Subscribers to Google Play All Access, which is Google’s answer to Spotify, don’t just get to enjoy unlimited music streaming, they have the added bonus of ad-free music videos on YouTube and the ability to download those videos to their mobile device for offline playback. All of this is thanks to YouTube Music Key, an additional service that comes with All Access and is Google’s first foray into an ad-free YouTube experience, but certainly not its last.
Although rumors of a paid subscription service for YouTube have been popping up for years, users have been left waiting with nothing of substance to show for it. Fortunately, the wait is almost over, as Google just sent out an email to its YouTube partners telling them about an upcoming subscription service that will purge YouTube of advertisements. Obviously the new service will be entirely optional for users, who can stick with the free ad-based experience or drop a small subscription fee, which Bloomberg reports will be $10/month, to rid themselves of annoying advertisements. Content creators, on the other hand, have no choice but to become part of the new service, else their videos will be set to private.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for content creators either. Rather than paying them based on the ads, Google explained: “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.”
This new subscription service will be going live later this year and will be separate from the already-existing YouTube Music Key. I’ve actually been waiting for something like this for quite some time. As much as I want to support the content creators on YouTube, I despise watching advertisements, which is why I’m one of the many self-admitted assholes that uses AdBlock on YouTube. This service would allow me drop a small amount of cash to support these content creators while also avoiding ads. I’ve been using YouTube Music Key for a couple of months and I’m loving it, especially when I’m listening to music videos on my smartphone where AdBlock can’t help me anyway.
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