Instagram has extended video uploads to 90 minutes and is using a new Features format to court long-form creators who have historically built careers on YouTube. But the platform has not yet explained how creators will earn from that longer content—and that has made the reaction among creator-economy professionals thoroughly mixed.
What Instagram is offering
Last week, Instagram said users would be able to post videos up to 90 minutes long. The company has also paid a small group of creators between $50,000 and $500,000 to produce long-form content through Features, Digiday reported.
An Instagram representative said the platform is exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives, but the company also said it is too early to share a long-form monetization model. That gap matters: creators can test distribution, but they cannot yet project ad income.
Reach high, engagement uneven
Instagram’s strength has long been discovery, not predictable earnings. Digital strategist and creator Gabriella Zutrau said Instagram’s discoverability is useful for building awareness, but she pushed back on the idea of offering discoverability as a form of payment.
Marketing software platform Cropink reports that Reels get 36% more reach than carousels and 125% more than single-photo posts. The catch, as several creators noted, is that reach does not translate automatically into income—especially without a clear revenue share.
YouTube remains the earnings benchmark
Creators and managers Digiday spoke with compared Instagram’s long-form offer unfavourably to YouTube, which is widely considered the strongest earning platform. Jo Wong, chief revenue officer at creator commerce platform POP.STORE, said Instagram never really had a super strong monetization program for creators to begin with.
Samantha Walters, vice president of talent experience at Shine Talent Group, said she was surprised Instagram had not offered a competitive monetization infrastructure. ‘That’s why YouTube is so successful, and why creators give so much of their time and effort to it,’ she said.
Nick Jacklin, president of Shorthand Studios, was more optimistic but warned that if Instagram starts running ads on long-form content without transparent creator payments, it will break trust. He favours a model closer to YouTube’s, where a share of platform advertising revenue goes to creators.
What creators and brands can do now
Until monetization becomes clear, most experts are advising creators to treat Features as a distribution test rather than a full production pivot. Mustafa Aijaz, vice president at media company SoaR, said his team will post content to the new surface but is not making content exclusively for Instagram at this stage.
Zack Evans, vice president of creative strategy at Shorthand Studios, believes interview-style shows and scripted comedy could perform well, especially with Instagram’s revamped TV app. He also sees a funnel opportunity: short-form content brings attention, and longer content gives viewers a reason to stay on the platform.
Jo Wong suggested creators repurpose older YouTube videos on Features before investing in original long-form content. Alexandra Mathieu, vice president of creative and strategy at Open Influence, sees the competitive push as leverage for talent in future negotiations with YouTube.
- Reuse existing YouTube back-catalogue content to test reach on Features before producing originals.
- Track whether extra visibility leads to better brand deals, not just higher view counts.
- Keep YouTube monetization in place while Instagram’s long-form revenue model remains unclear.
In a survey of 50 creators at Shine Talent Group, 93% said Instagram would need to change its revenue policies to entice them to post long-form content—even though 100% already post on the platform. That is the core tension: Instagram can offer distribution, but creators are telling the platform that distribution alone will not move them off YouTube.
Source: Digiday
