YouTube Premium (née Red)

[Isgrimnur]

BoingBoing?

As part of the launch of Youtube Red, the company's new porny-sounding ad-free pay TV service, top creators are being told that they must allow their work into the paywalled/ad free zone, or be excluded from Youtube altogether. Noncommercial Youtube creators get a choice (for now). Apparently, the punishment for making Youtube into a success is losing the right to choose how to make money off your stuff.

Many creators have (often foolish) deals in place that make it impossible for them to take Youtube's take-it-or-leave-it offer, and so they're leaving. All of ESPN's channels are now gone from Youtube altogether. Japanese game studios are also particularly hard hit, with gameplay videos from Attack on Titan, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2, and BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma disappeared from Youtube altogether.

This kind of strong-arm shenanigans have become standard procedure from Youtube's new business ventures. Earlier this year, Youtube launched a streaming music competitor to Pandora and Spotify, and after it negotiated terms with the big four music labels, it told all the indie musicians that they'd have to take those terms without any further negotiation, or be excluded from Youtube altogether.

Youtube's view of its creators has evolved into something toxic and predatory. Far from an exchange of value (you get my creations for free to build your platform; I get your platform to help distribute my stuff), the company has become keenly attuned to ways to hold those creators to Facebook-ian ransom: "You need us more than we need you. You will take a new deal that limits your choices, or we will take away the platform we told you to rely on to build your audience."

[hepcat]

I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to watch cat videos.

[LawBeefaroni]

BoingBoing?

As part of the launch of Youtube Red, the company's new porny-sounding ad-free pay TV service, top creators are being told that they must allow their work into the paywalled/ad free zone, or be excluded from Youtube altogether. Noncommercial Youtube creators get a choice (for now). Apparently, the punishment for making Youtube into a success is losing the right to choose how to make money off your stuff.

Many creators have (often foolish) deals in place that make it impossible for them to take Youtube's take-it-or-leave-it offer, and so they're leaving. All of ESPN's channels are now gone from Youtube altogether. Japanese game studios are also particularly hard hit, with gameplay videos from Attack on Titan, Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai 2, and BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma disappeared from Youtube altogether.

I don't like where YouTube is going with this but if the content creators have bad or restrictive contracts that's their fault. It would seem that having your content also available behind the paywall is just opportunity for more revenue, depending of course on the compensation deals for the Red site.


The paragraph quote in the OP article is interesting:

It’s understandable why YouTube wanted to launch a subscription service after watching the success of Netflix and Spotify. Ad revenue per user is relatively small, and both YouTube and creators can earn more per user if they’re $9.99 a month paid subscribers. For many creators, the deal is a good thing. And YouTube deserves credit for not cutting better deals for big media companies than small independent creators.

They have a unified vision and not every single content creator has a business model that fits. So it's either move forward with the vision and lose those creators or stick with the status quo and stagnate.

[LawBeefaroni]

I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to watch cat videos.

You won't. You can still get your "cat videos" for free. You just might lose some so-called top content that doesn't also go to Red.

[tjg_marantz]

youtube red... red tube?

[hepcat]

I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to watch cat videos.

You won't. You can still get your "cat videos" for free. You just might lose some so-called top content that doesn't also go to Red.

[Moliere]

Cobra Kai
Sweep the leg!

[Isgrimnur]

PC Mag

When it comes to music, YouTube is feeling the pressure on all sides. The music industry wants more money for its content, there's growing competition from dedicated music services such as Spotify and Apple Music, and then there are consumers, who just want to watch and listen with as few ads as possible.

As Bloomberg reports, if you're a heavy user of YouTube for music, you're now a target. A YouTube Music Service is expected this year, and YouTube's first tactic to entice users to sign up is more ads! YouTube believes more advertising is a good way to convince you to subscribe so as to remove frustration. Really, YouTube?

According to Lyor Cohen, YouTube's global head of music, YouTube is already making $10 billion a year mainly from advertising. Music subscriptions are expected to add significantly to that while at the same time silencing the "noise" coming from the music industry and the claimed harm YouTube does.

Cohen's tactic is to "frustrate and seduce" YouTube users into subscribing, but it could easily backfire. We shouldn't have to wait much longer to find if it does. The subscription service is already being used by thousands of Google employees, with the seduction part of the offer including exclusive videos, playlists, and "other offerings that will appeal to die-hard music fans." Another big part of the seduction will be price. Will YouTube undercut the competition?

[noxiousdog]

We wanted a pay music service and YouTube Red has seemed like the way to go. I debated between Spotify and YouTube, but the advantage of no-ads in YouTube was what pushed me to that direction.