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YouTube has announced that it will be increasing the user video upload time limit from 10 minutes up to 15 minutes.
Announcing the move in a blog post, Google product manager Joshua Siegel wrote: "We want YouTube to be the best place to upload video. Without question, the number one requested feature by our creators is to upload videos longer than 10 minutes. We’ve heard you, and today we’re pleased to announce that we’ve increased the upload limit to 15 minutes."
Siegel also encouraged users to upload a video of their "15 minutes of fame" and tag the video with "yt15minutes" for a chance to be featured on the front page of YouTube. Since this happening is likely to generate hundreds of thousands if not millions of views, the move will most likely prove popular among Internet exhibitionists.
The ten minute time limit had previously been justified to cut down on users uploading copyrighted material such as full TV shows. 15 minutes doesn’t change that significantly but the company also took the opportunity to point out that the firm’s "Content ID" system was now in use by "all of the major U.S. movie studios, music labels and over 1,000 other global partners" to identify copyrighted material and remove it themselves.
YouTube has also empowered the copyright holders to capitalise on use of copyrighted material such as audio sound tracks for video. Sometimes a video upload will be rejected due to the system recognising such material while other times it will trigger an advert overlay which will draw attention to the music track with a link to buy the album.
The 50 per cent increase in time limit is, however, significant when considering that over 24 hours of video are uploaded to the web site ever minute.
Youtube fans have until the 4th of August to upload their "15 minutes of fame" video.
