YouTube FanFest comes to Toronto on August 13th

The crowd gathering in Yonge-Dundas Square for YouTube FanFest

It’s that time of the year again. YouTube will be bringing in some of its biggest Canadian and international stars at this year’s YouTube FanFest. It’ll be held on August 13^th at the Molson Canadian Amphitheatre. Some of the big names to appear at the event include Toronto’s own Lilly Singh (a.k.a. ||Superwoman||) alongside the likes of Mike Tompkins, Humble the Poet, and AsapSCIENCE. You can expect musical performances from the likes of Sam Tsui, Megan Nicole, Tiffany Alvord, KRNFX, and Max Schneider. Also hoping to get the crowd up on their feet is Marquese Scott (WHZGUD2) and Poppin John. Lauren Toyota, former MuchMusic VJ and host and now co-host at her YouTube channel Hot for Food, will be hosting the event alongside My Life as Eva’s Eva Gutowski.

A limited number of ticketholders will even get a chance to meet and greet their favorite starts the day before the show. If this is something you want, you have to make sure you grab your tickets when they go live. Ticket prices are at $30 for front section seats and $25 for middle and back section seats. They go on sale on Tuesday, June 21 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster outlets.

YouTube tries out messaging feature within app

Courtesy of Google via AP

To share YouTube clips, what you’d usually do is copy the URL and send it using some other app. YouTube wants to keep you within its app by introducing a new messaging feature. They are currently testing it out with a small number of users on iOS and Android to see if it’s a viable addition to the app. Having their own messaging feature will encourage users to stay within the app and ease the sharing process for its users. It will also give YouTube more opportunity to show more ads to over one billion users of the service.

Source: AP via Yahoo! Tech

YouTube going hyper immersive with 360-degree live streaming and spatial audio

After years of livestreaming Coachella for fans around the world who can’t attend the festival, this year we’re bringing you the festival like never before by live streaming select artist performances in 360-degrees this weekend

YouTube is offering viewers 360 degree live viewing on certain videos now complete with spatial audio.

"We first launched support for 360-degree videos back in March 2015. From musicians to athletes to brands, creators have done some incredible things with this technology. Now, they’ll be able to do even more to bring fans directly into their world, with 360-degree live streaming. And after years of livestreaming Coachella for fans around the world who can’t attend the festival, this year we’re bringing you the festival like never before by live streaming select artist performances in 360-degrees this weekend," YouTube explained in its blog.

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Top playlists on the YouTube Kids App for Family Day

By Sonya Davidson

As we head into the Family Day long weekend here in Ontario and other Canadian provinces (and bracing for bitterly cold weather), families are all now looking for things to do with their kids. Where do we often do our research? It's no surprise that we often reach for our devices and Google "things to do" whether it's adventures outdoors, indoor activities or what's open during the long weekend. 

Families with kids, like us, often find we need some downtime in between outings...okay truthfully, I really don't want to go outside and there are so many cake pops we need to make! 

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