YouTube Creator Blog

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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