YouTube to allow content creators to sell memberships, merchandise

YouTube is doing more to keep its brightest stars happy. 

The online video site is adding a feature that will allow content creators with more than 100,000 subscribers to sell memberships to their fans, the company said Thursday. Loyal viewers will be able to pay a monthly fee for perks like custom emojis, exclusive content and merchandise. 

Owners of popular YouTube channels like Phil DeFranco and Casey Neistat have long clamoured for more ways to make money other than advertising and the complaints have grown louder over the last year. Many channels have suffered steep declines in ad sales as Google's YouTube tinkers with which videos are eligible for publicity. YouTube has stripped advertising from many channels to placate companies whose ads ran in front of videos deemed inappropriate.

Disenchanted YouTube stars have turned to services like Patreon for help collecting money directly from fans. Others have flirted with rivals Facebook and Amazon's Twitch. Many of Twitch's most popular users already make more money from selling subscriptions than advertising.  READ: Facebook takes on Twitch with its new streaming portal for gamers

YouTube executives have minimised the threat from rivals, citing statistics about the growing number of people who make a living on the site. Over the past year, the number of creators earning five figures a year has increased more than 35% and the number of channels earning six figures is up more than 40% , the company said in April.

The subscription feature will be one of a few new ways YouTube is allowing creators to make money from a site that has long focused on advertising.

"This is a means to diversify that revenue picture,'' Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said in an interview Thursday at an annual convention for online video in Anaheim, California. "It's something creators have been asking for. We've built products hand-in-hand with them.'' Mohan also announced YouTube creators would be able sell merchandise from their channel page (as they already can with tickets).

Subscriptions also advance the goals of YouTube's parent company Alphabet Inc., which is trying to diversity revenue. The company is selling phones, home speakers and cloud software while YouTube just introduced a new paid music service, and also sells a live TV service.

The subscription feature is already available to some channels devoted to video games, it will soon be available to thousands of more channels.RELATED: Facebook launches interactive gaming show platform to woo content creators