YouTube Australia Blog: December 2012

Countdown to 2013: Sydney fireworks live streaming on YouTube

Monday, 31 December 2012

Want to ring in the new year with your very own private fireworks spectacular? Look no further than YouTube.
This New Year’s Eve, for the first time, the City of Sydney’s spectacular midnight fireworks show will be seen by millions around the world on Telstra’s YouTube channel. Spectators everywhere will enjoy more than four hours of content, which this year has the creative input of Aussie pop princess Kylie Minogue. And as the clocks strike midnight, the iconic Sydney harbour will once again light up in what has become one of the most dramatic and dazzling events at the turn of every year.

Subscribe to youtube.com/telstracorp for a behind the scenes looks at this year’s show, and tune in from 8:00pm AEST on 31 Dec to catch the action. The family fireworks show kicks off at 9:00pm, with the live stream playing continuously from six cameras all the way through to the grand finale at midnight. Whether you’re at home with friends in Sydney, or at your desks elsewhere around the world, don’t miss this New Year’s spectacle.

Ernesto Soriano, YouTube Australia, just watched How The Fireworks are Made

Gangnam Style Makes YouTube History: First Video to Hit 1 Billion Views

Saturday, 22 December 2012

A million views? You know what's cool? A billion views.
Today, a 34-year-old K-Pop artist made online video history when his viral video, Gangnam Style, smashed our records and became the first video ever to reach one billion views. Yup, that’s right one BILLION views!

PSY's success is a great testament to the universal appeal of catchy music-- and er, great equine dance moves. In the past, music distribution was mostly regional. It was more difficult to learn about great artists from around the world. But with a global platform at their fingertips, people are now discovering and sharing amazing music from all over the planet, by artists like Brazilian Michel Teló and Belgian-Australian Gotye.

One billion views is an incredible number, but the PSY-nomenon goes beyond that. Check out these stats:

PSY was already big in Korea, but in 2012, he became a global celeb as Gangnam Style quickly spread from Seoul and the pacific to North America, South America, and Europe. It’s been seen at least 1 million times in close to 75 countries, making it one of the most global music sensations ever!
From a one-thousand person flash mob in Jakarta to cover videos from Ai Weiwei and Mitt Romney, hundreds of thousands of parodies have been uploaded to YouTube, some of which have tens of millions of views. In fact, fan tributes to Gangnam Style are now being viewed 20 million times every single day.
PSY's own remix with Hyuna has 200 million views alone.
"Gangnam Style" was YouTube's top rising search of 2012 and on October 6th, we saw more than five million searches for “gangnam style” in a single day. Check out this video demonstrating some of our most popular YouTube searches this year.
For those interested in the business side: a number of assessments and projections have been posted claiming “Gangnam Style” has generated over $8.1 million in advertising deals, hit more than 2.9 million in song downloads since July, and achieved other incredible feats!
Since late last month, people have clicked to buy the track on iTunes over 600,000 times helping make PSY the first Korean artist ever to rank #1 on the U.S. iTunes chart and #1 in over 30 more countries.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about this feat is that it took just over five months to happen. To give this milestone some context, here’s a chart of Gangnam Style’s rise to popularity versus Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” the video that previously held the most-watched video title:

Congratulations to PSY, the flash mobbers, K-Pop fans and people who love fun across the globe. Considering the Gangnam Style dance was the number one dance-related search on YouTube this year, you better make sure you brush up on your moves before New Year's Eve.

The kind of amazing creativity and unique connection between people all over the world that resulted in this one billion views is only possible with an incredible community of people we're so lucky to have on YouTube. And we can't wait to see what you'll come up with next!

Kevin Allocca, YouTube trends manager, recently watched “Rewind YouTube Style 2012”

Film and share videos instantly with YouTube Capture for iPhone and iPod touch

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Life moves fast. To speed up recording, enhancing and sharing videos with your friends or the whole world, you can now use the YouTube Capture app on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Making sharing fast and easy
YouTube Capture is ready to record as soon as you open it. When you’re done filming, write a caption, select which networks you want to share to, and hit Share. Even if you minimize the app, the video will keep uploading in the background. You can control who sees your video by setting it to private (only you can view it), unlisted (only people with a link to the video can view it), or public (to let it shine to the world).

More than a point-and-shoot
Have a shaky hand or bad lighting when recording your video? Touch it up easily with YouTube enhancements like color correction and stabilization, or trim the length and add free background music from YouTube. These enhancements are also available on existing videos on your device, and you can always undo enhancements later on YouTube.com. YouTube Capture will remind you to rotate your phone to a horizontal position for filming, so your videos look high-quality and free of “Vertical Video Syndrome.”

YouTube Capture will be available today on the App Store. We’re also working to bring this to Android in the future, and learn more at youtube.com/capture.

Reed Morse, Software Engineer, recently watched “Ronald Jenkees - Red Lemonade Remixed.”

YouTube in Rewind: What you were watching in 2012

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

It’s that time of year again to pause, rewind and remember the videos, the entertainers, and the moments that captivated us in 2012.

This year, Korean Pop music transcended boundaries and took the world by storm. Cover songs, parodies, and "do-it-yourself" music videos from all genres entertained us in countries near and far. Aussies participated in conversations at a global scale, uploading videos to share ideas on everything from nonprofit campaigns, to political satire, to new and surprising voices and talents. And all over the world, we tuned in for the most up-to-date news footage of presidential elections, natural disasters and more.

2012 has been a big year for YouTube. Globally, we’ve been watching over 4 billion hours of video a month. Millions of creators are using YouTube channels to experiment with innovative forms of entertainment, explore their passions and interests, take creativity and pop culture to new levels. 2012’s top trending videos showcase this creative ingenuity in ways we'd never before thought possible.

Check out Australia’s top trending videos for 2012 below:

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V
KONY 2012
Somebody That I Used to Know - Walk off the Earth (Gotye - Cover)
Bella Ferraro - Auditions - The X Factor 2012
Gangnam Style parody "Aussie Battler Style" by Fitzy and Wippa
Call Me Maybe parody - Aussie blokes version
Surprise! Britney Learns 'Gangnam Style' from Psy!
Fallen Kingdom - A Minecraft Parody of Coldplay's Viva la Vida (Music Video)
Awkward Train Situations #2
Loosest Aussie Bloke Ever [explicit]

Posted by Kevin Allocca, YouTube trends manager

YouTube Next How-to Guru: Could you be next?

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Picture this. You’re almost ready for that cocktail party and you realize you don’t know how to tie a bow-tie. Or you’re packing for the holidays and have no idea how to fit everything in your bag. Tons of people turn to YouTube to watch tutorials on everything from doing a perfect braid to learning how to poach an egg.

So we’re launching YouTube Next How-to Guru and are on the hunt to find the coolest, cleverest, canniest and most creative makers out there. Do you crochet with the crafters? Do you give tips about your Toyota? Do you offer pointers about pasta? No matter your speciality, whether it’s scrapbooking or baseball or anything else, we’d love to hear from all the How-To Gurus out there - you know who you are!

All you have to do is submit your channel which focuses on how-to videos, as long as it’s educational and family-friendly.

The top 16 YouTube Next How-To Gurus will be chosen, and will be awarded a special, private Google+ workshop series from industry experts and YouTube staff, $4,000 worth of production equipment, and promotion on YouTube to help bring new eyeballs to your videos.

The program is open to creators in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand; it opens today and entries close on December 28, 2012.

We’re looking forward to seeing what you can teach us!

Austin Lau, YouTube Creator Programs Manager, recently watched “How To Kill a Mustache”

[Cross-posted from the YouTube Creator Blog]

A new look to help you to subscribe and watch channels on YouTube

Friday, 7 December 2012

A new look to help you to subscribe and watch channels on YouTube

Those of you who use YouTube most have learned the secret to making it even better—find the channels you love and subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Last year we began to make it easier to subscribe to the channels you care about by introducing a Guide on the home page. When you add subscriptions to your Guide, you organize YouTube around what you like, available whenever you watch YouTube. Today, we’re taking the next step by bringing your subscription-filled Guide with you across both the site and all devices, as your best source of what to watch on YouTube.

Your Guide to YouTube

Just subscribe to your favorite channels and the Guide lets you know when there are new videos waiting for you to enjoy, suggests the latest and greatest channels you might like, and shows you what your friends are sharing across the web. You’ll also find the Guide and your subscriptions on apps across hundreds of millions of devices including Android, iPhone, Playstation 3, Google TV and more.

A cleaner, simpler look

You come to YouTube to watch the videos you care about, so it’s important that the videos stand out. In this new layout, you’ll find the most crucial elements are front and center when you watch a video: the video is right at the top of the page and the subscribe button, social actions and video information are all combined directly below the player. Playlists are now available to the right of the video so you can browse through while you watch. You’ll also see this cleaner and simpler design across the entire site.

Your feedback matters

We’d love to get your feedback on these updates, so we’ll be hosting a Google+ Hangout on Air and a Reddit IAmA in the coming weeks--stay tuned here for details. If you’re a YouTube creator, you can learn more about these updates on our YouTube Creator Blog.

Josh Sassoon, Senior Unicorn eXperience Designer, recently watched “Hipster Thanksgiving” and
Alex Nicksay, Staff Engineer, recently watched “Crystalfilm.”

Australia Blog

Countdown to 2013: Sydney fireworks live streaming on YouTube

Gangnam Style Makes YouTube History: First Video to Hit 1 Billion Views

Film and share videos instantly with YouTube Capture for iPhone and iPod touch

YouTube in Rewind: What you were watching in 2012

YouTube Next How-to Guru: Could you be next?

A new look to help you to subscribe and watch channels on YouTube

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