YouTube to see new features, including crowdfunding and 60fps video

27 Jun 2014

Aside from rolling out a music subscription service, video-sharing site YouTube has confirmed a number of new features, including the ability to crowdfund and watch videos in 60 frames per second (fps).

YouTube’s director of product management for creators Matthew Glotzbach and Oliver Heckmann, vice-president of engineering for creators, listed some these changes on YouTube’s partners and creators blog, but the company has yet to release further details about its music subscription service.

YouTube’s new crowdfunding ability, called fan funding, lets subscribers directly donate to their favourite YouTubers, much in the same way someone would donate to a Kickstarter campaign.

So far, a number of YouTubers have signed up to test the platform, including Fitness Blender and The Young Turks. The platform will initially roll out across desktop and Android.

Good news for gamers

For hardcore gamers, the need for a game that plays at 60fps is essential in the modern era and YouTube is catering to their needs by improving video quality to 60fps in the coming months.

Channels related to gaming are growing in numbers on the site, and are some of the most popular channels on YouTube.

Other new additions to YouTube include thousands of new royalty-free sound effects from the site’s audio library being made available to video creators to use within their videos. Until now, video creators had been limited to sound effects from royalty-free songs, which would require time to trawl through and edit.

And for video creators looking to monitor their videos’ performance on the go, YouTube’s parent company Google is launching the Creator Studios app on Android that lets users monitor analytics and everything to do with their videos – no doubt essential for those desperate to see their videos go viral.

YouTube screen image via Shutterstock

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com