At the “Made on YouTube” event, which was held at Pier 57 on Sept. 18, 2024, CEO Neal Mohan, product executives, and top creators introduced nine new features and tools aimed at helping creators express their creativity, build communities, and grow their businesses.
Here is a quick overview of the announcements:
- Veo for Dream Screen: Dream Screen, which allows creators to generate backgrounds in YouTube Shorts, will soon be enhanced with Google’s DeepMind technology, bringing more realistic backgrounds and standalone video clips.
- Inspiration Tab: The upgraded Inspiration tab in YouTube Studio helps creators turn curated suggestions into full projects, with AI refining ideas, titles, and thumbnails to fit their style.
- Communities: A new feature that allows creators to create spaces on their channel pages where both they and their fans can post art, share ideas, and engage with each other.
- Community Hub: This new space in the YouTube Studio app helps creators engage more effectively with their audiences, with AI-powered suggestions for replies to comments.
- Auto Dubbing: Soon to be available to more creators, auto dubbing will allow creators to add audio tracks in different languages, making their content more accessible globally.
- Hype: A new way for viewers to support smaller creators by “hyping” their videos to help them appear on a weekly leaderboard, which increases visibility and audience reach.
- YouTube Shopping: YouTube’s shopping program is expanding to creators in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, following its success in the U.S. and South Korea.
- Gifts Powered by Jewels: This feature allows viewers to engage with live streams on vertical video formats, giving creators another way to earn revenue.
- Big Screen Experience: Creators will soon be able to structure their content into seasons and episodes, improving the TV viewing experience. Additionally, autoplay features for channel pages will help engage viewers from the start.
For more details, you can read about the “Made On YouTube” event here and watch the New YouTube Features — Explained! video below.
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In the video, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Johanna Voolich, says, “On YouTube, success isn’t one-size-fits-all.” It is as distinctive as the video platform’s talented creators and artists.
Whether it is about expressing yourself, building a community, or achieving financial independence, YouTube aims to provide lasting opportunities for creators to chart their own path to success.
Dream Screen With Google DeepMind’s Veo
The most eye-catching announcement at this week’s “Made on YouTube” event was Google DeepMind’s Veo.
Screenshot from blog.google, September 2024Last year, YouTube launched Dream Screen, which allows creators to generate limitless backgrounds for YouTube Shorts.
While millions of creators are already using Dream Screen, YouTube announced its plans to integrate Google DeepMind’s advanced video-generating model, Veo, into YouTube Shorts later this year.
With Veo, creators will be able to produce even more immersive backgrounds.
For example, BookTubers could immerse themselves in the world of the classic novel, The Secret Garden, or a fashion designer could instantly bring creative and playful design ideas to life to present to their audience.
This means creators will soon be able to generate standalone six-second video clips for their YouTube Shorts using Veo.
For instance, if you are reviewing your footage and sense that something is needed to bring it all together, you can easily create a single clip that seamlessly integrates with the content you have already filmed.
These creations will include a SynthID watermark, along with a label that clearly informs viewers they were generated using AI.
Inspiration Tab Also Gets A Makeover
YouTube also unveiled an Inspiration Tab makeover.
Screenshot from blog.google, September 2024As 20.4 million YouTube creators worldwide already know all too well, generating fresh ideas can be tough.
So, the Inspiration Tab in YouTube Studio is getting a makeover, creating a brainstorming buddy that is powered by generative AI.
It will assist in generating suggestions that you can develop into complete projects, including video ideas, titles, thumbnails, and outlines that align with your style.
Next year, YouTube will roll out a new shortcut that will take you directly to the Inspiration Tab from any source of inspiration, such as your top comments, other videos, or even your own content library.
Four New Features To Build Stronger Connections
YouTube understands that the bond between creators and their loyal fans is special. So, they introduced four new tools to build even stronger connections:
1. Communities
Creators can think of this feature as their own space on their channel to discuss videos, share fan art, and connect with others.
Communities are live on select channels, with wider access planned for early 2025.
2. Hype
A new feature to spotlight emerging creators. Fans can “hype” a video, boosting its chances of being discovered.
Hype has already been tested in Brazil, Türkiye, and Taiwan, and will soon roll out to other countries.
3. Auto Dubbing
YouTube’s automatic dubbing tool allows creators to generate translated audio tracks, making content accessible in multiple languages.
Soon, it will support even more languages, and they are testing a feature that will replicate tone and ambiance for a more natural listening experience.
4. Comments Tab
YouTube is reimagining the Comments tab in the YouTube Studio app, turning it into a “Community” hub for deeper engagement.
Responding to comments can be overwhelming for creators, so YouTube is introducing AI-powered suggestions to help creators craft responses faster, along with tools like community spotlights and audience metrics.
Three New Ways To Support The Creator Economy
YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed more than $35 billion to the U.S. GDP in 2022, which supported over 390,000 full-time equivalent jobs in the country, according to a report by Oxford Economics.
“Today, YouTube is the only platform that shares revenue with creators at scale, across multiple formats. Our YouTube Partner Program pays out more than any other creator monetization platform, and we’ve paid $70 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years,” notes Voolich.
YouTube has also unveiled three new features to reinforce their support for the Creator Economy:
1. Jewels And Gifts
YouTube launched digital items designed to boost real-time fan interaction and provide a new way for creators to earn.
Initially, this will roll out in the U.S. for vertical livestreams, making it simpler for viewers to engage, show excitement, and participate actively, enhancing the live experience.
2. YouTube Shopping Expansion
YouTube Shopping now has over 250,000 creators! The affiliate program is available in the U.S. and South Korea, and YouTube is expanding to Indonesia through a partnership with Shopee.
Soon, YouTube will bring the program to Thailand and Vietnam, allowing more creators to promote products and grow their businesses globally.
3. Access To Living Rooms
Creators are increasingly creating content specifically for the big screen, with TV revenue growing over 30% year over year.
To support this, YouTube introduced features like organizing content into seasons and episodes, making it easier for viewers to follow their favorite shows.
Additionally, YouTube enhances the TV experience with immersive content from creators’ channels, better subscription management, and easier access to links in descriptions.
The Biggest Splash For YouTube Since Brandcast
The annual YouTube event did not fail to deliver. By unveiling nine new features at Made on YouTube 2024, the platform made its biggest splash since Brandcast back in May.
What does this mean for YouTube?
Creators are central to YouTube’s success. They are the ones who bring their ideas, stories, and visions to the platform. And they are uploading more than 500 hours of content to YouTube every minute.
What does this mean for brands and their agencies?
Well, creators have turned YouTube into the second-most visited website in the world, after Google Search.
As of September 2024, YouTube had more than 2.5 billion monthly users, who collectively watch more than 1 billion hours of videos every day. And YouTube Shorts is now averaging over 70 billion daily views from billions of monthly logged-in users.
So, brands and their agencies can reach potential customers while they’re searching, browsing, or watching YouTube videos.
At Brandcast back in May, YouTube unveiled new ad offerings, touted creator influence, and shared strong viewership metrics. At Made on YouTube this week, it announced a lot of new products and updated features that aim to give creators the opportunity to build engaging communities, drive sustainable businesses, and express creativity on their platform.
And as any fan of the movie Ghostbusters (1984) can tell you, that makes this “the biggest interdimensional cross rip since the Tunguska Blast of 1909.”
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Featured Image: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan speaks onstage at Made on YouTube at Pier 57 on September 18, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Made on YouTube 2024)