YouTube is starting to cross into some dangerous territory. After recently announcing Music Key, the video-streaming juggernauts have revealed their plans for an upcoming ad-free subscription service. While the general idea seems harmless, the fine-print shows that they plan to put some videos behind a paywall for subscribers. YouTube is by far the largest streaming service globally, but this may be partly due to it being free.
These changes offer YouTube channels a new way to make profits. Although the company will take 45% of ad revenue, it plans to allocate the subscription revenues and dole out 55% to each of its partners depending on channel viewership. We all may have taken music streaming for granted, as services like TIDAL, Spotify, and Apple’s upcoming Beats Music are all trying to scrape up dollars from subscribing listeners. Enjoy free streaming services like Soundcloud while you can, because the future may demand a lofty price.
According to YouTube’s updated terms:
YouTube will pay you 55% of the total net revenues recognized by YouTube from subscription fees that are attributable to the monthly views or watchtime of your Content as a percentage of the monthly views or watchtime of all or a subset of participating content in the relevant subscription offering (as determined by YouTube). If your Content is included in and viewed by a user in multiple subscription offerings, YouTube will pay you based on the subscription offering with the highest amount of net revenues recognized by YouTube, as calculated by YouTube.
Image Source: TalkAndroid