Summary
- YouTube has introduced new ad placement at video “Peak Points” for increased engagement.
- Users can now vote for songs in shared playlists, enhancing group listening experiences.
- Avoid new ads with YouTube Premium, offering an ad-free experience, music access, and offline playback options.
Do you wish YouTube would show ads right before the best part of a video? I didn’t think so. This week, YouTube announced it’s adding a fun new voting system to shared playlists, which you’ll love on your next road trip. However, it also unveiled some new ads that no one will enjoy.
Ads are a hot topic on YouTube, whether pre-roll ads, mid-video ads, or the non-skippable ads we’ve been seeing lately. There’s a reason ad blockers are so popular. In February, the company said ads were getting slightly less annoying, but here we are, a few months later, and things are changing again.
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“Alright, so here we are, in front of the elephants.”
Earlier this year, YouTube announced that over 1 billion people watch podcasts on its platform every month. We all know just how popular the platform is, and now all those people are about to start seeing ads at the worst time. Well, unless you’re an advertiser, then it’s the best time.
New Ad Placements on YouTube
Thanks to AI, YouTube has discovered a way to determine a video’s “Peak Points. ” Right before the best moment or an often-replayed spot, it inserts advertisements. Essentially, any point that’s extremely engaging will be recognized, and ads will appear before or after that precise moment.
Honestly, it’s a pretty smart move, but I don’t think too many users will appreciate it. For now, we’re unsure whether these will be skippable, but if you don’t want to deal with that at all, you can always pay for YouTube Premium. For those unaware, Premium gives you an ad-free experience, a subscription to YouTube Music, offline playback, and much more.
This sounds like a win-win for Google. Advertisers will love the improved placement, while regular folks like you and me will be more inclined to subscribe to its premium offering.
Voting for the Next Song on YouTube Playlists
Thankfully, the YouTube news this week isn’t all bad. YouTube is getting a fun new feature for all those music playlists, one that’ll make your next party or road trip better than ever. According to a post on X, YouTube now allows for collaborative playlist voting.
After an initial testing phase, any friends or family you invite to a shared playlist on YouTube can vote for their favorite songs. Essentially, friends or family can fire up the app, then upvote or downvote which songs they’d like to hear. It’s like a collaborative DJ feature. By upvoting a song, it’ll move further up the list and get played sooner.
The note voting feature is gradually rolling out to all users, and anyone invited to a playlist will be able to participate. Basically, make sure you know all the people you invite, or the playlist could end up pretty wild. Here’s a quick video of this new feature in action.
Source: Android Authority, X
