Sometimes the most-watched part of a two-hour podcast is the 30 seconds someone else pulled out of it. That’s good publicity for the show, but if the clip takes off on another account, who gets paid?
X’s new clipping tool lets both the person who posts the clip and the creator who made the original video earn from it, as long as they’re enrolled in the platform’s Original Content Rewards program. Every clip also links back to the exact moment in the original video, so anyone who wants to hear what happened next can keep watching.
“Everyone wins when great moments travel. Clipping is one more step toward making X the best place to create, grow and earn,” the @XCreators account posted on the platform.
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Using this new feature, making a clip works a lot like reposting. Tap the repost icon, choose “Clip video,” and trim the moment you want to share. You can add your own commentary, and anyone who taps the “Clip from” label can pick up the original video right where the clip begins.
The tool is live on iOS and Android, with web access on the way. For now, it works on prerecorded videos at least two minutes long, and clips can run from five to 60 seconds, or up to 30 percent of the original.
What does a good clip actually pay?
People were getting paid to find those 30-second clips before X put a button on it.
Podcasters, streamers, and marketers recruit clippers through Discord servers and marketplaces like Whop, where they pay people to cut up footage and post it on their own accounts. Marketers told Business Insider earlier this year that campaigns typically pay $1 to $4 per 1,000 views. One Whop listing offered $1.75 per 1,000 views for clips of Sofia Franklyn’s Nov. 10 appearance on Aspire With Emma Grede. That’s $175 before fees for 100,000 qualifying views (assuming the clip meets the campaign’s terms).
People online are equally as excited as creators.
“this is HUGE for creators and their payouts,” said X creator @0xhades. “amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! prayers answeredddddd” said another user. “Whoa this is crazy useful. Nice,” wrote a third.
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As X introduces an easier way to clip, YouTube is moving in the opposite direction. As Mashable reported in October, YouTube is changing what it recommends in the Shorts feed to give less reach to reposts that add little to the original. YouTube wants clippers to bring something of their own, whether that’s commentary, creative editing, or a story built around the footage in order to “improve the Shorts experience for everyone.”
For now, X’s clipping rules don’t list a flat rate. And if creators would rather keep their videos from being clipped in the first place, they’ll have to wait for the opt-out X says it’s working on.
If X clipping catches on, the next thing to watch is whether podcasters start uploading full episodes to X just to see which moments fans pull out of them.
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