Exploring YouTube’s new Communities feature

It will be rolled out in 2025 and resembles a hybrid of Facebook Groups, Subreddits, and Discord Forum Channels.

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Let’s dive into today’s topic:

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Exploring YouTube’s new Communities feature

While promising, YouTube Communities faces several challenges.

Why it matters

Community building is crucial for many artists, particularly those targeting Gen-Z audiences.

The question is: where should artists build their communities or join existing ones?

One option is to use dedicated community tools like Discord or Telegram. Other tactics focus on established interactive social networks such as X.

YouTube is the world's second-largest search engine, and music-related keywords dominate searches, making it a natural fit for artist communities.

With thousands of comments and ongoing discussions on popular videos, it's no wonder YouTube is investing heavily in community-building features.

Understanding these developments is vital for artists to maximise their impact on fans' media consumption.

Generated with SDXL using the prompt ‘an old message board in a thrift shop’.

How it works

Last week, YouTube announced a new feature called ‘Communities’. It will be rolled out in 2025.

This functionality transforms a creator's channel, allowing subscribers to share content and interact with fellow fans. It also includes a dedicated section for the creator's posts.

At first glance, YouTube Communities resemble a hybrid of Facebook Groups, Subreddits, and Discord Forum Channels. Key opportunities include:

• Fan engagement within the platform where they already consume content.

• Easier community growth, leveraging YouTube's popularity as an audiovisual platform for music.

• Built-in engagement habits from YouTube's comment culture.

• Empowering fans with more authority beyond passive video consumption.

Yes, but..

While promising, YouTube Communities faces several challenges:

• Music videos are often played passively as background audio, potentially limiting engagement.

• Success may depend on non-music content that evokes suspense, such as how-to's (help content) and vlogs (hub content).

• Community-building skills and content quality will determine an artist's success, not just the tool itself.

• Moderation could be an issue, requiring artists to establish and enforce community guidelines.

• Current examples are limited. In their announcement, YouTube links to three creator channels with communities enabled. Available communities show only creator-generated posts and seem not yet used by fans.

Take action now

To prepare for this feature, artists should:

1. Develop creative concepts for non-music videos to generate intentional views.

2. Experiment with community-building techniques on existing platforms.

3. Start drafting community guidelines aligned with their brand values.

4. Engage with comments on current videos to build a foundation for future community interactions.

5. Monitor YouTube's announcements for further details and potential early access opportunities.

Your thoughts

Further reading

• A new YouTube Communities experience for fans, by fans (YouTube Official Blog)

• A future full of opportunities, Made On YouTube (YouTube Official Blog)

• YouTube Communities are like mini Discords for creators (The Verge)

• YouTube launches Communities, a Discord-like space for creators and fans to interact with each other (TechCrunch)

• How to develop a content strategy using a model for YouTubers (The Fanbase Builder)

• How to leverage user intent (The Fanbase Builder)

• Can superfan and community strategies coexist? (The Fanbase Builder)

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Today’s sponsor: Echo Live

Concert agency Echo Live is a new local partner, arranging tours and shows for domestic and international artists in the Netherlands. Echo Live understands that winning over new fans requires more than managing costs and logistics. Echo Live crafts bespoke strategies for artists, investing time, network, and effort to ensure the perfect stage for their shows. Read their interview with IQ Magazine here.