Everyone knows the power of a good introduction. Imagine watching The Simpsons without its iconic opening sequence. Wouldn’t be the same, would it?

Many of you have asked us for a way to create a distinctive intro for your videos, so you can more easily build a consistent brand your fans will recognize. Well, game on. Starting today you can automatically add an intro video up to three seconds to the start of every video on your channel.

It only takes three easy steps to set up:
  1. Upload the three-second intro video you’d like to use to your channel as an unlisted video.
  2. On your channel's InVideo Programming page, click "Add a channel branding intro" and select the intro from a list of eligible videos.
  3. Select which videos you want the intro to appear on. You can choose whether to add it to all of your videos, or just the ones you’ve uploaded after a certain date. You can always remove or change the intro later.
Note that these intros may not be used as ads, sponsorships, or product placements. We also don't recommend this feature be used by channels using their videos as advertisements.

As always, we want to hear how things work out for you. Send us feedback from your YouTube dashboard, or via Google+ or Twitter.

John Gregg, Software Engineer, who recently watched “Submissions Only.”

Recently, we tweaked YouTube to give playlists more love, with new features like the ability for viewers to collect their favorite playlists and access them straight from the Guide.

Whether you create videos with different themes or you curate videos from other creators, keeping your videos organized with playlists helps viewers easily find what they went to your channel for, and can also encourage them to watch more of your videos.

Today, we’re adding a number of reports to YouTube Analytics so you can see how your playlists are contributing to your channel’s performance. You’ll be able to see the total number of video views from your playlists, how many times your viewers started watching a playlist, the average time they watched, and more.

You can access data starting from February 1st, 2014. Check out channel and network-level stats by searching for a playlist directly or selecting the "Playlists" view.

Find out more in our Help Center and explore the new data today. As always, you can leave feedback on this feature via the “Feedback” link in the left sidebar or drop us a comment in the YouTube Analytics Google+ community.

And if you want to learn more about getting the most from playlists, check out these expert tips from Vsauce2’s host, Kevin Lieber.

Ted Hamilton, YouTube Product Manager, recently watched Russian Roulette: The Invasion of Ukraine