100K Won’t Cut it Anymore for YouTube
YouTube has had some rough patches this year. Subscriptions not showing up in feeds, monetisation issues, and the unknowable algorithm that governs the site are just a few of the problems they’ve has faced. However, this upcoming change may prove to be a boon for some content creators.
In a recent announcement, YouTube has changed how channels become verified. This change has come mainly because of growth. In the beginning, 100,000 subscribers was an impressive number, but now with channels like PewDiePie reaching 100 million, the discrepancy is showing. The three new criteria, generally, for channels getting verified were listed on a Help page:
- Have built a large audience and community on YouTube.
- Are widely recognized outside of YouTube and have a strong presence online.
- Or, have a channel name that could be confused with other channels on YouTube.
Additionally, YouTube will now differentiate between official music channels and other verified channels. Official channels for musicians/bands will have a musical note beside their names, while regular channels will have a checkmark. This largely seems to be a move to combat channels that upload music of artists and share similar names to the official channels.
This change won’t be happening until late October. Some creators received emails that their channels would no longer be verified, but YouTube has stated that this was a precaution and channels can appeal. Channels that meet the new requirements will not have to make an appeal and the changes will be automatically applied. Some other changes also made it into the announcements. The checkmark wasn’t appearing consistently and now should be active across the site and on mobile apps.
Overall the changes are simply to help users find the official channels they’re looking for. As the site grows and anyone can make a channel with any name, this will be extremely helpful for creators to stay visible and, more importantly, help fans find what they’re looking for.
What do you think of the changes? Let us know in the comments!