Google Is Building A Creator-Focused Mobile App, Channel Donations And Crowdsourced Captions

Google’s letting YouTube creators know they’re special and important with a new Creator Preview series of videos (via 9to5Google) to keep the updated on new developments, and the first one reveals some of the upcoming YouTube-focused features the search giant is working on. Among the new developments are a creator-focused YouTube management app, new revenue options via direct channel donations, and crowdsourced captions in over 60 languages.

The roughly three-minute video doesn’t describe the creator app in too much detail, but it gives the impression that it’s designed to provide more backend information and feedback for YouTube creators to access on the home. The donation mechanic is similar to one that Vimeo already has in place, and would offer an additional, completely YouTube-contained way for channel creators to solicit and collect funds directly from audience members. Captions would make it possible for YouTube creators to reach international audiences in any language.

Additionally, Google talked about plans to build a revenue share model for covers and mashups so that people who riff on popular tracks can also manage to make money for them, without having to worry about finagling rights and all that other tedium on their own. Google has good reason to make this process better for creators, as this kind of content makes up a big chunk of what drives views on the site. Last year, Google made it possible for creators to derive ad revenue from select content like this, but now it seems it has additional plans to help creators share the wealth.

There’s more still, like additional royalty-free music coming for creators to use in building their stuff. And Google plans to make these videos a regular thing, so stay tuned for more if you’re in the business of developing an online video fan base.