Amazon has announced the launch of Amazon Video Direct, a new video sharing platform that allows content creators to distribute their videos directly to the site’s millions of users.

The new service will give content creators a few different options for how they want to distribute their videos, including offering the content at no additional charge to Prime subscribers, which the company called in a statement “Amazon’s most engaged streaming audience.” Other options include offering the videos as part of an add-on subscription service, selling them through rental or one-time purchase fees, or making them available for free as ad-supported content that anyone on the site can view.

Amazon seems to be targeting content creators as much as it is viewers, and the company said that uploaders will be able to earn royalties on their videos based on the number of minutes streamed.

“It’s an amazing time to be a content creator,” Jim Freeman, Vice President of Amazon Video, said in a statement. “There are more options for distribution than ever before and with Amazon Video Direct, for the first time, there’s a self-service option for video providers to get their content into a premium streaming subscription service. We’re excited to make it even easier for content creators to find an audience, and for that audience to find great content.”

The focus on premium content makes Amazon Video Direct less of a direct competitor to YouTube and more to YouTube Red, YouTube’s premium, ad-free subscription service that launched last year. Unlike YouTube Red, however, which has had to build its subscriber base from scratch, Amazon already has built-in subscribers through Prime, which could make the platform more attractive for content creators.

The new distribution model could also pose a threat to services like Netflix by giving many independent film studios and easy way to directly distribute their films to viewers.

“As a major, independently owned and operated motion-picture company, we’re excited to have the ability to distribute our films to Amazon customers around the globe,” Peter Goldwyn, President of Samuel Goldwyn Films, said in Amazon’s release. “With Amazon Video Direct, we have the control to create the unique distribution strategies that reflect the changing ways in which our audiences discover our films.”

If you are interested in trying out Amazon Video Direct as a content creator, you can sign up for an account here.

Image courtesy of Amazon