Kudos to the first-ever YouTube Partner Rewards recipients

Vidcon 2012 was a true celebration of our creators and the ways they’re making the world a more interesting, inspiring and entertaining place. Our creators have amassed colossal audiences, invented new genres of entertainment, built global brands that transcend media, and are reaching new milestones every day. Simply put, their channels are taking over the world. We recently made it easier than ever for more creators to earn revenue from their videos and become YouTube partners, resulting in over 1 million channels on YouTube now part of the partner program. As we expand the partner base, we want to recognize and celebrate the partners that have hit big milestones by officially rolling out YouTube Partner Rewards.

The channels receiving YouTube Partner Rewards have surpassed 500 million subscribers and 251 BILLION views (or 36 views for each person on Earth). Want to know if your favorite channels are in the mix? Find out and learn more about the YouTube Partner Rewards program at youtube.com/partnerrewards.

To celebrate, we’re rewarding any channel that surpasses 1 million subscribers with one of these beauties:

That’s right. A gold-plated PLAY button to hang in your studio, office, or home. Initially, nearly 80 channels (from EpicMealTime to Ellen DeGeneres, Mondo Media to the Biebs, Michelle Phan to Katy Perry and many more!) will be receiving this award in addition to a super-nifty YouTube branded gift card to use toward video equipment and a limited edition camera case.  The more than 1,400 channels that have surpassed 100,000 subscribers will also receive the $500 gift card and camera case to help them on their way to 1 million subscribers.

We’ll continue to recognize channels with YouTube Partner Rewards on a regular basis, so be sure to subscribe to your favorite channels to help them hit their first million and get their own gold-plated play button.

From all of us at YouTube, congratulations to the first recipients - it’s amazing what you’ve accomplished, and we can’t wait to see what you all do next!

Tim Shey, Director, YouTube Next Lab, recently watched, “An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres.”