8 years ago
14
YouTube as you know it is about to change dramatically
The way you experience YouTube may be dramatically different before the end of the year. According to multiple sources, the world’s largest video-sharing site is preparing to launch its two separate subscription services before the end of 2015 — Music Key, which has been in beta since last November, and another unnamed service targeting YouTube’s premium content creators, which will come with a paywall. Taken together, YouTube will be a mix of free...
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I don't think this will work out well at all, It reminds me of the paid mods scenario with Skyrim where even if the content might be worth paying for; people have been getting it free for so long that they simply don't want to. That and the fact that the majority of stuff they would charge for probably isn't worth paying for.
I'll agree that it looks like it'll be a rocky road at best. Youtube's wanted to step into a TV-like situation for a long time. The whole "shows" system was the start of that, in my opinion.
If the Youtube we know today stays the same, and you have actual TV shows going into the premium stuff, then huzzah! The internet is just directly competing with cable as it's done for a while now. If the Youtube we know today splits in a weird cash grab of people trying to jump on the premium train (which is somewhat what happened with Skyrim)... then we're in for a shitstorm.
For the positive, at least Google/Youtube's done a decent job of listening when things go badly and are willing to scrap ideas. So if it's as awful as possible, we can move on
I agree that TV shows would be great. Also, good reporting and news stuff, or name comedians coming online to do videos. I mean, now that more money is coming in with subscriptions, they can totally afford to have huge production costs, ergo elevating the amount of things they can do with their videos.
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I thought paywalls didn't work?
Content creators are having a great time with Patreon, YouTube should just go after something like that. A voluntary monthly subscription set by the viewers, for whatever price. Artists earn thousands a month from "whales" while the rest of their free-to-viewers get to see the vast of their stuff for free.
Edit: Messed up a word.
I typed up and erased two replies that were disagreeing with you, but I think you're right thanks to how flimsy they sounded. People's gratitude isn't something big companies really take into consideration, and it's not really a sustainable model. It's great for artists since donations are correlated to how well they do, but maybe not for a weekly production that has a set budget and stuff. Not to say you're wrong. Gratitude can really move a lot of money, and last I checked the top paid artist in Patreon earns enough to buy ten Ferraris per year and still live better than me.
Yeah, the three "video artists" (for lack of a better term) I follow (two funny reviewers, and a fellow who does awesome consumer reports reviews of gaming products) are all making thousands a month from their fans. And as long as the content trickles out once a week or so, the money seems to keep coming.
The nice thing about Patreon is it's basically a subscription service, like Netflix. You can pick a few of your favorite content creators, throw them $2/mo each, and it's just -$10 to your bank account a month. Not too bad. Easy to forget and just let it keep going. And then enough fans do it, and it really adds up.
And like I said, except for a few bonus videos for subscribers, the vast majority of content is free.
Paywalls... I dunno. My experience is, people either ignore them, or try their best to spitefully bypass them. It might work if you're The New York Times or Jay Z, but I'm just not sure how well locking away a big chunk of your content would work for the average joe trying to make a few bucks.
If this is actually happening, I'll just switch over to Vimeo. For me personally, the content's better, and there's less restriction.
This is it. Even if Vimeo didn't exist, someone else would start up another free video site and that would become popular instead.
I am also never loyal to anything. if anything bad happens to IP, I'll just run from it and go to an alternative of it.
Paywalls are ok as long as they regulate the content that is "premium" and have quality assurance. I don't want to have to pay god knows how much just to see cat videos in a higher resolution. If Youtube makes original series that rival what Netflix and Amazon Prime are doing, then we're in business and I'll totally pay for that. But nothing dumb like what happened when Steam brought in the paid mods thing. People were demanding more money than the game itself was worth for a bloody skin. That's outrageous, and part of the reason why it had to go down.
With more free content available online than anyone could watch in several lifetimes, I cannot see how very many people would actually pay for youtube content. But then, a fool and his money is born every minute or some-such.
My prediction is that it will fail. Completely. But hey, more idiotic ideas have been successful.