YouTube Gives 24-Karat Gold ‘Play Button’ to Channels with 1M+ Subs

Tom Pickett wasn’t the only YouTube executive to reveal big news at YouTube’s closing keynote at the end of VidCon 2012’s Industry Day. Tim Shey, Director of the YouTube Next Lab at Google, gave the crowd predominantly comprised of online video content creators something shiny to look at, yearn for, and/or hang on their walls.

Shey and YouTube’s Partner Rewards team announced the world’s largest video sharing site will be honoring those channels that have crossed the one million subscriber threshold on that site with a sizable, 24-karat gold play button, readyframed for prominent display.

If you’re wondering why the honor is associated with subscribers and not views, it’s probably due to the fact YouTube is trying to stress to its partners the importance of the former. You can see this in action in the site’s recent channel-oriented overhaul

and hear it in the way YouTube execs talk about the company. Stats and fun facts like “subscribers are up 50% since the YouTube redesign” and “a subscriber to your channel will watch twice the amount of videos as a regular viewer” were reiterated throughout the company’s presentation.

In addition to those sparkly play buttons, Shey announced YouTube will give away a custom DSLR bag and $500 worth of B&H Photo Video swag to all channels who make it to more than 100,000 subscribers.

We’ll have more YouTube news for you coming out of VidCon. Stay tuned.

(Bonus Question: Can you guess who’s kinda pictured in the reflection of the Gold Play Button above? Hint: It’s Daily Grace!)