YouTube Creator Blog: 2016

Improving Custom URLs on YouTube

Friday, December 16, 2016

At YouTube, we want to make it as easy as possible for fans to find and watch your channel. That's why we've spent years building the tools to help your audience stay on top of your videos -- from subscriptions, to notifications, and even custom URLs.

Last year, we announced that YouTube no longer requires a Google+ profile when you want to upload, comment, or create a channel. As part of this change, today we’re launching a new custom URL system that works independently from Google+ and also unifies your identity across YouTube.

Currently, we have two systems for claiming a custom URL:

A YouTube system that generates URLs in this format: youtube.com/ChannelName
A system integrated with Google+ that generates URLs like this: youtube.com/c/ChannelName

With these two systems in place, we began to see instances where two channels could request URLs with similar names in these two different formats. This is confusing for fans, and not a great experience for creators either.

Our new system will fix that problem. With today’s launch, both URLs from the older systems will now point to the same channel. This means that, in our previous example, users can now reach the same channel with either youtube.com/ChannelName or youtube.com/c/ChannelName. And with a new system in place, we’ll also avoid duplicating channel names in the future. This also means that claiming a new YouTube custom URL does not involve a custom URL for your Google+ profile, and vice versa.

We believe this is a positive change for the millions of channels that have custom URLs today, as well as those who will request one in the future. However, as we make this transition, there is a group of less than 0.02% of channels with custom URLs who will have to claim a new URL due to duplication conflicts -- when youtube.com/ChannelName and youtube.com/c/ChannelName point to different channels. If you are part of this group, you will be notified and can claim a brand new custom URL from your channel’s advanced account settings until May 31, 2017 to make this change.

We are making every effort to work with creators to find a solution that supports their needs on YouTube. That’s why we created custom URLs in the first place and we’re excited about how this change will benefit both fans and creators in the long term.

Posted by Tom Leung, Director, Product Management for Creator, recently watched THE $21,000 FIRST CLASS AIRPLANE SEAT

New Creators for Change ambassadors and resources are here!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

This post originally appeared on the YouTube Official Blog

Back in September, we launched YouTube Creators for Change, a global initiative dedicated to amplifying (and multiplying) the voices of YouTube creators who tackle division and hate with videos and stories of hope, connection, and understanding. And as 2016 comes to a close, we’re proud to say that YouTube Creators for Change is growing.

We’ve established local Creators for Change initiatives in Australia, France, Germany, and Turkey, bringing together creators who have uploaded thousands of videos about countering hate through unity. We’ve opened up sets at YouTube Spaces in New York and Los Angeles where creators will record the first video-based StoryCorps interviews. And today, we’re thrilled to introduce our five newest Creators for Change ambassadors: All India Bakchod (India), Cameo Project (Indonesia), Dina Torkia (United Kingdom), Franchesca Ramsey (United States) and John Green (United States). You can learn more about these inspiring creators at the Creators For Change website, which launches today, too!

These new ambassadors will join the six existing ambassadors in engaging their communities on topics like hate speech, xenophobia, and extremism. And to do our part, we’re equipping each one of them with a $25,000 grant to use toward a social impact project of their choice. In fact, this past weekend John Green donated his grant to charity in connection with Project for Awesome, a live-streamed annual fundraiser that brings together video creators from all over the world who support charities that, as the vlogbrothers say, “decrease world suck.”

In the coming months, our 11 ambassadors will also help us choose creators who are already making their voices heard on social issues that matter to them. And as part of our original $1M commitment, each of these emerging creators will be given equipment and production grants. They’ll also receive mentorship support from the program ambassadors and an opportunity to participate in educational workshops at our YouTube Spaces.

Finally, to help all those creators who want to use their voices and videos to take on topics they care about, we’ve collaborated with Upworthy to create a helpful series of best practices for creating effective social-change videos.

You can find this video, information on all our ambassadors and more on the YouTube Creators for Change website. So check it out! And stay tuned for more updates in the coming months.

Juniper Downs, Head of YouTube Public Policy, recently watched "This Christian community opened its heart to new Muslim neighbors."

New tools to shape conversations in your comments section

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Your relationship with your community is what makes YouTube unique. Whether your fans are Nerdfighters or Mirfandas, they’ve created a close-knit bond with you and your content. We realize that comments play a key role in growing this connection and we’re dedicated to making your conversations with your community easier and more personal. We've been listening to your feedback and we’re excited to roll out new comment features, including:

Pinned comments: promote a specific comment by pinning it to the top of your feed. This lets you highlight great engagement from your fans or share information with your audience.
Creator hearts: show some love by giving a heart to your favorite comments. This is a new and easy way to acknowledge comments from your community.
Creator usernames: when you comment on your channel, your username will appear under the text with a pop of color around it so your viewers can easily tell that the comment is coming from you. If you are a verified creator, you will still have a verification checkmark appear beside your name.

We also want to continue to help you shape the tone of your conversations on YouTube. Here’s a refresher on some existing tools along with a new beta feature we’re launching in the coming months.

Choose moderators: Earlier this year, we launched a new comment feature that lets you delegate moderation, giving people you trust the ability to remove public comments from your videos.
Blacklist words and phrases: You may have comments with certain words or phrases held for your review and approval before being published.
Hold potentially inappropriate comments for review: We’re introducing a new beta feature that allows you to hold potentially inappropriate comments for review. If you choose to opt-in, comments identified by our algorithm will be held and you have the final decision whether to approve, hide, or report these comments. We recognize that the algorithms will not always be accurate: the beta feature may hold some comments you deem fine for approval, or may not catch comments you’d like to hold and remove. When you review comments, the system will take that feedback into account and get better at identifying the types of comments to hold for review. If you’d like to try this out, submit your channel information here.

We’re excited to see how you use these features to grow stronger communities and have more constructive conversations in your comment sections.

Posted by Courtney Lessard, Product Manager, recently watched I made a robot to help me argue on the internet

Update: Improving Content ID for creators

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Update, 11/1/2016: In April, we announced that we’ve been developing a new solution that allows your videos to earn revenue while a Content ID claim is being disputed. We’re excited to share that this is now available to all creators in the YouTube Partner Program! Here is a refresher on how this works: If both you and the Content ID claimant want to monetize your video, we will continue to run ads against it and hold those funds separately while the dispute is resolved.

While you can dispute a Content ID claim at any time, the vast majority of disputes are made within the first 5 days of a claim being placed on your videos. Our new system is designed accordingly: If you choose to dispute a claim within the first 5 days of receiving it, we will hold revenue from the day the Content ID claim was placed. If you choose to dispute a Content ID claim after 5 days of the original claim, we will start holding the revenue on the date the dispute is made. Read more about how this works here.

As always, thanks to everyone for sharing feedback about our copyright processes. We’re always working to improve our systems, with the goal of empowering creators with the freedom of opportunity to build a business and succeed on your own terms.

-David Rosenstein, Content ID Product Manager

Original post from 4/28/16:

At YouTube, one of our core values is a belief in the freedom of opportunity. We believe anyone should have the opportunity to earn money from the videos they create and turn their channels into successful businesses. That’s why we opened up the YouTube Partner Program nine years ago and why we remain the only platform where anyone with an idea and a camera can turn their videos into full time jobs.

We understand just how important revenue is to our creator community, and we’ve been listening closely to concerns about the loss of monetization during the Content ID dispute process. Currently videos that are claimed and disputed don’t earn revenue for anyone, which is an especially frustrating experience for creators if that claim ends up being incorrect while a video racks up views in its first few days.

Today, we’re announcing a major step to help fix that frustrating experience. We’re developing a new solution that will allow videos to earn revenue while a Content ID claim is being disputed. Here’s how it will work: when both a creator and someone making a claim choose to monetize a video, we will continue to run ads on that video and hold the resulting revenue separately. Once the Content ID claim or dispute is resolved, we’ll pay out that revenue to the appropriate party.

We’re working on this new system now and hope to roll it out to all YouTube partners in the coming months. Here’s a closer look at how it’ll work once it’s live:

We strongly believe in fair use and believe that this improvement to Content ID will make a real difference. In addition to our work on the Content ID dispute process, we’re also paying close attention to creators’ concerns about copyright claims on videos they believe may be fair use. We want to help both the YouTube community and copyright owners alike better understand what fair use looks like online, which is why we launched our fair use protection program last year and recently introduced new Help Center pages on this topic.

Even though Content ID claims are disputed less than 1% of the time, we agree that this process could be better. Making sure our Content ID tools are being used properly is deeply important to us, so we’ve built a dedicated team to monitor this. Using a combination of algorithms and manual review, this team has resolved millions of invalid claims in the last year alone, and acted on millions more before they impacted creators. The team also restricts feature access and even terminates a partner’s access to Content ID tools if we find they are repeatedly abusing these tools.

We will continue to invest in both people and technology to make sure that Content ID keeps working for creators and rightsholders. We want to thank everyone who’s shared their concerns about unintended effects from Content ID claims. It’s allowed us to create a better system for everyone and we hope to share more updates soon.

David Rosenstein, Content ID Group Product Manager, recently watched “Coachella VR 360 – Week 1 Sunday Highlights”

Keep ‘Em Watching with End Screens

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Your best videos leave your fans hungry for more. They can be a great hook for viewers to discover more of your work, find out more about who you are or go deeper into the topics you cover. That’s why we’re excited to launch End Screens, a new mobile-friendly tool that lets you engage viewers right as your video finishes and encourages them to watch more on their devices.

How do they work? In the last 5-20 seconds of your videos, you can now choose to show hard-to-miss thumbnail overlays that prompt viewers to watch your other videos, subscribe to your channel, visit collaborators’ channels, and more. Currently, many creators use Annotations, a desktop-only tool that allows you to add clickable links to your videos, to manually create end screens. This will no longer be necessary, as the new End Screens are not only easier to create, but also allow you to reach more viewers on desktop and mobile. After testing End Screens with a number of creators, we’ve incorporated feedback to make the tool work even better. We couldn’t be happier to make it available to every creator on YouTube.
So how will you use End Screens? We can’t wait to see the ideas you come up with.

Posted by Muli Salem, Product Manager, recently watched "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Trailer #2."

A new, optional feature for paid promotion disclosure

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

YouTube creators are among the most influential voices in media today. Since brands increasingly recognize the value of the connection creators have with their fans around the world, they are investing in collaborations to reach viewers in interesting and authentic ways. At the same time, viewers appreciate transparency when brands and creators collaborate on paid promotions such as product placements, sponsorships or endorsements.

While there are a variety of ways creators can disclose paid promotions, today we are launching a new, optional video feature that adds visible text on the video for the first few seconds a viewer watches, informing viewers of a paid promotion. Creators can also choose to add this text disclosure to any existing video without losing their view count or other video metrics.

We’re excited to provide this feature in response to requests for an easy-to-use notification, but since there is no global disclosure standard, creators and brands should check and follow applicable laws as they may vary greatly by region.

We’ve always asked creators to notify YouTube as well when a video contains paid promotion by checking the “video contains paid promotion” box in their Video Manager. We do this to remove the video from the YouTube Kids app in line with our existing policies, and we may replace the ad served with one that does not conflict with the promoted brand partner.

You can find more information about this new feature and our paid promotion policies in our Help Center. To learn more about disclosure rules and regulations, refer to your local legal resources, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States, Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) in the United Kingdom, or the Direction générale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes (DGCCRF) in France.

Muli Salem, Product Manager, recently watched Magnets and Marbles.

Last chance for 2016! Enter to win a spot at YouTube NextUp!

Friday, September 30, 2016

In February we launched YouTube NextUp, a contest to give creators the opportunity to attend a week-long creator camp to accelerate their channels. Since then, over 200 up-and-coming channels have been selected to attend camps at YouTube Spaces in LA, NY, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Mumbai and Sao Paulo. These up-and-coming channels took a 5-day crash course in video production, learned from top creators and NextUp grads and received vouchers for new equipment.
Now YouTube NextUp is going more global than ever before. We’re excited to announce the launch of our final round of 2016 contests. If you live in the following countries, you’re invited to enter:
North America
NextUp LA + NY - USA
NextUp Toronto - Canada
South America
NextUp Sao Paulo - Brazil
Europe
NextUp London - UK (including Northern Ireland), Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands
NextUp Paris - France, Belgium, and Luxembourg
NextUp Berlin - Germany, Austria, and Switzerland
Middle East and North Africa
NextUp Amman - Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen
Asia
NextUp Tokyo - Japan
NextUp Bangkok - Thailand

What’s it like winning YouTube NextUp? Check out what the latest NextUp London class experienced in the video below:

Channels selected to join the NextUp class of 2016 are eligible to receive:

A $2,500 voucher for production equipment (or local equivalent) to help you make your video dreams a reality.
A spot at a week-long creator camp at YouTube Spaces around the world. You’ll team up with production experts to harness new techniques in camera, lighting, and sound and receive coaching from YouTube Partnerships team on how to grow your audience.
Mentorship by YouTube NextUp grads, plus the opportunity to meet and work with other fast-rising creators.

To see if you’re qualified to enter the YouTube NextUp contest and check out all the creators in the NextUp class of 2016, visit youtube.com/nextup.

Elizabeth Hartnett, YouTube Global Program Manager - NextUp, recently watched "Ew! With Hannah Hoffman and Natalie Barbu" from NextUp NY grad Joey Ahern

And... action! The Creator Studio app introduces actionable data insights

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Like a lot of creators out there, you’re busy. From shooting to traveling, taking meetings, or a little time off, you’re on the move. The latest version of the Creator Studio app makes it faster and easier to manage your channel on the go. With new features to help you track and break down analytics, keep in touch with your community, and manage your channel, you can stay on top of it all, 24/7.

Turn your stats into actions

Not a numbers whizz? No worries! We did all the heavy lifting, so you don’t have to. The latest advances in YouTube Analytics are now part of the Creator Studio app. Our data cards provide simple and easy ways to understand your channel stats and suggest ways you can grow your channel. You’ll also get links to education resources based on your channel needs to help you bolster your skills.

Did one of your videos experience a sudden spike in views while you were out? With our new insights, you’ll receive a personalized message when a significant event happens on your channel and tips on how to make the most of what’s happening on your channel.

Here to help

These latest analytics updates to the Creator Studio app are all part of our continuing efforts to build better tools aimed at helping you grow. And if you still need answers to your YouTube questions, we’ve made it super simple to contact a real person here at YouTube. Following the announcement of increased support for every creator that is part of the YouTube Partner program, we’ve added a new way to email the YouTube support team directly from the app.

Ready to get started?

Download the Creator Studio app for Android from Google Play

Download the Creator Studio app for iOS from the App Store

For more information about the Creator Studio app, check out the YouTube Help Center.

Yury Polnar, Global Lead, Creator Growth, recently watched What Does YouTube Do To Your Video After You Upload It?

YouTube Community goes beyond video

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Your bond with your viewers is deep. You've grown up together, laughed together, and done incredible things together, from shifting attitudes about gay rights to volunteering millions of dollars toward important charitable causes. Today, we’re introducing a beta version of a new product to help strengthen the bond between you and your viewers, called YouTube Community.

The brand new Community tab on your YouTube channel gives you a new, simple way to engage with your viewers and express yourself beyond video. Now you can do things like text, live videos, images, animated GIFs and more, giving you easier, lightweight ways to engage with your fans more often in between uploads, in real time. Viewers will be able to see your posts in the Subscriptions feed on their phones. They can also opt into getting a notification anytime you post.

Community is a special release for us because it represents the deepest product collaboration we've ever done with creators like you. We started by inviting creators in early to develop, in partnership with us, the tools they wanted to better engage with their fans.

These creators brought forward a diversity of backgrounds and content styles, from John & Hank Green, to AsapSCIENCE, The Game Theorists, Karmin, The Key of Awesome, The Kloons, Lilly Singh, Peter Hollens, Rosianna Halse Rojas, Sam Tsui, Threadbanger, and VSauce3. We are launching the Community beta today with these creators, but we look forward to bringing more of you onboard. This is a first step and, with creator and fan feedback, we look forward to rolling out new features and functions as well as including more creators in the months ahead.

As creators, your ideas and feedback shape our platform, inspire new features, and help us decide what to prioritize. It's you who ultimately build YouTube and as the new Community product shows, together, we make YouTube better for everyone.

Posted by Kiley McEvoy, Senior Product Manager, recently watched YouTube's New Thing (and a New Thing of Our Own)

Creators: Step into our office …

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

From spirited discussions about primary debates to live coverage and commentary of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, people have come to YouTube to watch over 110 million hours of candidate and issues-related content leading up this year’s US Presidential Election. The YouTube community has become a key part of these political conversations and we want to help creators take their presidential banter and commentary to the next level and encourage their audience to vote.

Today we’re unveiling new elections-themed sets at YouTube Space LA and YouTube Space New York that are now open for productions. Good news - if you’ve unlocked access at the Space, we’re still accepting applications to shoot on these sets in both YouTube Space LA and YouTube Space NY.

Creators, bring your best White House game to YouTube Space LA where you can shoot on a 360-degree Oval Office set, or our multi-purpose set which includes a News Desk, Press Briefing Room, or Polling Station:

New sets at YouTube Space LA

Over at YouTube Space NY, you’ll be able to spin out your take on the latest political news within fully-outfitted Oval Office set or your choice of a White House Press Room and Debate Stage.

New sets at YouTube Space NY

Specialized writing workshops at both YouTube Spaces are also already under way for creators to get tips on effective storytelling for politically-themed content. In New York, creators are working with filmmaker Morgan Spurlock and Warrior Poets to workshop productions that cover elections issues that are important to them. And in LA, select creators will participate in a comedy writing workshop taught by a seasoned improv and comedy writer. These classes will focus on developing writing skills for independent comedies as well as effective storytelling in experiential, engaging formats.

So far, we’ve welcomed creators like mitú, Nerdist, Key of Awesome, ABC News, Bernie Su of Canvas Media Studios in conjunction with The Young Turks, and LifeVestInside onto the sets to shoot everything from original songs and comedic shorts encouraging Latinos to vote, to videos about increasing kindness perception in the US, as well as a 360 narrative series on life in the Oval Office. Will yours be the first channel to shoot on the stages in both cities? We can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

Chris D'Angelo, Director of Production and Programming, YouTube Spaces, recently watched Our Massive Project: How to Vote in Every State

The YouTube Space London: Our New Home in Kings Cross

Monday, August 15, 2016

For the past four years, YouTube Space London has been home to an incredible community of creators. Over 26,000 of you have passed through our doors, many on multiple occasions.

At the YouTube Space, you’ve experimented with new technology, collaborated with other creators, gone large with big production backdrops, and blown our minds with your creativity, tenacity and talent. We’ve watched travel lovers turn filmmakers and vloggers turn UN ambassadors and witnessed you use all the Space has to offer to realise your big, creative ambitions. And boy, do you have big ambitions!

Over the years we’ve hosted you, it’s become clear that YouTube creators are shaping the world. You’ve invented entirely new genres (vlogging, anyone?), connected corners of the world through shared passions and pastimes (Let’s Play, people!) and built up billions of subscribers for your channels. Many of you have built and run fully fledged media companies.

It’s no wonder then that it’s time for us to graduate to a bigger, better and more accessible facility to help you continue to experiment and create. A stone’s throw from King’s Cross’ international transport hub, the new London Space is a stunning 20,000 square foot facility with street-level access, cutting-edge production equipment, and three fully equipped studios and sound stages. We’ll continue to run training programs that are open to creators at the start of their YouTube journey, while creators with over 10,000 subscribers can book in to use our studio Spaces for free. So whether you’re mastering the basics or keen to try out the latest VR technology - from filming in 360 to live streaming in 4K (!) - we’re here to support you.

So whether you’re giving your philosophy degree away for free, like Philosophy Tube, or keen to create a Christmas horror special, like TomSka, the new London Space will keep you at the cutting edge of of creativity and provide a space for you to learn, connect and create with an incredible and growing community of YouTube creators. See you in Kings Cross!

Marc Joynes, Manager of the YouTube Space London recently watched Tom Scott describe why snow and confetti can ruin YouTube video quality. Very informative, educational and unique to YouTube!

Introducing the NextUp Summer Class of 2016 at YouTube Space NY and LA

Monday, August 8, 2016

Creators,

Earlier this year we announced YouTube NextUp was back in action for 2016. Since then, we’ve held seven programs across seven countries and have loved watching NextUp grads go on to create some seriously awesome videos.

We’re super excited to announce the Summer Class of 2016 for our NextUp contest in New York and Los Angeles this month. Drum roll please….

The winning channels for YouTube Space NY are:
Amy Schmittauer
Answers With Joe
backtrackvocals
Crystal Joy
DIY Tyler
Hannah Hoffman
Joe Edelman
Joey Ahern
Kyla Laird
Melissa Denise
MikeAndLaurenTV
Natalie Barbu
Nick Ferry
PolymomoTea
Sensational Finds
The Vegetarian Baker

The winning channels for YouTube Space LA are:
Alli Cherry
Andru Edwards
Ashlee Marie Cakes
AsianGlow
BrettLarkinYoga
BriansThing
Chris Commisso
Claire Ryann
FlavCity with Bobby Parrish
Freakin Rad
GoBillyKorean
Riley J. Dennis
Keishanista
Long Long Honeymoon
Mr Otter Art Studio
PictureFit
Professor Dave Explains
Sierra Schultzzie

NextUp winners get to be a part of a weeklong creator camp at YouTube Space NY and LA. While there, they’ll team up with production experts to learn about and perfect their camera work, lighting, and sound – and receive coaching from the YouTube Partnerships team on how to grow their audience like a pro. They’ll also get to listen to previous YouTube NextUp grads talk about their journeys on YouTube and meet and work with other fast-rising creators in the program.

Winners also receive a few other super sweet prizes suchs as a $2,500 voucher for production equipment, strategy consultations from a YouTube Partner Manager and invites to exclusive events.

Congrats to all winners!

Liam Collins, Director of YouTube Spaces, Americas, recently watched Algorhythm Ft. Craig Benzine

Watch the Conventions live on YouTube

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Since politicians began announcing their candidacies last year, you’ve come to YouTube to stay informed and engage in a conversation on the importance of this year’s election. From inside the White House to the debate stage, you’ve sat front row and watched more than 110 million hours of candidate and issues-related content on YouTube.

And now the YouTube community will have a chance to be front and center for the next phase of the election.

Just like in 2012, beginning next week, YouTube will again be the official live stream provider of both the Republican National Convention, which starts on Monday, July 18 in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Democratic National Convention, kicking off on July 25 in Philadelphia, Pa. Not only will you be able to watch gavel-to-gavel coverage of the conventions wherever you are, but for the first time, we’ll live stream the conventions in 360 degrees, so you’ll feel what it’s like to be in the center of the action.

In addition, to help provide more information about what's going on at the conventions, some of your favorite YouTube creators are getting involved too. Look out for coverage from The Young Turks, Complex News, Seeker Daily, Ingrid Nilsen, Mark Watson, Julie Borowski and more. These creators, along with other news organizations, will report back to their communities using new tools including mobile live streaming and Jump VR cameras, so you will have nonstop coverage from a variety of perspectives.

We believe that access to more information can help everyone participate in the political process and we look forward to the YouTube community’s lively discussion as we prepare to elect our next president.

Tune into the RNC next week at youtube.com/gopconvention and the DNC beginning July 25 at youtube.com/demconvention.

Brandon Feldman, YouTube News, recently watched “Political Campaigns: Crash Course Government and Politics #39”

This week

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Creators,

This week, like every week, hundreds of millions of people will come to see you.

They will come to see what you believe, what you think, what you have to say. They’ll remember that they love who you are, what you do, and how you make them feel.

I know. I’m one of them.

But this week, after the unacceptable violence and racial injustice we all saw in the US, and following other tragedies around the world, they will come listening a little bit harder to hear a few things: like should they be scared, should they pick sides, should they hate more or love more. Should they tear somebody down or pick somebody up.

You have earned their love, their respect and their attention. Whether you ever intended it or not, your voice has enormous power to connect with your community. There’s no group of people on Earth that has more power to move people than you do.

How you use your voice is up to you. But if you can use it to help us all figure out how to live together in respect, to lend support to the Black community, to Dallas and to all the victims’ families, we need to hear it. I can’t do what you do, but change needs to happen, so let’s see what we can do together.

Susan Wojcicki
CEO, YouTube

YouTube @ VidCon: New support, new features, a better creator experience

Thursday, June 23, 2016

VidCon, the world’s biggest celebration of online video and digital culture, officially kicked off today, and we’re announcing a few updates specifically designed for creators like you. Read on, because being a YouTube creator is about to get even better!

With you every step of the way

The creator community isn’t just big, it’s STRONG. Think of it this way: more than a thousand creators cross the 1,000 subscribers mark every single day. Crazy, right? And while each of you is driving your own success, we do our best at YouTube to support and celebrate your talent and self-expression with new tools, support options, workshops, production access at the Spaces, in-person events, Play Button awards, and the list goes on.

Starting today, we’re taking our investment in the creator community to a whole new level in three ways:

Expanded one-on-one support: We’ve increased our creator support by 100x so that every creator who has joined the Partner Program can get answers via email from a real person here at YouTube. You’ve got questions? Now you can get answers faster and more easily.

Redesigned Creator Hub: The Creator Hub is the one place where you can discover all the programs and creator resources YouTube has to offer. Available in 23 languages, it’s also the best place to learn all the ways you can connect with the creator community while taking advantage of tools and benefits designed to keep your channel (or channels) growing.

YouTube for Creators: As part of the Creator Hub we’re launching YouTube for Creators, a new multi-level benefits program that gets you the benefits you need to grow your channel when you need them. In addition to celebrating subscriber milestones with our Creator Awards program, we’ll now offer new levels of benefits at 0, 1,000 and 10,000 subscribers. Take a quick look at the video below to see what you’ll unlock as your subscriber number grows.

Today at VidCon we also announced a number of updates, all designed to make life for you and your subscribers easier and more fun.

Comment controls: earlier this month we’ve launched a new comment control that lets you delegate moderation, giving people you trust the ability manage your comments. This will help keep your community constructive and friendly.

Content ID support and changes to account penalties: We have an update on the improvements to Content ID we announced back in April. We told you then that we’ve been developing a new solution that will allow videos to earn revenue while a Content ID claim is being disputed. We’re now doing live tests and expect to launch to 100 percent of partners in the coming months.

We’ve also observed - as have many of you - that a “strike” isn’t always the best indication of an abusive channel. For example, a new creator might inadvertently get a strike because they are still learning the rules of engagement for YouTube. In fact, most channels that get a strike will never get another one. The “one size fits all” approach - where all users are handled in the same way as bad actors - is not the most effective way to handle these issues. That’s why soon we’ll be adjusting how penalties are applied when a creator receives a strike on their account. You can follow progress here.

Finally, we’ll be talking a whole lot more about creator and viewer communities during the Creator track keynote speech at VidCon. Mark your calendar for Saturday at 3pm and tune into the live stream here.

Sebastien Missoffe, VP, YouTube Operations, recently watched "VidCon Live Day 1."

We’ll do it live—a new chapter in YouTube’s live stream

Thursday, June 23, 2016

We’ve been offering live streaming on YouTube since 2011, before it was cool. Millions of people around the world tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding in 2011. One-sixth of the Internet watched Felix Baumgartner leap from space live on YouTube in 2012.

And just this year, we became the first to ever broadcast a 360-degree live stream during Coachella. Over 21 million people tuned in to watch Coachella on YouTube this year—almost twice as many as tuned in to watch the season finale of American Idol.

Today, we are announcing a new chapter in bringing the power of live video to creators everywhere. Soon, we’ll be putting the power of YouTube live streaming in the palm of your hands.

YouTube mobile live streaming will be baked right into the core YouTube mobile app. You won’t need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real time

Because it’s built right into the YouTube app, mobile live streaming will have all the features your regular videos have—you’ll be able to search for them, find them through recommendations and playlists and protect them from unauthorized uses. And since it uses YouTube’s peerless infrastructure, it’ll be faster and more reliable than anything else out there.

We think this will offer you an entirely new, more intimate and spontaneous way to share your experiences with your communities. We’re launching today with The Young Turks, AIB, Platica Polinesia, SacconeJolys, and Alex Wassabi at VidCon and will be rolling it out more widely soon.

Posted by Kurt Wilms, Product Lead, Immersive Experiences at YouTube, recently watched SIDEMEN FC VS YOUTUBE ALLSTARS CHARITY FOOTBALL MATCH LIVESTREAM

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Welcome to the 6ix: YouTube Space Toronto opens today

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Canada is a creative powerhouse. From global musical sensations and trailblazing beats, to electric comedy and captivating edutainment, Toronto has long been an epicentre for creative talent.

Today we officially open YouTube Space Toronto to supercharge one of the largest creator communities in North America! YouTube Space Toronto will be a creative industry incubator, offering creators an opportunity to learn from industry experts, connect with fellow YouTubers in a collaborative setting and use the latest latest film equipment to create more ambitious and innovative video content.

Located at at George Brown College’s Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology, YouTube Space Toronto will offer workshops and programming at no cost to Canadian creators who are looking to build their channels, giving them tools and guidance to remove barriers and enable them to innovate and experiment.

At YouTube Space Toronto, creators can:

Learn: From training programs and workshops to master classes, there are plenty of opportunities to get hands-on experience from industry experts.
Connect: Attend events, collaborate with fellow creators, brainstorm ideas, and share tips and tricks to get the most out of YouTube.
Create: This is your space to make your videos and there are resources to help you from start to finish, including areas for creative collaboration; loaner production equipment such as cameras, lights, boom microphones, and more; rotating sets and enclosed sound stage.

The Canadian creator scene is one of the world’s most vibrant YouTube communities, with many of the world’s top YouTube creators hailing from Canada. We’re thrilled to open our doors to this incredible community, as well as the next generation of YouTube artists, musicians and entertainers, who are looking build their channels and share their content with YouTube’s audience of one billion people.

The entrance to YouTube Space Toronto at George Brown College

Today, YouTube Space Toronto joins a list of eight other cities to have a YouTube Space, all of which are also known for their local creative industries. Since March 2015, creators filming in YouTube Spaces globally have produced over 10,000 videos, which have generated over 1 billion views and 70+ million hours of watchtime.

Play button recipients at the YouTube Space Toronto Opening. Collectively, the creators in attendance
had 70 million subscribers - or twice the population of Canada!

For the latest YouTube Space Toronto news and events, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.

We can’t wait to see what happens when Canadian creators have a Space to call their own. One thing we know for sure, the world will be watching!

Posted by Liam Collins, Head of YouTube Spaces America

Creator Blog