YouTube Update Adds Fan Funding and More
“Did you know that after Rebecca Black uploaded ‘Friday,’ she went on a school trip, not knowing for several days the video was going viral?” Matthew Glotzbach, Director of Product Management, and Oliver Heckmann, Vice President of Engineering for YouTube’s Creators, wrote in a blog post. “To help you manage your videos on the go, the new YouTube Creator Studio app lets you see analytics , manage your videos and more.”
The app is already available for Android and will launch on iOS in coming weeks. YouTube also promised a redesign of the Creator Studio for desktops. Beyond that, YouTube is rolling out the following features: Audio Library with sound effects, 60 frames per second capabilities, a fan funding tool, creator credits, subtitles contributed by fans, info cards, a Sirius XM channel, and more ways to create playlists.
YouTube’s Evolution
We caught up with Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence, to get his take on the YouTube buzz. He told us these tools and features are all intended to support video creation and distribution on YouTube and, in turn, those using it as a platform and distribution tool.
“It's part of YouTube's broader effort to evolve into a more formal channel for professional and quasi-professional content creators,” Sterling said. “All of that ultimately and broadly supports the introduction of subscription services.”
One of the new features adds sound effects -- like zombie screams and fighter plan sounds -- to the Audio Library. Support for 60 frames per second promises to make your video game footage look as good on YouTube as it does in real life. Then there’s fan funding.
“Your fans aren’t just watching your videos, they’re also helping support your channel through services like KickStarter, IndieGogo, Patreon and more,” explained Glotzbach and Heckmann. “We’ll be adding another option for you, where fans will be able to contribute money to support your channel at any time, for any reason.”
The SiriusXM Deal
Creator Credits are tags that let viewers click through to their channels and search for collaborators based on their work and locations. But that’s not the only collaborative new feature. Subtitles contributed from fans let followers submit translations in any language based on the subtitles you’ve created.
Meanwhile, YouTube is rolling out new interactive information cards that you can program once to work across all devices. The user-generated content site also wants creators to be on the lookout for more ways to create playlists. Finally, there’s the partnership with SiriusXM.
“We love supporting artists, and so do our friends at SiriusXM,” Glotzbach and Heckmann said. “That’s why we teamed up to launch ‘The YouTube 15,’ a weekly show on SiriusXM’s Hits 1 hosted by Jenna Marbles and featuring the biggest names and rising stars in music from YouTube.”