An Inside Look At YouTube’s Subscription Service

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I still don' know anyone that would pay $9.99 a month for a version of YouTube free from ads. Do you know anyone that would?

The new option is called YouTube Red. It costs $9.99 per month and will be available for purchase on October 28th, starting in the US, then rolling out worldwide. Along with removing ads, subscribers will be able to save videos for offline viewing, and keep videos running in the background on mobile.
 
Pay $10/month or install ad block (or just deal with the ads).

I'm genuinely curious how many people they need to buy in to make back their money on this project.
 
I do the play music thing (7.99$)- and I haven't seen a YouTube ad in a long time. Its always been part of the deal.

I also browse the web with an ad blocker. That said, its absolutely amazing to me when I browse the web and YouTube on Edge without my google sign on. The YouTube ads are atrocious (as the rest of the ads on the web).

So to answer your question Steve: If it was just Youtube ads alone, no, but with the Play Music stuff, absolutely worth it.
 
It also includes Google Music, and vice-versa.

This really isn't advertised prominently and it should be--I got the $8/mo promo price on Google Music and it now is slated to include this too.

This has serious potential (Google-Flix, anyone?) but could also flop badly.
 
I have Netflix and Hulu subscriptions right now. I don't want another.
Really, it comes down to content. What does YouTube have that I want to watch? Not much. (Realize it comes down to personal preference).
 
Currently I have a Spotify subscription. YouTube Red is the same price, includes Google Music's streaming service with offline support, PLUS ad free YouTube. Everyone keeps talking about ad free YouTube, as if that's the only selling point, and then the Google Music, which competes with other streaming services at this same price point. If they were to give equal attention to the music, the consumer acceptance of this would be much greater.

It's Spotify with ad free video. Yes, I'm considering it.
 
This is no different than paying protection money:

Heyaz... this is a pretty nice play list youz got here. Be a shame if somethun were to *happen* to it... Like, say... someone was to stick some ads in there... just hypothetically, ya understand. Yeah, that'd be a *real* shame... but if you were to donate, say $10/mo to us, we could *protect* you from that happenin'. Yessir, we'd take real good care of ya, me and da boys. Then you could just sit back and listen to that playlist of yours without worrin' about nuthin'...
 
"pay us so your experience won't be pure crap. no there's no really special, exclusive content. same ol stuff."

This is no different than paying protection money:

Heyaz... this is a pretty nice play list youz got here. Be a shame if somethun were to *happen* to it... Like, say... someone was to stick some ads in there... just hypothetically, ya understand. Yeah, that'd be a *real* shame... but if you were to donate, say $10/mo to us, we could *protect* you from that happenin'. Yessir, we'd take real good care of ya, me and da boys. Then you could just sit back and listen to that playlist of yours without worrin' about nuthin'...
 
For me, 2/3 of the equation are the paid ads, which to be honest are not that bad when they're skippable after 15-30 seconds.

the rest of it are the content creator's ads wherein they add the box links to their other videos. since this wouldn't disable *that* content, I'd have to say no to $10.

Youtube isn't providing quality entertainment on the same level as netflix, which is what this is priced to do.
 
This is no different than paying protection money:

Heyaz... this is a pretty nice play list youz got here. Be a shame if somethun were to *happen* to it... Like, say... someone was to stick some ads in there... just hypothetically, ya understand. <snip - redundant>

By that logic then paying for commercial-free cable channels instead of watching commercial-laden network TV is also "paying protection money."

Sorry, the analogy doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
 
It makes sense if this was Google's plan all along..... my gawd...
 
The ads aren't that bad on Youtube. Long ones can be skipped after a short time. I recently started allowing ads on Youtube. I saw this ad for home security or something and they explained why the door locks with keys on the inside are better (I have these types). Never knew that, see the ads aren't totally useless.
 
If they were to give equal attention to the music, the consumer acceptance of this would be much greater.

It's Spotify with ad free video. Yes, I'm considering it.

I'm not certain that there is a song on Spotify that you can't find on Google Music. I pay $9.99 for Google Music, so if the new YouTube deal gives me that, then it is well worth the price.
 
Hey, I know... I'll pay more than I pay for the top quality content I get on Netflix so I can watch some millennial play video games and make snarky commentary.
 
I'll be getting it. Since I'm already paying $9.99/month for Google Play Music, I assume that I'll automagically be folded into YouTube Red; if I'm not, I'll obviously change over since I'd be getting the same thing-plus. I'd only switch at this point if the new Xbone OS included playing their music service while gaming...something that should have been possible all along.

For what it's worth, I'm also paying the surcharge for ad-free Hulu and I love it. I'm already using Hulu more since there's no longer anything to annoy me while I watch the shows for which I have the service.
 
I'd rather pay $15/year just to remove the ads. Fuck all that extra nonsense. I have been wishing for this for some time. But it didn't turn out the way I hoped. Oh well. Ad Block it is.
 
It's Spotify with ad free video. Yes, I'm considering it.
+1. Before ditching Spotify I need to confirm:
1. Wife can use my Google Music account to have offline music on her phone.
2. I can remote control my old phone (hooked up to stereo) through my current phone.
 
Pay for youtube to be adree? Fuck no... not at that price. Perhaps 12$/yr i'd jump at it.

But it better not *EVER* go the way of PayTV or Movie DVD/BD's.... i.e. they market it as ad free... but then after a short while they start creeping in anyway. you know... like Microsoft Windows is in transition of doing right now.
 
I'm not certain that there is a song on Spotify that you can't find on Google Music. I pay $9.99 for Google Music, so if the new YouTube deal gives me that, then it is well worth the price.

Spotify, Play and Apple music all have the same number of songs and more or less the same selection.

+1. Before ditching Spotify I need to confirm:
1. Wife can use my Google Music account to have offline music on her phone.
2. I can remote control my old phone (hooked up to stereo) through my current phone.

Google Music allows use of Play on more than one device at a time, something Spotify does not allow without paying more for extra streaming. That is one reason I switched, I can let someone on their phone/computer stream and I can have someone using the stereo streaming and I can still stream in my car or at work, all on one account, Play also allows offline music and it allows you to import an unlimited number of your own music into the service to stream anywhere. It also does playlist creation far better than Spotify, If you can even call theirs that, they often sucked and had little to no music in them that I liked, while the Play suggestions and custom playlists/stations are quite good. Apple Music (I have had all the music services, premium) sucks, unless they have improved it, I tried it from launch for about 1-2 months and dropped it, selection was about the same, but everything else I hated about it. Took me forever to even get it setup because I had to select a given number of bands I liked based on the genres I selected, and all they had were a limited number of "top" artists in floating bubbles that was hard and slow to navigate, and you could not search or even change the options, it's like Apple music is saying, "you HAVE to like a given number of these or you can't use this service"....Wtf? Should be noted I did not like a single option given in ANY of my selected genres, so I just selected random artists. After that I had a bad taste of the service and as expected recommendations sucked.

As for remote controlling another device, I have no idea, not a feature I would use or have use for.
 
So, pay 10, for ad-free yt, and ability to save videos offline.

But I already have those things. What the hell are they thinking?
 
So, pay 10, for ad-free yt, and ability to save videos offline.

But I already have those things. What the hell are they thinking?

$$$$$$$$$$$

Is all they were thinking. People who make these decisions don't know much about anything beyond advert placement.
 
I'll look at it after they roll out all of the features and some exclusive content. I wouldnt pay $10 a month just to remove adds. As far as i know they plan to develop some of their own series and movies, if they can put out quality stuff like Netflix and amazon has it will be worth it.

Google Music is fantastic and its getting bundled into the package, If I didnt have amazon Prime which includes music streaming I'd still be paying for google music.
 
Hey, I know... I'll pay more than I pay for the top quality content I get on Netflix so I can watch some millennial play video games and make snarky commentary.

If you're into tech or cars, there're a lot of good shows/presenters for that type of content. It's not all minecraft and shit.
 
$10 a year? sure. $10 per month? not for YouTube.

I've never seen an ad on YouTube so unless something changes I'm fine the way it is. I have a feeling they're going to start making things exclusives for subscribers to try and force people into paying.
 
How about for 10/mo i get to upload videos that don't get compressed into hot garbage

How about that Youtube...
 
Youtube is great for learning how to do stuff when you're stumped. Other than those types of videos though, I just don't go there. Every once in a while someone (like [H] front page) will put up a link I'll check out, but it will never be worth more than a few $$ / year for me to be add-free on youtube.
 
Should be metered. 10 cents an hour or less. If you're a YT whore that month you pay $10, if not you pay 30 cents.
 
Wait, there's ads on youtube? I haven't noticed any lately. Are they like Hulu ads that run before you see the video or are we talking about static ads in the background all over the page?
 
Currently I have a Spotify subscription. YouTube Red is the same price, includes Google Music's streaming service with offline support, PLUS ad free YouTube. Everyone keeps talking about ad free YouTube, as if that's the only selling point, and then the Google Music, which competes with other streaming services at this same price point. If they were to give equal attention to the music, the consumer acceptance of this would be much greater.

It's Spotify with ad free video. Yes, I'm considering it.
This is how they're going to sucker people in. As soon as subscriptions hit a critical mass I'm sure they'll separate the ad-free portion of the deal to something like a $5 add-on. Download videos? An extra $3.

Wait, there's ads on youtube? I haven't noticed any lately. Are they like Hulu ads that run before you see the video or are we talking about static ads in the background all over the page?
I don't see ads, either. I do know that they have some of the usual sponsored ads like Google for Youtube advertorials. They also embed ads in the videos at the beginning and sometimes in the middle of longer videos. But &#956;Block Origin and NoScript take care of all of it.
 
The ads aren't that bad on Youtube. Long ones can be skipped after a short time. I recently started allowing ads on Youtube. I saw this ad for home security or something and they explained why the door locks with keys on the inside are better (I have these types). Never knew that, see the ads aren't totally useless.

I had to look up what you were talking about (basically dead bolt locks) and learned something useful, too.
 
10 bucks a month aint gonna break my bank. But I won't be getting it, because I'm trying to have LESS things that take money automatically out of my account, not more.
 
"I still don' know anyone that would pay $9.99 a month for a version of YouTube free from ads. Do you know anyone that would?" Not a chance, a buck or two, maybe. Though, it's included with Google Play Music, so I'm happy about it.
 
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