WE’LL DO IT LIVE: YouTube live streaming expanding to more channels

Live streaming can bring great experiences to your viewers, create deeper engagement with your fans and build a hyper-engaged audience for your channel. Over the last year, many YouTube creators have used our live streaming to make their channels a destination for Emmy-winning sports events, amazing music, immersive gaming, engaging talk shows and so much more.

To help even more of you create these great experiences for your viewers, starting today we are expanding access to live streaming. All channels in good standing with over a thousand subscribers are now eligible to apply for live streaming. To see if you’re eligible, check your Account Features page for an “Enable” button to sign up for Live and click it if you're interested. In the following weeks you'll be able to live stream to the world from your channel.

YouTube Live allows you to offer your audience a great viewing experience, with great streaming quality and instant scalability and reliability. Here are some key features:

●    You get real-time transcoding in the cloud, so you only need to send us your highest quality stream and we make it instantly available in all resolutions and device formats

●    You can show multiple camera angles, add closed captions and insert ads and slates

●    Viewers can watch the live stream from any device, get the best quality constantly adjusting to their Internet connection and can skip back and forth in the live stream

More information on the live streaming is available in our Help Centre, and you can also have a look at the YouTube Live Streaming API for everything you need to create your own live experience with YouTube. We'll also continue to expand availability to more channels and add more features to YouTube Live over time.

Satyajeet Salgar, Product Manager, can’t stop watching “Doodle for Saul Bass’ 93rd birthday”

Improvements to YouTube Uploading

We've heard your feedback about uploading videos being a bit of a drag, so today we're announcing two improvements to make it easier.

Upload Notification Emails

Tired of refreshing the upload page to see if your video is finally done and ready to be watched and shared? Starting this week, we will send you an email to notify you that your video is done uploading and processing. You can then forward that email to friends or family for easy sharing.

Prefer not to receive these emails? You can opt out by visiting your email settings.

More Control Over Publishing and Sharing

Ever had a public video publish to YouTube before you’ve finished filling in its information? You’ll soon be able to decide when your video gets published, giving you as much time as you need to input the title, description, custom message to send to your subscribers, etc.

Until you tell us to publish your video, we'll treat it as private so it’ll be visible only to you. We’ll start rolling out this change next week, so hang tight if you don't see this change just yet-- and don’t forget to press Publish!

As always, if you want to share your feedback about these new features you can post in the YouTube Help forum or use the Send Feedback link at the bottom of any YouTube page.

Balazs Dezso, YouTube engineer, recently watched Follow Me on Twitter.

Back by popular demand! A Virtual Master Class from your own room

Ever wanted to ask a specific question about production for your video? YouTube Space London is offering one virtual master class for creators via a Hangout On Air live from the YouTube Space London this month.

A virtual master class is an online classroom that is streamed right from the YouTube Space London. The classes are all production focused and will cover topics intended to help you make your videos better.

The first master class will be on Tuesday, May 28th, at 7pm GMT on the YouTube Creators YouTube Channel. The topic for this master class is Introduction to Lighting. If you have any questions about lighting, please enter your questions here.

You will also be able to ask questions live during the virtual master class! During the Hangout On Air, submit questions via the comments below the video as we will be taking them live.

The virtual master classes will be available through video on demand on our channel.

Kelly Greaves, YouTube Creator Programmes Specialist, recently watched London Bus Characters by MallumTV 

Coming soon: More videos in the homepage

We know that the YouTube homepage, or the “sub box” as it’s lovingly called by long-time YouTubers, is a very important part of the site for creators. It’s where all your die-hard fans come to catch your latest uploads and we’re working hard to improve the experience for all of your viewers.

Starting next week, you’ll see an update to the homepage for signed-in viewers that puts more videos above the fold. Rather than one video per channel, your fans will now get to see more of your uploads on a single row of the homepage.

In addition, we’ve also added some variety to how updates from channels are displayed. For example, if someone has been watching a few episodes from a series, there’s a good chance they’ll see an update on their homepage that encourages them to watch the next episode:

This update is a first of a series of improvements you’ll see us make over the coming months to make the homepage smarter.

To help someone find the next best thing to watch, we’re looking for patterns in how viewers use YouTube. We know that a lot of fans come back to watch every single video from their favorite channels, regardless of whether those videos were uploaded yesterday or last year. For those most loyal fans, we want to make sure that their favorite channels are always up top so they never miss a beat. And for those fans that watch mainly from their subscriptions, we’ll move their other recommendations further down so they can always see their favorite channels first.

This update is another in a series of improvements you’ll see over the coming months to make the home page smarter. We’ll keep you updated along the way, and we hope you enjoy these new improvements as well.

Norberto Guimaraes recently subscribed to bigthink.

Tailored Strategies Just for You

The Creator Playbook is a great resource to learn about best practice on YouTube, but wouldn’t you like to get your hands on a Playbook with tailored tips and strategies specific to the type of content you create? After all, each one of you creates something completely unique. As a music creator, maybe you’re wondering how to successfully release an album or song on YouTube. Or, if you’re a sports creator, maybe you’re stumped on how to program your content during the off-season. Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered.

Today, we’re announcing the creation of Playbook Guides - a new set of resources designed for the unique needs of different content creators. Playbook Guides are now available in the following categories: Sports, Music, Education, Media Companies, and Nonprofits.

Don’t forget to use these resources alongside the Creator Playbook, which is still the one-stop shop for site-wide best practices.

Lauren Vilders, Audience Development, recently watched “Hip Hop Shopping Spree | CDZA Opus No. 21.“  

Convert viewers into subscribers with your Channel Trailer

If you’ve upgraded to the new YouTube One Channel, you’ve probably noticed that you can feature a trailer to convert viewers into subscribers. When you enable the Browse Tab in channel settings, only non-subscribers will see this trailer.

A compelling channel trailer is the most engaging way of introducing your channel and encouraging your viewers to subscribe, so that they’ll make you part of their YouTube habit.

Some creators have already started featuring amazingly effective Channel Trailers. Here are a few examples: MysteryGuitarMan, Indy Mogul and Veritasium Science

Imagine this trailer as an ad for your channel. Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re making your Channel Trailer:

• Have a clear call to action to subscribe (scripted and annotated in the video, and in the video description as well)
• Entertain the viewer - when in doubt “show” what your channel is about, don’t “tell”
• Indicate the type of videos you upload and when you upload them
• Think about the video’s context; it will be seen on the channel, potentially after a viewer has already seen at least one of your videos
• There’s no perfect length, but shorter is better

For a full rundown of strategies to build your audience with the new YouTube One Channel, visit the revised YouTube Playbook. Now go and create something great!

Andres Palmiter, Audience Development Strategist, recently subscribed to AgentXPQ and xperpetualmotion

We’re simplifying earnings reporting for all partners

One of the most exciting things about YouTube is all the partners building businesses around doing what they love. We now have thousands of partners who are making video creation a full-time endeavour. And, we’re listening to feedback and working to improve the process of earning money on YouTube.

So, in an effort to ensure that we deliver our partners the most accurate and consistent financial performance data for their videos, we are making some changes in how YouTube interacts with AdSense. Starting 1 April 2013, AdSense will no longer calculate and report AdSense for Content Host earnings for YouTube partners. Instead, AdSense earnings from YouTube videos will only be calculated by YouTube and displayed in YouTube Analytics.

What does this mean for you as a YouTube partner?

First, expect no change in how you are paid. The payments tab in AdSense will show your monthly YouTube payments as one total amount as you will continue to be paid via AdSense. Rather, this change means that if you want to view your YouTube financial performance, you should go to YouTube Analytics where you can continue to find a comprehensive view of all your sources of earnings for your YouTube videos. YouTube Analytics has improved the timeliness of earnings reporting to within 24 hours after the end of the day, Pacific Time. You can still view page views and clicks and also manage ad blocking in the AdSense interface for your YouTube videos. If you use other AdSense products, their calculation and reports will be unchanged in the AdSense reporting interface.

Have you ever wondered what the difference between AdSense earnings and YouTube earnings was? As a bit of background, many YouTube partners have ad earnings from two sources: auction-sold ads (AdSense earnings) and reserve-sold ads (YouTube earnings). YouTube serves the optimal ads when a viewer watches the video. Previously, AdSense calculated and reported the auction-sold AdSense earnings. YouTube calculated reserve-sold and miscellaneous earnings and reported both AdSense and YouTube earnings. Now, having only the YouTube system calculate all your earnings will simplify and streamline your video reporting.

We take accurate financial calculation and reporting very seriously, and believe this change will reduce reporting confusion and prepare all our partners for new ways to grow their earnings.

Andy Stack, YouTube Product Manager, recently LHFAO while watching “Pepsi MAX & Jeff Gordon Present: Test Drive”