Hello!
Due to YouTube’s recent change in their terms of service, ads can now appear on ANY YouTube video, regardless of whether the creator is eligible to monetize (which I am not).
So, I have begun posting my videos on Vimeo - just one so far, but it was pretty easy to do, so I will upload more soon. These videos will NEVER have ads, and once I have enough posted, I should be able to make playlists there as well, so stay tuned!
Full disclosure: when I first started posting my little music videos on YouTube back in December of 2013, anyone could monetize, so I tried to as well. However I quickly decided that the only ads I would choose to appear on my videos would be the little ones that would appear in the bottom part of the screen and which could be easily made to go away by clicking the little x. These ads had no sound or video, so they wouldn’t interfere with the viewer’s listening experience.
When YouTube, understandably, changed the thresholds for who could monetize, I was no longer able to do so because I met neither the subscriber numbers, nor the views/watch time, required.
However I decided that this was for the best, because people could continue to listen to my music on YouTube, via my videos, without ads.
Now, not only can YouTube put ads on any video, but creators such as myself have no agency when it comes to what type of ads - I can’t ask them to only use those little visual ads, or at the very least, skippable ads. And while YouTube is doing this gradually, there is just no way to know whether someone who is seeking a nice listening experience will be jarred out of it by a poorly-timed ad.
So, that is why I will be posting my music videos on Vimeo. They will still be up on YouTube, but I just really wanted people to continue to be able to view and listen ad/interruption -free, so I am working on that option.
Thanks for reading! Happy Advent!