YouTube promises creators more transparency and expanded features

YouTube wants its creators to know that the company hears them loud and clear.

YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki published her latest letter to creators on Monday, discussing the company's priorities for the rest of the year. While the bulk of the letter covered the threat Article 13 in the EU poses on the YouTube community, Wojcicki also snuck in a slew of major updates for its content creators.

Going forward, YouTube will be improving its communications with creators, according to Wojcicki. YouTube has a bit of a reputation for not always being transparent, often leaving many in the dark when it comes to platform upgrades. The company says it will provide regular updates through its Twitter account and Creator Insider YouTube channel, as well as through the new YouTube Studio.

YouTube Studio is the new YouTube user backend formerly known as Creator Studio, which will officially roll out across all channels in 2019. The YouTube Studio beta is available for use now, and centers around platform news and updates.

In 2019, YouTube will also be expanding its new video upload flow known as “self-certification.” This pilot program currently allows specific creators to provide information about their videos in order to “accurately represent the content” to advertisers on the platform.

Speaking of monetization, YouTube is lowering the threshold for creators looking to offer viewers paid memberships to their channel. Previously the Channel Memberships feature was only available to creators with over 100,000 subscribers on their channel. Now, any channel with 50,000 subscribers can provide the membership option to their audience. Wojcicki says that YouTube plans to expand this further down the line as well.

YouTube has also just expanded its Premieres feature to all of its creators. This feature is particularly cool, as it allows creators to schedule pre-recorded content to “premiere” as a livestream, allowing users to live chat and interact together upon the debut of the video.

Shifting focus on to a specific type of content, YouTube announced a new YouTube learning channel with “curated tutorials, DIY videos, skill-based playlists, and other high-quality educational content.” In order to encourage and “support education focused creators and expert organizations,” YouTube also announced a Learning Fund, where they will invest $20 million into these types of YouTube channels.

Rounding out the latest news for creators, Wojcicki touched upon on the new “Gaming Destination” replacing YouTube Gaming, recent updates to how the platform takes on misinformation and breaking news, and a new beta program called YouTube Giving that allows creators to raise money for causes. With all these new features headed creators' way this year, YouTube has a few busy months ahead of it.