YouTube

LG this evening has announced the Action CAM with LTE and YouTube Live support. LG says that this is the “first” action camera to be available globally with LTE connectivity built-in. With LTE connectivity, users are able to stream directly to sites like YouTube Live without the need for a smartphone.

Expand
Expanding
Close

We’ve seen just about everything running on Android Wear at this point — from Minecraft: Pocket Edition, to Flappy Bird, to Windows 95. Next on the list, is of course Windows 7…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Starting today, YouTube is rolling out (via Wired) a new native sharing and messaging feature in its Android and iOS apps. While the video network is already a popular destination, YouTube wants to keep people in the app by having conversations about popular videos start and remain there.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Amazon today announced Amazon Video Direct, a new service that will see it go head to head with YouTube as it allows independent content creators to upload content and get paid.

The service is similar to Amazon’s model with Kindle Direct Publishing for e-books, allowing independent content creators to upload their own content for consumption by users alongside Amazon’s other video content.

And creators will get to choose how they are paid, either from advertising and royalties based on the popularity of the content, or by making videos available to buy or rent through Amazon. Creators will also have the option of making the content available to all Amazon customers under the ad-supported model, or to collect royalties by making it available just to Prime subscribers or in a Prime video add-on subscription.

Amazon also has a fund for creators that will see it hand out a million dollars per month to the 100 top titles, a little bit of incentive for content creators:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Noted music artist manager Irving Azoff has written an open letter to YouTube in which he accuses the video service of paying artists “a pittance” and failing to care about music. He says that Taylor Swift ought to choose whether or not her music is streamed for free.

If music matters to YouTube, then why not give musicians the same choice you give yourselves? Taylor Swift should be able to decide which of her songs are available for free, and which are part of a paid subscription service. Or she should be able to opt out of YouTube if you won’t give her this choice.

Azoff’s letter, posted on Re/code, carries a great deal of weight, his impressive client list encompassing Christina Aguilera, the Eagles, Van Halen, Steely Dan, Maroon 5, Bon Jovi and more …

Expand
Expanding
Close

In this week’s top stories: The best Android phones you can buy (May 2016 edition), we go hands-on with CyanogenMod on the Honor 5X, the latest Android phone leaks, and we show you how to enable YouTube’s new Material reDesign on the web.

Head below for all of the handy links to this week’s most shared stories and videos.

Expand
Expanding
Close

YouTube today has announced several changes coming to its Google Preferred offering. Google Preferred is a premium content offering by YouTube that allows advertises to buy ad space on established creator channels. The company, however, is today expanding the capabilities of Google Preferred.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Bloomberg reports that YouTube is preparing to launch a new subscription video service called “Unplugged” that will see it stream bundled cable TV channel packages to users online. That compares to the company’s current subscription offerings that simply offer enhanced features like ad-free and offline playback for its regular video service.

The report claims YouTube is in talks with most major media companies that would be necessary to build such a service, some of which include Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, Viacom Inc., Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. and CBS Corp. And while it’s yet to secure rights with any, according to the report, it’s already started building out the tech necessary for the service ahead of a launch planned for as early as next year:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Most, if not all, of Google’s Android apps have received a Material redesign. With the Chrome OS update rolling out, YouTube on the web is the next and one of the last major products to get Material Design. Google appears to be A/B testing (via Android Police) the update with a small set of users, but it is quite easy for anyone to enable. Here’s how to do it…

Expand
Expanding
Close

Earlier this month the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, Cary Sherman, spoke out against the deals that are currently in place between record labels and YouTube. Sherman voiced her displeasure with how effective the DMCA is, as well as with the negotiation process between labels and YouTube. Now, YouTube’s head of international music partnerships Christopher Muller has shared a blog post offering his response to the complaints by the RIAA.

Expand
Expanding
Close

YouTube is rolling out a redesigned Home interface for the Android and iOS app. The new design is cleaner and simpler, but also takes advantage of deep neural networks to better recommend videos for users to watch.

Expand
Expanding
Close

After announcing a new ad platform for television last week, Google is launching a new six second “Bumper” video ad format for YouTube. Aimed at “snackable” videos consumed on smartphones, Bumpers cannot be skipped over.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Announced last year, YouTube’s 360-degree videos are one of the easiest source of content for VR headsets, like Cardboard. Today, Google is announcing support for live 360-degree video streaming, as well as support for spatial audio.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The major US record labels are still unhappy with the current state of their deals for YouTube royalties, leading the industry’s trade group to file a complaint as contracts with the streaming service are set to expire this year. Recode spoke with head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Cary Sherman who represents the labels and explained why the music industry thinks the deals and negotiations with YouTube are unfair and hurting the industry and artists.

Expand
Expanding
Close

According to a report from VentureBeat, Google is working to compete more directly with live streaming app Periscope. The report claims that Google will launch an app called YouTube Connect that will allow anyone to immediately begin broadcasting live onto YouTube from their smartphone.

Expand
Expanding
Close

T-Mobile is expanding its Binge On initiative that allows users to stream content in certain apps without using up their data allowance, and with today’s update YouTube and Google Play Movies are now officially supported.

Expand
Expanding
Close