Shorts To Allow Audio Sampling From Any YouTube Video

Shorts, YouTube's short-form video creation app and rival to TikTok, will add the ability for users to sample audio from videos across the entire YouTube platform in the near future.

As reported by The Verge, Shorts currently allows users to pull audio from other Shorts videos, but a recent community post has revealed that there are plans to cast a much wider net. According to TeamYouTube Community Manager Camilla, "If you’re part of the initial roll out, you’ll be able to create Shorts using audio from other videos straight from the video watch page, both for Shorts and other videos you find on YouTube." This initial rollout should be available now in the UK, Canada, India, and several Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Venezuela.

The post goes on to explain that this new feature will allow Shorts users to incorporate audio from "any eligible long-form video on YouTube." Shorts also will generate a link back to the video source for the pulled audio on the Shorts pivot page. The intention is to give creators more audio options for their videos, while also potentially expanding the audience for the source video.

This news has made some YouTube creators nervous, as the platform has automatically opted all videos into the Shorts crossover by default. Several questions were brought up in the community post announcement.

YouTube user TwinMinds asked, "Who gets the revenue for these samples? And why is this automatic opt-in without people being given the choice? And what about non-monetized channels and demonetized or ad-disabled content? Why is their content automatically available for others to profit from?"

Ed Hanley wanted to know, "Who thought it was a good idea to automatically opt everyone in? Are you opting in corporations with access to the Content ID system? or just people who would be punished for sampling work from a video registered with the Content ID system?"

Users can opt out their videos one-by-one, or do so in batches by selecting several videos at once on the Content page, selecting License under Edit, selecting Shorts sampling under Add edit, and then choosing Don't Allow Sampling.