Did you know that YouTube allows you to support your favorite channels directly by becoming a channel member? This allows you to provide financial support beyond ad revenue or YouTube Premium.
Let's take a look at what YouTube channel memberships are, how they work, and what they offer creators and viewers.
What Are Channel Memberships?
Channel memberships on YouTube are an option that allow viewers to pledge monthly financial support to channels of their choosing. This can help creators make videos full-time by taking some of the guesswork out of how much they'll earn per month.
In exchange for your support, you get a few perks for becoming a member of the channel. The system is similar to Twitch subscriptions, where you pledge a few dollars per month to a channel to get badges, emotes, and other perks while watching.
How Can I Become a Channel Member?
Not all YouTube channels are eligible to offer memberships. Per YouTube's channel memberships policy page, a channel must (among other criteria) have over 1,000 subscribers, be part of the Partner Program, and cannot have a lot of videos made for kids or claimed for music copyright.
The easiest way to tell if a channel offers memberships is the Join button that appears next to the Subscribe button on its videos and channel page. When you click the Join button, you'll see some information, including what's on offer if you become a member. We'll examine this more closely below.
After signing up, you'll be charged immediately, and your renewal date is on the same day of the month going forward. So if you subscribe on the 17th, you'll pay on the 17th of each month in the future.
You can review and cancel your memberships on the YouTube Purchases page.
What Perks Does Channel Membership Include?
While a channel is only required to have one tier of membership, they can offer up to five. You'll commonly see memberships offered for $4.99 per month, though some channels offer lower-priced tiers as well.
One of the most common rewards for pledging to a channel are loyalty badges. These appear next to your name in all comments you make on the channel, as well as your posts in live chats. Usually, there are multiple badges that change over time to honor your ongoing support.
You'll also typically get access to custom emoji to use on YouTube. Other perks depend on what the channel owner provides. These are some other common categories of rewards you'll see:
- Access to member-only posts, such as exclusive videos or livestreams
- Discounts on merchandise
- Access to the channel's Discord server
- Polls to vote on upcoming videos
- Your name in the credits of future videos
Be sure to check out the specific rewards for the channels you're interested in by clicking the Join button on their videos. Review all the levels before you decide which is right for you. Confirm your tier, then you can proceed to enter your payment details.
YouTube Memberships vs. Subscriptions
It's important to know the difference between YouTube subscriptions and memberships.
Subscribing, which doesn't cost anything, allows you to follow the creators you care about most. When you subscribe to a channel on YouTube, its videos will appear on your YouTube subscriptions page, making it easy to see what's new from them. You can also choose to get notifications as soon as new videos go live.
You can subscribe to as many channels as you want for free; all you need is a YouTube account. Memberships, as we've outlined above, are a step beyond subscribing, since they require monetary support.
Separately from all this, there's also the YouTube Premium service. This is a monthly subscription that allows you to remove ads across YouTube, among other benefits. Having YouTube Premium does not provide you with any channel memberships.
Join the Club for Your Favorite Channels
Now you know what YouTube channel memberships offer. They're a great way to send a few bucks to your favorite channels, and act as a sort of hybrid between supporting on Patreon and the way Twitch subscriptions work.
Speaking of this, channel memberships are just one of the ways YouTube creators make money.
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