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You can go live on YouTube if you have 1,000 subscribers

You can go live on YouTube if you have 1,000 subscribers

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YouTube launched mobile live-streaming in February to users who had more than 10,000 subscribers. Now, the company is lowering its subscriber requirement to 1,000. As Google notes in its guide to live-streaming, channel owners just have to verify their channel — once approved, they can either start a live stream from Creator Studio or the YouTube mobile app.

While YouTube users could go live from a number of platforms, including Facebook and Periscope, YouTube thinks they’ll want to stick within the app because of its Super Chat feature, which lets creators monetize their streams. With Super Chat, viewers pay to pin their comment to the top of the live chat window. The amount they pay affects how long their comment stays pinned and how it’s highlighted. A similar feature exists on Twitch.

YouTube appears to be adjusting its creators-focused tools recently; earlier this month, YouTube also adjusted its partner program. Creators now can’t turn on monetization until they hit 10,000 lifetime views on their channel.

Still, dropping the number of required subscribers means we’ll likely see a lot more live content.