make on YouTube has more to do with what advertisers pay for than how many views you get.

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As you can see not all of the advertising revenue goes to the content creator, and the same goes for musicians. Vevo offers the largest platform (channel) for Youtube distribution. (And you can register to create a VIVO channel). This is a more understandable approach, as it is a lot more challenging now to monetize a YouTube account than previously. (lots of qualifiers need to met to monetize). 

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• Vevo’s advertising is fairly stable with average CPM (cost per thousand) rates of $25-$35

• It generated nearly $300 million in revenue in 2012, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

• VEVO, which is owned by the major labels.

• The company would pay $100 million dollars in royalty revenues in 2012.

• Artists stand to make approx $0.0025 per stream.

 

Some examples are below:

 

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Artist: UGK ft. Outkast

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Plays to date: 365,094

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Estimated royalties to date: $810.51 – $912.74

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Video: “Baby”

 

Artist: Justin Bieber

 

Plays to date: 835,174,296

 

Estimated royalties to date: $1,854,086.94 – $2,087,935.74

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How much money do artists make per view?

The exact amount of money you’ll make on a video depends on a number of factors. But several experts confirmed with us that, on average, the money works out to between $1,000-$2,000 per million views. Yes, million. At the high end, that’s about $0.002, or one-fifth of a cent, per click. That’s around half of the per-stream payout you’ll get from Spotify, and less than a third of your haul from Apple Music.

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This being the music business, that’s not the end of the story. If you’re signed, your record label gets a cut. Got a manager and a lawyer? Them too. Is there a featured artist? An additional songwriter? A producer who made the beat? Did you hire a company to help you get all the money YouTube owes you in the first place? All of them get a fraction of your fraction of a cent. So of the $1-2K, an artist will likely have a few hundred bucks left over at the end of it all.

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If you’re lucky enough to get signed to a major label, hold onto your hats. Majors will insist that their acts post videos to Vevo—which means higher ad rates and thus a little bit more money. But Vevo is owned by the labels, which means if you leave, they’ll still control your Vevo channel.