Substack wants users to add more videos to Notes and share them “across the web.”

Substack promotes a feature that represents a significant source of income for some YouTubers. The newsletter platform has made it easier to incorporate videos into it Remarks Format.

Note posts are the backbone of Substack's home feed. Although the platform is known for newsletters and other subscription-based content, it introduced Notes a year ago to encourage the creation of shorter, practical Substack updates.

Tl;dr: Notes is Substack's version of a tweet or a snap. In keeping with these products, Substack's social format can now be shared “widely across the web.” In an update on Notes' first birthday, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie revealed that Notes can now be embedded on external websites. “We hope these external embeds will help authors’ notes gain greater reach and recognition outside of the Substack network,” McKenzie wrote.

Substack's upgrades to Notes don't just impact the format's distribution. These posts are now compatible with Substack's two-year-old native video player. The ability to add multimedia to Notes will – in theory – make them more engaging and contribute to a revenue stream that is already providing solid support for a handful of Substackers. The first birthday post contains testimonials from some YouTubers. Writer and entrepreneur David McIlroy generated $8,000 subscription revenue with a notes post that was only a few words long.

Over the past year, Substack has made its monetization options more coherent. Updates to the video player have made Substack's paywalls more flexible and efficient. The new Notes features will make Substack's contributions more valuable when distributed across the Internet.

Spotify is a potential destination for these notes. The audio platform recently signed a distribution deal with Substack aimed at podcasters.