YouTube rolls out BrandConnect for eligible creators, advertisers in India

Google-owned YouTube has rolled out "BrandConnect", the company's branded content platform, for eligible creators and select advertisers in India.

With this, the company said that it wants to make it easy for creators, top brands, and leading agencies to partner, create, promote, and measure sponsored creator content.

"This will help brands execute their branded content campaigns more seamlessly by identifying the right mix and profile of creators to work with, while creators will have a new avenue to be discovered and earn more from their content," Google said in a blogpost on Thursday.

Beyond giving everyone a stage, the company stated that it also wants to give people a workshop with the right tools to spark creativity, a creative studio to bring these ideas to life, a spotlight to help audiences discover the content they love, and their own personal box-office that helps them earn more revenue.

In addition, the company also introduced a new Podcasts feature, which is being gradually rolled out to all listeners in India. "We've begun rolling this out to all our listeners in India gradually. New features in YouTube Studio make it easier to publish podcasts, while Podcast shelves on the YouTube Music homepage will help improve discovery for listeners and increase engagement for creators," Google said.

The tech giant also added, "With podcasts available for on-demand, offline & background listening on YouTube Music in India, it unlocks the opportunity to earn more on the platform via ads and subscriptions."

Meanwhile, YouTube has added play counts for every song in its Music app and broadened the availability of the generative AI creator for playlist art. Users will now see the play count for every track when they browse an album or public playlist generated by YouTube Music.