Introducing 'Like & Describe,' YouTube’s first-ever official trends podcast
Dec 01, 2022 – [[read-time]] minute read
On YouTube, where 500 hours of new content is uploaded every minute, it can be challenging to keep up with the trends. And with so many new creators, videos and viral moments emerging all the time, it’s also hard to follow the breadcrumbs back to how they all started.
Enter: Like & Describe, YouTube’s first-ever official trends podcast, which launches today.
With the goal of bringing listeners the little-known stories behind the biggest YouTube trends, Like & Describe is produced by YouTube’s Culture & Trends team and hosted by longtime creator and online trends obsessive MatPat – the perfect partner to lead an audience on a deep-dive journey of discovery.
In episode one, MatPat explores the intriguing global growth of Virtual YouTubers – who often refer to themselves as VTubers. For the uninitiated, VTubers are animated characters driven by humans who both voice them and move them with motion-capture technology. Born in Japan, VTubers now span numerous markets and languages and collectively attract 1.5 billion views every month.
The episode launches in conjunction with a special takeover of the YouTube logo honoring this dynamic community on the date, six years ago, when the first video was uploaded using the term “Virtual YouTuber.”
To get at the root causes of this phenomenon, MatPat enlists the help of YouTube trends experts, fans, and even Vtubers themselves – in this case the English-speaking Gawr Gura (a 9000 year-old shark girl) and Mori Calliope, a rapping former reaper from the underworld.
'Like & Describe' can be found on all major podcast platforms, and of course on YouTube.
Like & Describe episodes will be released monthly and, befitting a video company, each will launch with a visual layer – supplementary watchable content for those who experience the podcast on YouTube itself. After all, more than 50 percent of people say they watch a podcast in a recent survey.
Like & Describe can be found on all major podcast platforms, and of course on YouTube. Tune in on January 1 to catch episode 2, in which MatPat and special guests from the Culture & Trends team break down the biggest videos and creators from the year, while looking ahead to what might be coming in the world of digital video in 2023.