Topic: Youtube subscription service: no ads, mobile download, original content

[idolminds]

Youtube Red

(Terrible name, BTW. Not like it'd be hard to find if there was another TUBE site that has RED in its name...)

So the pitch is $10/mo and you can watch all of YouTube ad-free. You can also download videos to your mobile device to watch offline. Also something about letting videos run in the background while you switch apps? I don't really see the draw in that one.

If that was it it'd be a total ripoff, but it includes/is part of the Google Play Music subscription so if you already have that then you already have this. So thats no so terrible.

The Verge has an article about the whole thing. It also seems like YouTube will start producing original content that will be behind the subscription paywall. Doesn't seem clear whether just anyone can do that with their videos. But...Youtube is about to change.

[Cobra951]

Adblock has made it ad-free all this time.  I forget they even do ads, until I use their app on the Xbox.  Let's see how it changes.  One thing that definitely will stay the same is me not paying $120/year for Youtube (red or any color).

[idolminds]

Heh, yeah. That and videodownloadhelper and I've got ad-free offline videos. Go me!

[gpw11]

The main benefit of this would be for Chromecast/AppleTV I imagine. 

[Cobra951]

Heh, yeah. That and videodownloadhelper and I've got ad-free offline videos. Go me!

Haha!  Yes.  I've been using this site.  I even downloaded my own videos with this, after YT converted them, at 720p and 360p.  The 720p ones are significantly smaller than the originals, run better on my old dinosaur, and still look about as good.  Conversions are immediate too, or maybe during the slow upload process.  (My Roadrunner up bandwidth is puny.)  Whatever tech they use is pretty impressive.  I even get this offer to smooth out the videos, which I've refused up to now.  I wonder what it does.

Anyway, I hope nothing changes too much for the worse.  That article you linked has a lot of details.  If everyone's being forthright, this should all be mostly good stuff.

[Cobra951]

Youtubers feel coerced into red service.  Setting all the partners' videos to private unless they agree to the terms does indeed make it coercion.  They're rolling with the punch, though.  What else are they going to do?  They want to keep making money.

This could be a good thing, but the problem apparently is uncertainty.

[idolminds]

There are also snags with channels that have their own deals to put up specific content. ESPN has had to pull a lot of videos because their deals with sports organizations likely don't cover this subscription stuff. Some smaller music video companies have pulled music videos down for similar reasons as well.

[Xessive]

So essentially free YouTube has more content than YouTube Red?