YouTube studios make Big Apple debut
NEW YORK — Wide-eyed and full of hope, YouTube is moving to the big city. After rolling out studio spaces in London, Tokyo and Los Angeles, the Google-owned company on Thursday opens a new production facility for New York City-based YouTube creators.
The 20,000 square-foot facility sits on the sixth floor of Chelsea Market, a food court and office building in New York's Chelsea neighborhood. The space serves as a production facility and incubator for anyone looking to get serious about his or her YouTube videos. It's a significant step up for creators who might usually shoot videos from cameras on their laptop or phones.
Featuring three enclosed soundstages, post-production facilities, loaner equipment and even a permanent diner set, the space is available free of charge to any YouTuber who participates in the company's revenue-sharing program and has at least 5,000 subscribers.
Renting space in New York is costly, so YouTube optimized every inch of the two-story facility. The reception desk is on wheels, so the lobby can easily transform into a film set or screening room; the kitchen can double as a classroom; and even the bathroom is designed to look like a nightclub's. .
"This is really an investment in our creators and in our creative community," says Adam Relis, head of YouTube Space New York.
The investment could potentially yield big returns for YouTube in the form of higher advertising revenues. According to a new report from Forrester Research, U.S. digital ad spending will surpass TV by 2016. By providing creators with state-of-the-art equipment, YouTube hopes to bring more ad dollars to the digital space.
Since 2012, more than 6,000 videos have been created at other spaces around the world, generating over 750 million views. More than 30,000 people have attended workshops, such as "Audience Building Essentials" and "10 Fundamentals of a Creative Strategy."
New York City is home to many creative communities — fashion, film, comedy, Broadway, music and more. But producing video on the busy city streets poses a serious challenge to content creators.
"Everyone always moves to L.A. because there's a lot more space in L.A.," says Paul Gale, a YouTube creator who recently released the viral video Why Starbucks Spells Your Name Wrong. "By YouTube opening a space in New York City, they are saying...'you should stay here and be a creator in New York.' "
YouTubers can access the facilities Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.