How can I upload videos > 15min to YouTube?

Question

I see that some YouTube users have quite lengthy videos. But if I ever try to upload a video of length more than 15 min, YouTube stops me. How can I get more privileges in YouTube?

Answer 1

You can't without becoming a partner.

The upload limit on YouTube videos has been increased from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. One of the reasons we can increase the video time limit is that we've made incremental improvements to our Content ID technology that helps content owners manage their videos on YouTube. We look forward to increasing the upload limit as Content ID continues to evolve and become even more sophisticated.

If you want to upload videos longer than 15 minutes, try another site such as Vimeo, Blip.tv or Viddler. You could also host it yourself using JWPlayer and a CDN such as CloudFront. As Even Mien said in the comments, you could also see if you can become a partner.

Answer 2

You can upload videos longer than 15 minutes, but you would need to verify yourself using either a voice call from Google or an SMS from them with a verification code.

From their support page:

By default, you can upload videos that are 15 minutes long. To upload longer videos, follow these steps:

1. Visit the upload page at www.youtube.com/my_videos_upload.
2. Click Increase your limit at the bottom of the page.
3. Follow the steps to verify your account with a mobile phone. Currently we aren’t able to offer other ways to verify your account.