YouTube's CEO Just Dropped the Platform's New Focus 🔥

4 key areas to watch: Live, Podcasts, Music, Brand Partnerships

YouTube hosted its annual Made On event today to drop new platform updates and talk about upcoming priorities and where it’s investing.

This is a mini ICYMI update based on the most interesting things I heard today and I’ll have more insights on Friday. I’d love to hear if any of this impacts you as a marketer or creator if you want to comment below or shoot me an email!

The stream lasted an hour but YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan spent his 10-minute keynote talking about four key areas of technology YouTube is building to empower creativity:

• Live

• Podcasts

• Music

• Brand Partnerships

Why listen? Because since one of the former sessions where Mohan talked about a focus on Living Room watching, YouTube has been #1 in streaming watch time in the US for the last 2 years. The man likes to drop serious clues.

A few updates for these areas of focus -

• Live: YouTube will use Gemini AI to analyze your live streams and find potential Shorts to publish

• Podcasts: For podcasters who are audio-first, Audio to Video will help you generate a customizable AI-driven video for your audio podcast.

• Music: They introduced just-for-fans video drops that rewards your top viewers with exclusive video clips.

• Business: Creators will be able to dynamically insert brand segments that can be swapped in and out. That means creators can remove a segment when the deal is complete, resell the slot to another brand or sell the same slot to multiple brands in different markets.

And a couple of other updates that seemed like a big deal:

1. A/B testing for titles: You’ll be able to test up to three different titles, thumbnails, or combinations of both for long-form videos to help maximize the video's performance.

   Availability: A/B testing for titles is being tested now with some creators, and will be available for creators globally before the end of the year.

2. Collaborations: A new feature to help creators showcase partnerships and grow their channels together. Creators can add up to five collaborators to a single video, and the video may be shown to all of their audiences. Plus, analytics will be shared with all the collaborators.

   Availability: Collaborations is gradually rolling out and will be available for all creators globally in the next couple of weeks.

Related:

• The next 20: Powering the future of entertainment together at Made on YouTube

• New ways for creators to earn more with brand partnerships

• Announcing our biggest updates to YouTube Live

• Unpacking the magic of our new creative tools

• Transform your creative journey with the latest YouTube Studio updates