YouTube Shorts currently pulls in over 15 billion views per day

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

YouTube’s vertically scrolling, horizontal, short-form video sharing, TikTok competitor gets more than 15 billion views per day.

Reported in YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet’s Q2 2021 earnings call, CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted YouTube Shorts latest viewing figures. At over 15 billion views per day, Q2 2021 doubles the 6.5 billion daily views reported in March this year.

As ads are yet to be properly implemented on YouTube Shorts, we are likely to see YouTube’s ad revenue spike once they are widely adopted. In May, the video sharing site announced their YouTube Shorts Fund to pay Shorts creators. During the announcement, they confirmed Shorts would “begin to test and iterate on ads”.

During the same call, Google’s CBO Philipp Schindler reported on the YouTube app on connected TVs, an area of focus recently. More than 120 million people watch YouTube on TVs each month, which represents “the fastest growing consumer surface that we have”.

Get your music on YouTube Shorts for free and start earning revenue today.

YouTube reports $7 billion in ad revenue – Q2 2021 earnings

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Parent company Alphabet reports on YouTube’s quarterly earnings. At an all-time high, up 84% year-over-year, YouTube exceeded projections.

Alphabet reports YouTube’s ad revenue at a record $7 billion. After Q1 2021’s revenue of $6 billion, this quarter YouTube was expected to be around $6.37 billion. YouTube’s Q2 2021 ad revenue is up 84% year-over-year and could reach as much as $10 billion per quarter next year.

YouTube’s ad revenue currently represents around 11% of the record-high $61.9 billion their parent company Alphabet recently reported. Alphabet’s Q2 2021 earnings were previously projected to be $56.16 billion. Overall, Alphabet reported earnings per share of $27.26, greatly exceeding the $19.34 projected.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai also touched on the impressive view-count of their short-form TikTok competitor YouTube Shorts.

Find out how your music can start to benefit from YouTube’s ad revenue here.

TikTok announce eight new exciting features for LIVE videos

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Solen Feyissa

The new features such as LIVE Events and Picture-in-Picture are built to improve the experience of LIVE videos on TikTok.

Live videos such as music performances on social platforms such as TikTok have become increasingly popular since the start of the pandemic, with the number of people going LIVE and watching LIVE on TikTok doubling just over the past year. At-home concert from major artists such as The Weeknd pulled in 2 million total views and 275k concurrent viewers. For creators, live shows are a great way to connect and engage with viewers around the world. Hoping to bring LIVE in line with other live streaming competitors such as YouTube and Facebook, TikTok introduce many new features to help creators and viewers.

@tiktok

Check out LIVE Events’ new features with @tpain and discover how to be there when it happens.

♬ original sound – TikTok
  • LIVE Events: Creators can now schedule and manage LIVE videos, plus include timers in regular TikTok videos to promote upcoming shows. Viewers can discover, register, get notifications and receive reminders before the LIVE starts
  • Picture-in-Picture: Don’t miss a second of the LIVE stream, even if you switch to another app with Picture-in-Picture on iOS and Android.
  • Go LIVE Together: Co-host your next LIVE video with a friend, collaborator or just about anyone else.
  • LIVE Q&A: Respond to viewers’ questions in real time. The host can easily select, showcase and answer questions while streaming live.
  • Top LIVEs: With a dedicated LIVE button, users can easily discover and tune into LIVE videos from the For You and Following pages. Top LIVE categories include Chat (Q&A), Gaming, Talents, Fashion and Daily Life.
  • Help for Hosts: By assigning a trusted person to manage your stream ahead of going live, this allows you to focus on entertaining and engaging with the community, while the manager can mute and block users. Choosing someone to help can be found in the Settings on the right of the livestream launch screen.
  • Keyword Filters: To help stand against bullying and hateful comments on the platform, TikTok are introducing Keyword Filters. In the settings tab of the LIVE launch screen, you can turn off comments or add up to 200 terms into the keyword filter. The host and manager can add additional words during the stream.
  • Consider Before You Comment: When a viewer’s comment includes potentially unkind or harmful content, they will be asked to reconsider the impact of the words before posting.
Image Credit: TikTok

In the coming weeks, TikTok are taking further steps to combat unkind and harmful content on the LIVE platform. Hosts and managers will be able to temporarily mute viewers or remove comments. Additionally accounts must be 16 or older to host LIVE videos. TikTok prohibit gift-baiting (the solicitation of gifts or engagement), fraudulent behavior or scams. TikTok also says they are cracking down by removing accounts that impersonate or mislead the community about their identity.

We’re committed to maintaining the joyful, supportive, and inspiring community that exists on TikTok while building new relationships with more creators, artists, brands, and viewers through products like TikTok LIVE. Whether on the FYF, scrolling through the Discover Page, or watching a TikTok LIVE, we’re excited about the possibilities of expanding TikTok from a platform to an ecosystem at the center of entertainment, the creator economy, and technology.

TikTok Community Post

Instagram increase the maximum length of Reels from 30 seconds to 60 seconds

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Instagram

Instagram’s short-form video feature and competitor to TikTok, Reels up the maximum length of videos to 60 seconds from 30 seconds.

Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri recently gave some details on the future of the platform, describing Instagram as “no longer just a square photo-sharing app”, putting an emphasis on video and other growing features. One of Instagram’s latest new features is Reels, their vertically scrolling, horizontal, short-form video sharing TikTok rival. Just a few weeks after TikTok rolled out 3-minute videos to all of their users, Instagram’s longer Reels have now started rolling out to all Instagram users. The new feature was announced yesterday in a meme.

Beyond cringey memes from corporate accounts pretending to have a personality, 60-second Reels is a helpful feature, especially for those that want to share existing content over 30 seconds across platforms. Growing your presence across various social networks is a key tool for artists, influencers and content creators. Just be sure to remove the TikTok watermark before sharing your video to Reels. Once you’ve received the update, you can toggle the length of Reels by simply tapping the “30” circle to switch between 15, 30 and 60 seconds.

Instagram has also added a Captions sticker to Reels. Similarly to an existing feature on TikTok, this automatically transcribes audio to text in videos, a great feature for deaf, hard-of-hearing or simply users in quiet settings with their phone on mute. Instagram recently brought the same feature to Instagram Stories. Captions are currently available in some English-speaking countries, with a broader roll out to more regions and languages coming soon.

We can upload your music to all major short-form video platforms for free, so you can starting earning revenue on Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts every time your track is used.

Is TikTok now more popular than YouTube?

Madeleine Amosin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Szabo Viktor

TikTok might be catching up to YouTube as the most popular video streaming service, according to research. How long before TikTok is the champion of online video?

YouTube has always dominated the world of online video streaming. But its position as king might be in doubt. The video platform has long been number one for music consumption, but another app has it in its sights – TikTok.

A new report might send a chill up YouTube’s spine. Research firm App Annie discovered that TikTok is quickly catching up with YouTube in terms of the average hours per month people in the UK and US are spending on the app.

Keeping in mind that YouTube has 2 billion monthly users and TikTok a comparatively minor 732 million, App Annie’s State of Mobile 2021 report revealed that on average Android users in the UK spend on average of 16 hours a month on YouTube – and 26 hours a month on TikTok. Meanwhile in the US, viewers spent 22 hours a month on TikTok and 24.5 hours a month on YouTube.

TikTok’s explosion in popularity has proved to be sustainable, and it’s beginning to look like YouTube’s position might be under threat. Though the two platforms have different video styles, they have been rivals since it became apparent that the TikTok trend wasn’t a fad.

The recently launched feature by TikTok which saw the platform extend the maximum length of videos to three minutes was viewed by some as a move to challenge YouTube. Given TikTok’s popularity arose from its addictive short-form video clips, the change seemed to go against its unique framework. YouTube meanwhile had already launched Shorts, essentially a TikTok clone.

Will TikTok soon catch up to YouTube? The key will be to watch if the two services retain their individuality in the race to evolve, stay relevant, and retain users, as TikTok continues to grow and YouTube watches on nervously.

TikTok has emerged as a great place to discover new music. If you’re an artist wishing you could take advantage of the trend, check out RouteNote’s free music distribution. As well as putting your music onto Spotify and other streaming services, we can get your songs onto the TikTok sound library so that people can use your tracks in their videos. Your song could be the soundtrack to the next viral trend. Find out more here, and get started for free.

Spotify and TikTok team up to launch free Spotify Premium offer

Madeleine Amosin
Digital Music News
·
Digital Video News

If you’re eligible, you can now get four months of Spotify Premium free through TikTok.

Want free Spotify Premium? Become a TikToker. TikTok and Spotify have just launched a Premium offer for eligible TikTok users.

The social media video app is giving four months of Spotify Premium to people in in the UK and other European countries who are over the age of 18 with a TikTok profile. From today TikTok users in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the UK, who have not previously subscribed to Spotify Premium, can receive the unique code to redeem the reward.

Those eligible can activate the TikTok Spotify Premium offer on mobile here, or head to the TikTok Rewards badge on the For You page or Me Page. Alternatively, tap the “TikTok x Spotify Rewards” banner or search for Spotify from the Discover page.  

Marc Hazan, Spotify’s Vice President, Global Head of Premium Business Development said: “As the world’s leading audio streaming service, we are thrilled to offer eligible TikTok users in several markets access to all the music and podcasts they love anytime, anywhere.

“Spotify connects artists and listeners in a way that wasn’t possible before, building a diverse community of music fans driven by discovery and inspiration. We are proud to introduce TikTok’s enthusiastic and growing user base to the many benefits of Spotify Premium: millions of songs ad-free, on-demand, and offline.”

Curious about how to put your music on TikTok? RouteNote can help with that. We distribute music for free, so you can get your tracks on social media platforms and earn money when your song is used. We also upload music to Spotify for free, as well as all the major streaming services, so everyone can hear your music. Find out more here.

Over 100 countries can now create YouTube Shorts, their alternative to TikTok

Jacca-RouteNotein
Digital Video News

Image credit: Szabo Viktor

TikTok has taken the world by storm and now YouTube intend to with their short-form videos launching in over 100 countries around the world.

YouTube Shorts is the world’s biggest video platform’s answer to TikTok. The new home for videos under 60 seconds on YouTube, Shorts let creators combine music with their short recordings. Shorts even brings a video recorder and editor into the YouTube app.

First launched in India as a test last year, then later launched in the US in May; YouTube Shorts is now available in the YouTube app in over 100 countries. Shorts’ launch brings a new tab to explore in the app as well as all the creator tools users need to create and upload their own shorts on the fly.

There doesn’t seem to be a readily available list of the countries in which YouTube Shorts is now available. We know that it launched in 24 countries including the UK last month.

Where is YouTube Shorts available?

Shorts content has actually been available for all YouTube users for months, simply without the creator tools and specific in-app home. In fact, vertical videos under 60 seconds in length automatically count as Shorts and are added into the section in countries where it is available. Using #Shorts in the title will also help raise your content as defined Shorts content.

Get your music on YouTube Shorts

We’re partnered with YouTube to make your music available for use in creators’ Shorts with the potential to be seen by millions or become the soundtrack to the next big dance craze or trend.

Simply upload your music for free at www.routenote.com and select YouTube Content ID.

We’re also partnered with TikTok and Instagram so you can make your music available on all of the huge new short video platforms and go viral.

TikTok Resumes is a modern video approach to job applications

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: TikTok

Find a job through TikTok’s new microsite, record an application video, tag #TikTokResumes and submit your TikTok to the companies.

Short-form video sharing service TikTok are testing a new recruitment microsite TikTok Resumes. In wake of career and job-related content organically popping up on TikTok such as #CareerTok, TikTok Resumes hopes to streamline job searching and application on the platform. Applicants can search for job opening by brands and roles (filterable by location and experience), post a video resume on TikTok, and submit to TikTok Resumes.

TikTok Resumes is an interesting idea that turns traditional paper resumes into a largely untapped format for job applications, keeping to the short-form vertical aesthetic of TikTok videos. 37 brands have agreed to accept TikTok Resumes, with recognisable names such as Chipotle, Target, WWE, Alo Yoga, Shopify, Contra and Movers+Shakers. With the applications taking place on TikTok, you’ll find many roles centred around social media, content development, presenting and video production. Experience levels range from entry level and volunteer, to executive and director.

Once you’ve found a relevant job on TikTok Resumes, record a video on TikTok, post it publicly with #TikTokResumes in the caption, copy the link and submit it to the jobs posted on TikTok Resumes. This ensures applications aren’t lost to the algorithm, allowing companies to see all videos and not just those on the For You page or top of the hashtag. You can submit the same video to multiple companies or create multiple videos to keep them tailored to the role. Videos and you account must stay public for at least one month to allow recruiters to review the video. If you don’t find a suitable job, you can still post a video under the hashtag and hope you’re scouted. Should you be of interest, the company will get hold of you to continue to the next steps of the process.

TikTok has shared do’s and don’ts, examples from Christian, TreManda, Bri and MAKENA, as well as career tips from creators Wonsulting, Gohar Khan, Cynthia Huang and Christen

The program is open today in the US until July 31. As the program is only open for two weeks, it’s clear the process is just a test, but should companies and applicants find success, TikTok could expand TikTok Resumes long term and to more countries.

TikTok Resumes is officially open and accepting TikTok video resumes. We’re humbled to be able to partner with some of the world’s most admired and emerging brands as we pilot a new way for job seekers to showcase their experiences and skillsets in creative and authentic ways. #CareerTok is already a thriving subculture on the platform and we can’t wait to see how the community embraces TikTok Resumes and helps to reimagine recruiting and job discovery.

Nick Tran, Global Head of Marketing, TikTok

TikTok Resumes is a natural extension of our TikTok College Ambassadors program, where we previously employed hundreds of college students as on-campus brand representatives. Like many, college students were impacted by the pandemic and have displayed a resilience and unwavering optimism that’s truly been inspiring. We’re excited to help students and job seekers everywhere unleash their creativity and ‘get the bag!’

Kayla Dixon, Marketing Manager, TikTok

TikTok music promotion – how to get a song to go viral on TikTok (video)

Madeleine Amosin
Artists Advice
·
Digital Video News

How do songs go viral on TikTok? Check out this video looking at the rise of one of the most successful artists on TikTok in the last year, The Kid LAROI.

A song going viral on TikTok can make an instant star of an emerging artist, driving up streams and leading to collaboration and promotional opportunities. So should artists make it a priority to try and go viral on TikTok?

Music marketing genius Amber Horsburgh has spent her career coaching up-and-coming artists. In a new video she explores the rise of The Kid LAROI, the Australian rapper who used TikTok to supercharge his career and go viral – twice.

How do you break out of fame on just one app and into the mainstream, to build a sustainable career in music? Horsburgh has the following advice for artists who want to go viral on TikTok and other social media platforms:

  • Going viral should never be your sole aim
  • It’s impossible to pinpoint what will go viral
  • Viral content should be just a single piece of a larger career goal
  • Plan your social media content carefully around the release

Check out her full analysis here:

Of course, for your song to go viral on TikTok you need to get your track on TikTok in the first place. To add a song to the TikTok Sounds library so creators can add it to their videos, you need the help of a digital music distributor like RouteNote.

We upload songs to TikTok for free – and other social media platforms too, as well as streaming platforms like Spotify. You can earn money each time your song is used in a TikTok, and it won’t cost you a penny.

Think your song has the potential to go viral on TikTok? Head here to find out how RouteNote can help make that happen, and sign up for free music distribution today.

What’s next for Instagram? From Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram

Tom Newmanin
Digital Video News

Image Credit: Gabrielle Henderson

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, shares some internal insight into what’s coming to the social platform in the next few months.

Along with a recent video sharing details on how the Instagram algorithm works, last week Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri posted a video to Instagram and Twitter highlighting some of the entertainment and video plans incoming for creators and consumers on Instagram.

Mosseri starts by stating Instagram has expanded beyond just a square photo-sharing app, with research saying the number one reason people use Instagram is to be entertained. In the video, Mosseri touches on the increased competition from the likes of TikTok, YouTube and other upstarts, and the changes they are taking to standout from social media platforms.

Instagram are focused on new experiences in four areas:

  • Creators: Instagram are implementing ways for individuals creators to make a living.
  • Video: As video continues to grow across platforms, Instagram hopes to lean into video more than they are already.
  • Shopping: Much like video, online commerce has accelerated during the pandemic. Instagram are exploring new ways to improve shopping in the app.
  • Messaging: As conversations online shift towards private messaging, and away from feeds and stories, Instagram are looking at how users can connect on the platform.

Among these four areas, Instagram will be experimenting with their recommendations spaces, to help users find interesting content from those they aren’t yet following. The first new addition includes a topic feature, that lets users filter recommendations by a certain genre. Over the coming months, Mosseri says they will be experimenting with how to embrace full-screen, immersive, entertaining and mobile-first video on Instagram more broadly.