Olha Kapinos

YouTube pays a median of about $2,300 per million long-form views in 2026 — far below the $3,000–$5,000 range most guides quote, because that range comes from advertiser CPM, not what lands in a creator’s account. The real number is RPM (revenue per mille), and it depends more on niche, format, and how a channel runs its ad breaks than on view count alone. This is measured across 3,595 monetized channel-months from 300 real AIR-managed channels between May 2025 and May 2026 — not a third-party estimate.

Cannes Lions has been the advertising industry's north star for seven decades, long before the creator economy even existed. In 2024, Cannes finally made room for creators. It wasn't much: a rooftop slot on the Palais, easy to miss, and marketers still ran the agenda. This year that changed. The conversations that used to happen about creators started happening with them, and their side events were everywhere.

Most YouTube creators who try memberships earn very little from them because they set them up incorrectly and promote them just once. But the channels we watch earn 30–80% of their total revenue from memberships. What makes it happen is designing perks around what your specific audience wants, mentioning memberships in every video naturally, pricing your tiers around what your superfans are willing to pay, and 12 more tactics. All are in this YouTube Membership guide.