Shorts feed ads

A long-form ad attaches to the video it runs on. Shorts work the other way. Revenue from the ads served between Shorts in the feed goes into a monthly pool, music licensing costs are paid out of it first, and creators keep 45% of what remains, divided according to each creator's share of total Shorts views. The length of an individual Short makes no difference to the split. Because the pool is shared, what a Short earns depends on how it did relative to everyone else that month, so the same view count can be worth different amounts at different times of year.