YouTube boss Susan Wojcicki (pronounced Wo-jiski in case your tongue just tried to make a dash for the exit) used her first appearance at VidCon to announce details of a slew of new features hitting the video-sharing site.
Wojcicki, who took the reins at YouTube in February, told the audience at the annual conference for online-video creators and fans that support for videos running at 48 and 60 frames per second is launching in the coming months, a development which’ll prove popular with gaming vloggers keen to upload smoother footage of their action-packed exploits.
While successful YouTube creators are able to pull in a few bucks via ads, the Google-owned site is about to offer another way to generate revenue with the rollout of a virtual tip jar. The “fan funding” feature, which is currently being tested in a number of countries, will allow viewers to easily slip a creator a few bucks – between $1 and $500, to be precise – to help support their channel, or lavish lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed, depending on how they’re doing.
While YouTube has long offered a range of music tracks to help creators add a bit of atmos to their masterpiece, it’s now expanded its audio library to sound effects. Among its 7,500 offerings you’ll find everything from ambulance sirens to “creature distortion white noise” to “bone sawing” – yes, that last one is in the horror section.
Creators can also now enlist the help of their viewers to produce more accurate subtitles for their productions. “Automatic speech recognition and automatic translation on YouTube can help, but your fans can do an even better job,” YouTube said in a post outlining the new features. “In the coming months, your fans will be able to submit translations in any language based on the subtitles or captions you’ve created, helping you reach even more viewers.”
In addition, new, cleaner-looking interactive information cards are also on their way, with users able to program each of them just once to work across desktop, handsets and tablets.
And there’s more – the YouTube Creator Studio mobile app launched for Android on Thursday, enabling creators to easily check stats for their channels (including real-time estimated views), read and respond to comments, and receive customized notifications. iOS users will be able to grab the app “in a week or two,” according to the YouTube Creators Twitter feed.
We’re sure you’ll agree, it’s a pretty comprehensive update, and one aimed firmly at inspiring YouTube creators to go on doing what they do. As part of Wojcicki’s long-term plans, YouTube has started to promote its top creators via billboards and TV commercials in the hope of highlighting the site’s reach and persuading brands to send more ad money its way.
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