YouTube wants its content creators to eat well: launches new crowd-funding platform

A host of new features will let fans contribute money (and subtitles) to videos they love, with a new app letting creators track when they go viral

YouTube is rolling out a host of new features designed to make it easier for independent filmmakers to create content and make a living from their videos.

At the heart of the announcements is a crowd-funding platform called Fan Funding which lets content creators encourage fans to “contribute money to support your channel at any time, for any reason”.

This feature – which will be tested with select channels in the US, Australia, Mexico and Japan – will put YouTube in direct competition with the likes of Kickstarter and Indiegogo as a funding platform for independent films and video series.

In addition, a new app will also help users track when their videos go viral. “Did you know that after Rebecca Black uploaded “Friday,” she went on a school trip, not knowing for several days the video was going viral?” the company in wrote a blog post announcing the changes.

Fans will also be able to contribute to content they like by submitting subtitles, while a new weekly chart show is be launched, hosted by YouTube star Jenna Marbles and highlighting the “biggest names and rising stars in music from YouTube”.

Two new features will also help creators pack more information into individual videos: an overhauled annotations system and a new feature named Creator Credits that lets users link their credits to others’ channels.

New video quality settings will also please the legions of users who take to YouTube to watch and upload video game footage, with the site now supporting gameplay uploaded in 48 and even 60 frames per second.

YouTube says that since it created its Partner Parogram in 2007 more than a million users from over 30 countries have made money from their videos, with "thousands" even making "six figures a year".

PewDiePie, otherwise known as 24-year-old Felix Kjellberg, is one of the best known creators on the site and reportedly makes more than $4 million a year from his gaming channel.