YouTube ‘Shorts’ To Let Creators Repurpose Audio From Existing YouTube Videos Amid Global Rollout

YouTube’s TikTok clone, Shorts, is rolling out globally with a crucial new feature that will enable creators to sample and repurpose audio from existing YouTube videos.

Shorts is now launching in the U.K., Canada, and Latin America, The Verge reports — including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.

Back in March, YouTube first teased the ability to repurpose sounds from existing videos for Shorts — a key component of TikTok that enables viral bandwagoning to thrive. (Users can also select a particular sound on TikTok, and see all of the videos that have been created using that track). That said, on YouTube, this ability will first roll globally before arriving in the U.S. in coming weeks.

Currently, creators can sample audio from other Shorts videos, and pull songs from YouTube’s licensed music library, The Verge notes.

Going forward, however, users will be able to tap a new ‘Create’ button in the YouTube app — below videos and beside the ‘like’ and ‘dislike’ buttons — in order to sample an audio cut from the above video for their Shorts. At the same time, The Verge reports, Shorts viewers can tap on the audio track in order to go back to the YouTube video from which it was derived — thus providing an incentive for creators as a potential traffic driver.

If creators do not wish for their videos to be repurposed for Shorts — if their content contains sensitive moments, for instance — they must opt out manually for every video in upload settings, The Verge reports. That said, amid some pushback from creators, YouTube says it’s currently working on a bulk opt-out option.

“There is some concern about examples of videos that you might think are personal or sensitive and that’s why creators have asked for the ability to opt out,” Todd Sherman, the product lead for YouTube Shorts told The Verge. “But creators also seem to recognize that [Shorts] sort of doesn’t work if it’s very selectively an opt-in.”