YouTube has unveiled a series of new features for its content creators as it seeks to boost their business on the video site, in turn drumming up more engagement and stickiness on the platform.
A Creator Studio app is now live for Android and launching on iOS in the “coming weeks” while there will also be a redesign of Creator Studio on desktop. This means that content creators can now finally use the app to see analytics and manage videos on the go.
YouTube also teased 60 frames per second support for its videos: “Your video game footage with crazy high frame rates will soon look as awesome on YouTube as it does when you’re playing, when we launch support for 48 and even 60 frames per second in the coming months.” There are already a few preview videos on the site’s creator channel.
And what would content creators be without their fans? YouTube has also introduced new features to get fans more involved — one of them is a fan funding option where viewers can contribute money to support a creator’s channel at any time. The company says that a handful of creators are testing this feature “soon”on desktop and Android in the US, Mexico, Japan and Australia, but promises that more countries will be landing soon.
Another addition involving fans is letting them contribute subtitles. YouTube says that in the coming months, fans will be able to submit translations in any language based on the subtitles or captions that content creators have put up, which can help in extending the reach of viewership. This is now in testing with certain creators including Barely Political and Got Talent Global. This feature mirrors what’s currently being offered by Viki, a global video-streaming site bought by Rakuten last year.
Other features landing on YouTube include sound effects in its Audio Library (more specifically, thousands of royalty-free ones), while in the near future we can expect to see creator credits on collaborative videos being beefed up from mere text shout-outs into hyperlink tags, and interactive new information cards with what YouTube touts as a “clean look.
As YouTube stars rise in popularity and see businesses being formed around their videos, managing the ecosystem and engaging fans become priority. To this extent, a mobile platform called Victorious has also just launched to help creators power their own individual apps for free, as a complement to whatever YouTube is offering.
Headline image via Rego Korosi/Flickr
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