YouTube Enters the AI Arena

Your 5 minute video trends and marketing update.

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šŸŽØ You get an AI! And you get an AI! Thatā€™s how things have been feeling lately with literally every app adding a Chat GPT add-on. Well, YouTube is also getting in the game. But itā€™ll probably be their own AI models instead of something from OpenAI, the makers of DALL-E and GPT. Hereā€™s what YouTubeā€™s new CEO says about AI in a recently published list of 2023 priorities.

And the power of AI is just beginning to emerge in ways that will reinvent video and make the seemingly impossible possible. Creators will be able to expand their storytelling and raise their production value, from virtually swapping outfits to creating a fantastical film setting through AIā€™s generative capabilities. Weā€™re taking the time to develop these features with thoughtful guardrails. Stay tuned in the coming months as we roll out tools for creators as well as the protections to embrace this technology responsibly.

Neal Mohan, YouTubeā€™s New CEO

šŸŽ¶ TikTok launched ā€˜Sounds for Business.ā€™ Seems like itā€™s a curated list of pre-cleared sounds that make it easier to make videos that find an existing trend template without having to search for trends. Available in the Commercial Music Library.

šŸ’„ Also on the TikTok wagon, thereā€™s a beauty (catfishing?) filter thatā€™s gone viral because itā€™s so convincingly real looking since the filter wonā€™t flicker or blur even if you put your hand in front of your face. This TikTok explains how it works - basically using machine learning to regenerate each pixel. In real-time. Lot of bad uses for this but also a lot of creative possibilities. Future is going to be crazy.

šŸ–ļø We mentioned Premiereā€™s beta feature that lets you edit text transcripts, but this post has a full list of all the new features in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Mostly color related.

šŸŽ™ļø RODE released a 5th gen of their NT1 Studio microphone. It has 32-bit floating point recording which basically makes audio clipping impossible.

3 Tools

šŸ¦øā€ā™€ļø Supercreator.ai: One-stop app that scripts, loads graphics, records, and edits short videos for you so you can crank out content. Looks interesting. Currently waitlist.

šŸŒ‡Ā Shotdeck: Searchable database of high-res movie stills. Great for inspiration or creating mood boards.

šŸ—£ļø ElevenLabs: Extremely realistic AI speech generation. Still in beta.

1 Tactic

How to make videos when you donā€™t want to be on camera

Camera shy, time, gear. Whatever the reason, if you want to make videos but donā€™t want to be on camera, there are still many options.

Here are 5:

1. Narrate It

Simple. Write a script. Narrate it. Cover with b-roll or visuals. If youā€™re making tutorials this is an easy one - just show the screen or whatever youā€™re teaching.

2. Use AI Voice Over

No mic? No problem. Use AI to read your script. Even if ElevenLabs is still in beta, regular stock voices have gotten really good.

One tool that makes 1 & 2 super easy to do is Descript. You can record audio directly in the app. It has a collection of free-to-use stock photos and videos you can pull in directly. And it has a built-in screen recorder.

3. Get someone else on team to be on camera or narrate

So maybe youā€™re camera shy. If youā€™ve got options, get someone else on your team to be on camera.

4. Hire Talent

To work with someone local in your area, check out Backstage. To fully outsource either the audio or video recording and the person just sends you the file, check out Upwork or Fiverr (Backstage can also do this)

5. Interview Someone or Get UGC

Sometimes we feel uncomfortable when all the attention is on us. One way to alleviate that is to make it about someone else. Interview an expert in your niche or a customer. This isnā€™t a podcast (though it could be) - itā€™s a way to get some video that you can edit down into something shorter and succinct.

You can also go the UGC route - ask your customers to record themselves using your product and send it in. If youā€™re just getting started, you can turn to the platforms mentioned above (Backstage, Fiverr, Upwork) to hire creators to make UGC style videos.

We will be at NAB in April, the massive camera and video tech convention where all the new gear is announced.

Weā€™ll be producing a lot of videos on the latest news and updates.

This page on our site will be the central hub, along with our YouTube channel.

Iā€™ll also have a separate email list segment that will be a daily update of everything we covered. You have to opt-in to that one - Iā€™m not going to send everyone on this list a daily email they didnā€™t ask for.

So if you want daily updates (itā€™s only 5 days in April), add your email to this segment at the link below or just reply here and Iā€™ll add you to the list.

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