Content maker ‘Javier Nathaniel’ is marked as the highest earner on YouTube in Jamaica according to CashnetUSA.com.
The website which compiles data using Socialblade noted that “Despite the growing popularity of rival content creation platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Twitch, YouTube is still king,” and in Jamaica “Javier Nathaniel” wears the crown with repurposed football games which earned him a whopping USD$995,668 throughout the lifetime of his main YouTube channel which started in 2010. The channel has 467,309,089 views and his other channel “JN Football” has 643k subscribers and 218,951,601 views of all time.
His most viewed video is a mashup of Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho titled “Ronaldinho – Football’s Greatest Entertainment” which has 66M views.
That is more views and subscribers than every media house in Jamaica.
It is not sure how Javier is able to monetize the channel, or if the channel has been able to collect the speculated figure as the channel would be considered “reused content” under YouTube’s terms of services and that would prevent the channel from entering the YouTube partner program.
Any channel seeking to monetize on YouTube, must follow YouTube’s monetization policies. These also include YouTube’s Community Guidelines, Terms of Service, Copyright, Rights Clearance Adjustment policies, and Google AdSense program policies.
The policies apply to anyone in, or looking to apply to, the YouTube Partner Program. The YouTube Shorts monetization policies also apply if you’re monetizing Shorts on YouTube, per YouTube.
All content monetizing with ads must follow their advertiser-friendly content guidelines.
Whether or not Javier has collected on the possible earnings his Cashnet figures are impressive.
Other Key Findings from the Cashnet report are:
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American kids’ channel Cocomelon is the highest-earning YouTube channel of all time, with an estimated $282.8m amassed from its videos since its creation in 2006.
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A creator with content made for children had the most profitable channel in five of six continents.
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As well as Cocomelon in North America, Europe and South America also have kids’ channels as their highest earners. Russia’s Like Nastya ($167.5m) and Argentina’s El Reino Infantil ($102.2m) have both amassed more than $100m from YouTube revenue in their channels’ history.
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With more than 22 billion views, American YouTuber FGTeeV has earned the most of any gaming channel in their career, making over $47m in that time.
Statista reported in June 2022 that Sean Paul is the most subscribed channel on YouTube in Jamaica.
YouTube is the second-most visited website on the internet after its parent company Google and boasts 14.3 billion visits per month, which is more than Facebook and Wikipedia
Last year Lyor Cohen, Head Of Music at YouTube announced that the company paid out US$6 billion to rights holder and creators.
In 2021 YouTube announced that US$4B was paid out to the music industry, and in 2022, the former executive at Def Jam Records says “our foot is still planted on the gas pedal: In the 12 months between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube paid over US$6B to the music industry. This is a $2B increase from the $4B contribution we announced in 2021.”
Lyor says YouTube’s mission is to make their ads and subscriptions model the #1 contributor of revenue to the industry by 2025.
Previously shorts were not monetized but as of today, YouTube is monetizing all music formats (short & long form video, audio tracks, live, etc.), on all platforms (desktop, tablet, mobile, and TV), in over 100 countries.
Announcements made by Cohen in his newsletter stated:
“UGC(User Generated Content) drove over 30% of payouts for artists, songwriters, and rights-holders, for the second year in a row.”
“Shorts generates 30 billion views per day, with 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users – and we’re just getting started. In addition to our $100M Shorts Fund, we’re creating long-term monetization solutions for Shorts, and we’ll have more to share on this soon.”
YouTube is the largest music platform in the world with 2/3 of the world’s population and one of the largest social media platforms, second only to Facebook, according to Statista.
Artists and labels have often decried the service’s royalty rates, typically far lower than those offered by Spotify or Apple Music; YouTube’s defenders argue it’s still an improvement over radio, which has historically paid recording artists nothing, compensating songwriters only.
In 2018 when Cohen joined YouTube, he hit the ground running with one of largest advertising campaigns in its history, with the goal of converting more of its massive video audience into paid subscribers for YouTube Music (at $10 per month) and YouTube Premium (a couple dollars more for additional video content), replacing YouTube Red.
Jamaica & YouTube
Over the last 2 years, Jamaica saw more artists than ever moving from obscurity to celebrity and commanding more than $50,000 per show from their YouTube hits.
Skeng, who scored several Jamaican YouTube hits recently scored a collab with Nicki Minaj due to the success on his songs Protocol and Gvman Shift which are the top two YouTube songs in Jamaica. Skeng is also the No. 1 YouTube artist in Jamaica over the last year with 100 million streams across his catalogue.
Skeng told World Music Views exclusively that working with the Queen New York MC is a blessing.
He said, “Nicki Minaj and Skeng Likkle Miss Remix is a good look. Is not everybody weh me meet pon dah music journey yah who show interest or believe inah me. Me try only give my energy to the ones who show the truth.”
“Working with Nicky is an achievement and a blessing. Dancehall active you see it,” he continued.
The young deejay came on the music scene only last July and is already the second most streamed YouTube artist in Jamaica over the past year. The 21 year old holds the record for the two most streamed songs in the Island of all time. Protocol (13,765,028) & Gvman Shift(11,501,085). He is currently an independent artist, but he signed a publishing deal with with Geejam Music recently.
