Since the popular Netflix series Squid Game, and then later Alice in Borderland have shown dubbed content can be just as superior – YouTube have found a way to make this a feature of their own.
With the hugely popular series Squid Game, viewers had to get used to dubbed content. It didn’t matter to most because the show itself was so gripping, there was nothing that could ruin that. The same then happened with the show Alice in Borderland. Perhaps not quite as popular as Squid Game, but nonetheless it was an extremely popular dubbed series on Netflix.
Why are shows dubbed? Simply to make them accessible across multiple languages. They’ll be recorded in the original language, and from there platforms will dub the series or film so that people all over the world can watch it in their native language. The true test is the quality of the dubbed content. Sometimes speech can be so out of sync that it’s difficult to watch.
The idea is that the sound matches up with the movement. Therefore, it should to a certain extent look like the people are speaking the language you’re hearing. Of course, this can’t always be perfect because the actors aren’t saying the same words you’re hearing. But, it should all flow together and make sense, rather than looking disjointed.
Mr Beast uses YouTube’s dubbed feature
YouTube in a similar way are introducing their own dub feature. It will add multi-language audio tracks. This will allow creators to add dubbing to their own video content. Both new and existing videos. They’ll then be able to reach more people as their audience has just become international. It opens video content up to everyone.
Not only are creators going to be able to share their content further, but YouTube themselves have just made waves within their industry. The platform has just made themselves much more accessible. This idea was created in-house, however creators will need to partner with a third-party provider to create their own audio.
This feature is currently being tested with a smaller group of creatives. One being the popular Mr Beast. Since introducing this feature to these select creators, it has been used across 3,500 videos uploaded in over 40 languages. In January alone, over 2 million hours of dubbed content was watched on YouTube. So, YouTube adding their own feature to create this content is extremely clever.
You’ll only be able to dub long videos for now. YouTube say they are working on making this possible for Shorts, however this seems trickier to achieve. Also, less necessary because Shorts don’t often involve speech. All YouTube users should be able to now start editing their audio options, and choosing their preferred language. However, not all creators can use the tool in their work yet.
