YouTube creators in Nigeria will now be able to make these fun short videos on YouTube from Wednesday, the 14th of July 2021.
*Cue the classic YouTube intro* Remember how you’d spend hours tweaking and zhuzhing up your MUA videos and dance tutorials before uploading them on YouTube, only for some rando to comment something annoying? Well, we can’t help you with the random nasty comment – yet – but YouTube just launched something short and exciting to their Nigerian users.
Drumroll, please.
YouTube Shorts.
That’s right, YouTube just announced the release of the beta version of YouTube Shorts in Nigeria. YouTube Shorts is the company’s new short-form video experience that lets users create short, fun videos with their mobile phones.
If this sounds deja vu-ingly familiar—bite me—it’s because it looks a lot like Instagram’s Reels and the original short video oga, TikTok.
We’ve talked a little about Instagram and its race to catch up with TikTok in a previous article. And now YouTube is releasing its own short video feature?
FYI: The YouTube Shorts update was first announced in September 2020 and will now be available across 100+ countries around the world.
A new short video feature is well and good. But the question on everyone’s mind is…
What’s the big idea?
What makes YouTube Shorts different? Well, it has pretty cool creation tools like a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together and the ability to record with music, control speed settings, and more.
In addition, you can add text to specific points in your video, automatically add captions to your Short, record up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera, add clips from your phone’s gallery to add to your recordings made with the Shorts camera, and add basic filters to color correct your Shorts.
If this sounds a bit run-of-the-mill, wait till you hear about the audio sampling feature.
YouTube Shorts creators will also have the option to sample audio not only from other Shorts but also from videos all across YouTube—that’s billions of videos at your fingertips.
This means you can take your favorite influencer’s skincare video, and recreate it or put your own spin on it !
Of course, the original creators can choose to opt out if they don’t want their work remixed.
No copyright worries with YouTube Shorts
What’s really exciting about YouTube Shorts is the music feature.
With an enormous music library, you can say goodbye to generic tunes, and content ID worries. We’re talking songs from over 250 labels and publishers around the world, including Universal Music Group’s labels and publishing companies, Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Music Publishing, Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music, Believe, Merlin, Because Music, Beggars and Kobalt.
Whew! That’s a dope list and is part of YouTube’s plan to make the Shorts feature as user-friendly as possible.
“We want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts,” said Todd Sherman, Global Product Manager for YouTube Shorts. “As we continue to build Shorts alongside our creators and artists, we’ll be adding more features for users to try,” he added.
Here’s a helpful video from YouTube Creators’ channel to help you on your Shorts journey.
How will your Shorts look?
Don’t worry, Shorts will not disrupt your binge schedule on Youtube. Even before announcing the creation tools, YouTube had already introduced a row on the app homepage especially for Shorts.
With one tap you can access Shorts from creators all over the world, and instead of the regular YouTube watch experience, you can easily swipe vertically from one short to the next.
There’s another thing. If you hear a snippet of Burna’s latest hit on a Shorts video, you can easily find the full song, watch the music video, or learn more about the African Giant—all on YouTube.
The icing and cherry on top
Since Shorts is pretty new on YouTube, the company is looking to monetise the feature to reward content creators. Already, they’ve announced a $100m YouTube Shorts Fund, to be distributed over the course of 2021-2022.
Cha-ching!!
Y’all better get your content groove on. There’s money to be made.
As of today the YouTube Shorts player has surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally—according to YouTube. And the Shorts beta will be available to everybody in Nigeria by Wednesday, July 14th.
Can’t wait to see all your fun videos!
