YouTube launched in 2005 as a video sharing platform, and was acquired by Google (now Alphabet) in 2006. It has built an entire community of creators that run channels dedicated to topics like gaming, tech reviews, and beauty. It also houses news videos and entertainment such as music videos, movie trailers, and clips from late-night TV shows.
YouTube’s rapid growth has not been without problems. YouTubers typically make money from ads that run in front of their videos, but if they break the platform’s rules, their channels and videos can be demonetized. Executives and moderators have worked to combat harassment, misinformation, terrorist propaganda, hate content, and other abuse.
The Verge runs two YouTube channels, The Verge and Verge Science.
The Watch With live reactions feature is being expanded to all long-form videos later this year. Additional features are coming in 2027, including livestreamer matchmaking, interactive fan funding on co-hosted streams, and automatic speech translation and dubbing.
[blog.youtube]
Along with a bunch of AI news today, YouTube music exec Lyor Cohen announced a renewed agreement with concert promoter Goldenvoice to keep streaming both weekends of the Coachella music festival for the next four years.
This continues an arrangement that will hit 15 years next April, despite Bloomberg’s report of competing bids from the likes of Netflix and Amazon. It also says that in the future we’ll see more pre-event programming, as well as mini-documentaries and other videos about artists between sets.
This builds on the feature introduced in May which allows users to build a custom video feed based on AI prompt descriptions of your interests, moods, or favorite topics. The expansion means you can create and save more than one custom feed to your home screen, with YouTube saying it’ll be available for users in the US on web, mobile, and TVs “soon.”
YouTube is expanding its likeness detection tool to include not just facial matches, but vocal matches too. At the company’s Made on YouTube event on Wednesday, executives teased the upcoming expansion that will allow creators to monitor potential synthetic soundalikes posted to the platform.
The original likeness detection feature started testing with creators and eventually was opened to anyone with a YouTube account — the company has essentially created its own deepfake monitoring and takedown regime.
You’ll also be able to unlock your account with the YouTube mobile app. Read all the details in this YouTube support post. This is a smart feature!
If you liked the pilot animatic for Kiana Khansmith’s Pretty Pretty Please I Don’t Want to Be a Magical Girl, you’re going to love the Mercury Filmworks-produced, fully animated version of the first episode that just hit YouTube.
A selection of Binsky’s videos will appear on Netflix starting September 19th, similar to the streamer’s deals with Kevin Langue, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, as reported by Variety. YouTube has reportedly offered creators millions not to cross-post their videos to Netflix.
If you subscribe to YouTube TV’s main $82.99 / month plan or standalone Sports package, you can now access live sports and other content from ESPN Unlimited directly within the YouTube TV app.
YouTube TV started allowing users to connect ESPN Unlimited to their accounts in July, as part of a carriage agreement reached by Google and Disney last year.
HarperCollins probably dropped a pretty penny to get Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson and James Patterson to collaborate on their newly released novel, The Most Dangerous Games. But Semafor reports that the publisher might have a hard time making that money back due to the book’s very, very low pre-sales.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly highlighted the book’s pre-sale numbers rather than post-launch sales.
He admitted to being “scared” but excited about his new YouTube channel in his first video, but said that after 30 years making movies, he wants to “undo whatever stigmas are in my head or in anybody’s head.” Shyamalan dives into his Signs filmmaking diary in his second video on the channel.
It’s planning to run full-page ads in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times on Thursday, according to NYT reporter Mike Isaac, on the heels of Meta’s $17 billion settlement with state AGs. Meta is using the settlement to urge its top competitors to take on similar restrictions.
The stations initially launched earlier this year for as a pilot for some music artists, but YouTube said Friday that the feature is expanding to formats including “creator content, media channels, podcasts, and select new music artists.” A “limited” number of creators will be able to try the “experiment” to start.
[YouTube test features and experiments]
It would have been the next bellwether in the group of cases tried in a Los Angeles state court. In the first, Meta and YouTube were ordered to pay $6 million total. After settling with TikTok, the teen’s lawyer told The New York Times, she wanted to “resume her life.”
[The New York Times]
YouTube is “close an agreement with several partners” though hasn’t signed any deals yet, according to Bloomberg.
Netflix has been paying YouTube creators, including Alan Chikin Chow, Nick DiGiovanni, and Mythical Entertainment, to post their videos on Netflix the same time they hit YouTube, Bloomberg recently reported.
The “Ask YouTube” conversational search experience that YouTube started testing in April is now rolling out to the mobile app. It’s available for signed-in users in the US who are 13 or older, and can be found by tapping the “Ask” option in the YouTube search bar.
The new practice mode offers creators a chance test things out privately before really going live.
As Dexerto reports, Green says he wasn’t reading an AI prompt in a clip from a recent Ask Hank Anything video, but confessed that he’s been using AI “to locate papers and other resources for learning about topics.” In a Reddit post, he said he needs to “readjust” now.
I need to come to terms with the fact that the level of dopamine I’ve been getting from interacting with LLMs...with doing more and more and more and more...is not healthy for me or good for the world. It is careless, and has disconnected me from where people are on this.
According to 404 Media, impacted creators have received a notice from YouTube saying that the platform found “severe or repeated violations of our sex and nudity policy.” 404 notes that “Erotic ASMR exists, but that’s not what these artists were doing on YouTube.”
“We terminated these channels for linking to content that violates our nudity and sexual content policy,” YouTube spokesperson Boot Bullwinkle tells The Verge. “Our external link policies apply equally to all creators across YouTube, and this action was taken in accordance with our long-standing policies, not as a change in policy or targeting of ASMR content.”
Update: Added YouTube statement.
In the process of getting through his thoughts, he does a pretty good riff about the people who say they “make” stuff with AI. As for Musk’s version of The Odyssey, Johnson says, “I’m excited for the Cyclops to have two eyes.”
How TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube copied their way to victory.
Aside from labeling and filtering AI slop, YouTube says you can directly chat with its Ask Studio bot to build thumbnails that are “tailored to your video’s specific themes and to your specific style.” It’s also added custom thumbnail uploads for Shorts if you’re in the YouTube Partner Program, and suggested thumbnail frames for Shorts.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the partnership also includes new episodes of Mythical Kitchen and Last Meals, and follows similar deals to bring other YouTube shows to Netflix, like content from digital media brands. Mythical Entertainment’s shows will begin premiering on the same day on both platforms starting September 7th.
[The Hollywood Reporter]
Google started testing Ask YouTube earlier this year, and YouTube CEO Neal Mohan says it’s now rolling out on the web for users in the US starting this week.
As YouTube starts to look more and more like TV, the company now lets Partner Program creators make playlists that function as “shows,” which offer a “polished TV experience for your series.” YouTube has been working on them for a while.
It will also block “most video ads” outside YouTube, according to a blog post. DuckDuckGo’s browser will switch on the feature by default across Windows, Mac, and iOS devices, while users on Android will have to enable it manually from the Settings menu.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how course-peddling hustlebros manage to convince their followers that they’re selling enough subscriptions to galavant around the world in private jets, you need to check out this excellent 404 piece that highlights one of the trade’s shadiest tricks: fake dashboards.
If you’re trying to cut down the amount of time you spend on YouTube, there’s at least one more video you should watch. Modder Throaty Mumbo has built a custom cartridge that can search and stream YouTube on a Game Boy Color. The quality and experience look awful, but it works.
The terms of the settlement are confidential, Courthouse News Service reports. Meta, Snap, and ByteDance are still set to be defendants in the trial, which is being brought by a 15-year old plaintiff known as “R.K.C.” and is scheduled to start on July 27th.
In the first bellwether case, Meta and YouTube were found negligent.
[Courthouse News Service]
The experimental composer has a new album, a new plugin, and strong feelings about mattresses.
