Instagram wants YouTube’s long-form audience. Creators want to know who gets paid. A week after the platform expanded 90-minute horizontal “Features” videos and bingeable “Series” collections, industry voices are lining up behind the same worry: discovery without a clear revenue share is not a fair trade.

According to Digiday‘s Alyssa Mercante, Instagram has offered a handful of select creators between $50,000 and $500,000 to post long-form through Features, while telling the trade press it is “too early to share a long-form monetization model.” An Instagram representative told Digiday the company is “exploring ways for creators to earn from brands, fans and Instagram, including performance-based incentives.”

That answer is not landing with the people who would have to fill the new shelves. In a survey of 50 creators at Shine Talent Group that Digiday cites, 93 percent said Instagram would have to change its revenue policies before they would post long-form there — even though every respondent already posts on the platform.

Features, Series, and the YouTube chase

According to Net Influencer‘s Dragomir Stojkov, Features is a horizontal format built for podcasters, comedians, and other extended storytelling, testing with select creators in the U.S. and Brazil and viewable on phones and Instagram’s TV app. Series groups related Reels into collections meant for sequential watching. Creators can also point up to eight Reels at one full-length video, turning the short-form feed into a trailer lane for longer work.

Earlier coverage from Variety framed the same rollout as a direct push against YouTube: longer uploads, Apple TV viewing, and still no Partner Program-style ad split. Meta tested a YouTube-like share on IGTV years ago and later shut that product down — a history several of Stojkov’s interviewees brought up again this week.

Where managers draw the line

Mercante’s Digiday roundup is blunt. Digital strategist and creator Gabriella Zutrau called offering discoverability “as a form of payment” “disgusted” territory and said Instagram has “never valued creators.” Jo Wong, chief revenue officer at POP.STORE, told Digiday that Instagram “never really had a super strong monetization program for creators off the get” and that the company seemed to think it “could get away with” skipping a long-form model.

Samantha Walters, vp of talent experience at Shine Talent Group, said she was “surprised” Instagram had not built competitive payout infrastructure — “That’s why YouTube is so successful.” Nick Jacklin, president of Shorthand Studios, was more open to the experiment if early Features partners can prove awareness lifts, but warned that running ads on long-form without an equitable creator share would break trust.

Not everyone is walking away. Open Influence’s Alexandra Mathieu told Digiday that Instagram putting money into creator acquisition gives managers more leverage with YouTube, including talks about exclusivity, distribution, and production support. Zack Evans of Shorthand Studios argued interview shows and scripted comedy could thrive when Reels can dump viewers into Features without bouncing them to another app.

What the broader expert panel expects

Stojkov’s Net Influencer panel of 32 creator-economy professionals split along a familiar line. Many called Series the nearer-term win — episodic Reels already fit how people browse Instagram — while treating 90-minute Features as a redistribution play for shows that already live on YouTube. Tobias Hoss of Tentpole Studios put it simply: year one, creators will treat Instagram as the front door and YouTube as the bank, and that only flips when Meta pays for the long-form attention it captures.

Others urged patience. Jessica Thorpe of partnrUP noted YouTube itself launched years before its Partner Program, and that Instagram is already cutting six-figure checks for some early Features partners even if that is not universal revenue sharing. Still, voices including AB Lieberman of Clicks Talent and Courtney Canfield argued creators will not invest original long-form budgets on Instagram while YouTube keeps paying for views.

The takeaway

Instagram finally built plumbing that short-form discovery can pour into: Features for the episode, Series for the binge, Reels as the trailer. The creator economy’s answer this week is that plumbing without a clear paycheck is optional. Until Meta publishes a long-form monetization model that can stand next to YouTube’s, most creators will keep the expensive work where the money already is — and use Instagram to extend the catalog, not replace it.

Image: Smartphone social feed photo via Pexels (free license; attribution not required).