YouTube, that place you go to watch your favorite vloggers and listen to music for free, will begin offering a subscription plan on October 28.
YouTube Red offers subscribers an ad-free experience, a new music app, the ability to download videos for offline viewing, and support for playing videos in the background, for $9.99 per month. It’s the first time YouTube is offering users an opportunity to watch anything they want without any advertising.
On the subject of YouTube Music — which will be accessible via a new app — the streaming behemoth appears to be looking to monetize music streaming with a Pandora-like service.
“YouTube Music is designed to make discovering, watching and listening to music easier than ever,” YouTube writes on their blog. “Any song or artist you choose on YouTube Music will start you on a personal journey through one of the richest music catalogs; just sign in, tap a track you love, and see where your music takes you. And as a special bonus — YouTube Red works with Google Play Music, so subscribe to one and automatically get access to the other.”
Next year YouTube Red will offer members-only content from big name creators like PewDewPie, CollegeHumor, and others.
YouTube will still offer all of its current services for free, so if you don’t want to spend any money, don’t worry! You don’t have to start paying in order to watch (my personal favorite vlogger) MarkE Millar or any others.
Not until the aforementioned exclusive content begins next year, at least.
It’ll be interesting to see if YouTube is able to turn Red into a popular service. After all, YouTube is only popular because it’s easy and free to use. Will the young people who use YouTube want to shell out a monthly fee just to get rid of ads?
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