YouTube rolling out new mobile app, crowdfunding option for creators

By Loren Grush May 24, 2014

youtube rolling new mobile app crowdfunding option creators screen shot — Image used with permission by copyright holder

For the many YouTubers who operate their own channels and post their own original video on a regular basis, YouTube has heard your call.

The Google-owned video sharing site announced on Friday its plans to roll out a separate mobile app for its content creators, which will allow them to better manage their channels from their phones and even crowdfund their videos. YouTube said the move was in response to their global satisfaction survey, which aims to garner feedback from its most involved users.

In its first Creator Preview, Matt Glotzbach, the site’s director of creator product management, and other YouTube engineers detailed the new mobile app and how it will better address the needs of its YouTube stars.

“We saw creators struggling a lot with not being able to do basic YouTube management stuff on their phones,” said Molly Nix, a YouTube designer. “We saw this as a really great opportunity to build something that you guys can use on the go and manage your channel anywhere you are.”

The app will also have a new crowdfunding feature, which will allow fans to pay their favorite YouTube creators directly. The idea is to give channel users another source for making money rather than solely depending on advertising revenue.

Along with these new features, YouTube is also working on a community captions project, which will allow for crowdsourced captions and subtitles that translate into more than 60 languages. Additionally, some small updates will include a new comment management system, a way for musicians to share in revenue from their cover song videos, and expansion of its Creator Academy.

And if these changes aren’t to your liking, you can always take to social media to express your opinions, as YouTube will be reviewing everyone’s thoughts on Twitter and Google+.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Loren Grush is a science and health writer living in New York City, having written for Fox News Health, Fox News SciTech and…

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