At this year's VidCon festival, YouTube debuted new ways for creators to make money on its platform. Most YouTube creators make a profit through ad revenue, but they'll now have Channel Memberships and Merchandise features to bolster their income—if they pass specific subscriber thresholds.

Channel Memberships is a rebrand of Subscriptions, a feature that had been tested out by select creators for a while. Channel Memberships allow viewers to pay $4.99 per month to support each of their favorite creators. In return, those members get special badges and emoji, members-only posts in the Community tab, and unique perks offered by creators themselves such as exclusive livestreams, extra videos, and more. Not all creators can make use of Channel Memberships—only those with over 100,000 subscribers can.

Merch

Merchandise is exactly what it sounds like—merchandise that creators can customize and feature on a digital "shelf" on their YouTube channel. The company partnered with Teespring to bring over 20 pieces of merchandise that US-based creators can make their own and sell to their viewers. The threshold for Merchandise is lower than that of Channel Memberships, as those with over 10,000 subscribers can design and sell their own shirts and other items.

YouTube knows that many creators haven't been happy with the company's recent content policies changes (as well as the ever-confusing nature of YouTube's algorithms) because it has made it harder for creators large and small to make money from advertisements. Channel Memberships and Merchandise are YouTube's ways of providing creators new options to bring in money and support their creative endeavors.

But YouTube is playing catch-up because creators have already embraced other ways to make money. Many have turned to Patreon and Twitch, both of which allow viewers to pay creators for their content. Patreon's model is a more flexible version of Channel Memberships, allowing patrons to contribute what they can afford on a monthly basis in return for special digital and physical perks that the creator can customize completely. On the merchandise side, companies like Fanjoy already have rolodexes of influencers they work with to make and sell customized sweaters, shirts, hats, phone cases, and more.

YouTube is trying to keep as many creators on its platform as it can by providing more tools that help them build up their brands. But with the fierce competition it faces from third-party companies and other social media outlets, YouTube will have to make its offerings stand out more. For example, some viewers will gravitate to Patreon because it allows them to pay just $1 per month if that's what they can afford. According to some reports, YouTube is planning on expanding Channel Memberships beyond the $4.99 tier to include more affordable and more expensive options.

It's also unclear if YouTube will be taking a cut of the profits made from Channel Memberships and Merchandise sales. Ars reached out to YouTube for more information on this.

Hit play

In addition to Channel Memberships and Merchandise, YouTube also announced Premieres—a way for creators to debut pre-recorded videos as they would live streams. Premieres include special landing pages that essentially let creators build hype for a video that will go live on a certain date and time. Once the video is live, viewers can chat with each other in real time, and creators can use Super Chat for the first time on regular YouTube videos. Super Chat was one of the first features YouTube added that helps creators make an extra buck. Viewers in the Super Chat room can pay to have their comment pinned to the top of the chat room or otherwise highlighted.

YouTube's announcements come on the heels of Instagram announcing its long-form video platform, IGTV. The Facebook-owned, photo- and video-sharing app is now letting users record and upload videos that are up to an hour long, putting it squarely in competition with YouTube. While Google's online video platform remains king, it has suffered a lot over the past couple of years thanks to the ad-pocalypse and the bevy of new rules and restrictions it has passed that, some have said, quell creators' creativity and ability to make money. While Instagram wants to entice creators away from YouTube with its own long-form video platform, YouTube is focusing on retention—and one of the best ways to do that is to support creators with new money-making features.

Update, 11:45am ET: A YouTube representative told Ars in an email that creators will keep 70 percent of the profits from Channel Memberships and merchandise sales while YouTube will get the remaining 30 percent.