YouTube recently announced its partners that it would roll out an ad-free service in exchange of a monthly subscription. We learned the news from an e-mail sent out to all YouTube content providers.
According to the e-mail, YouTube users will have access to an ad-free YouTube if they pay a required fee. However, we do not know yet how much the new service will cost, neither its release date.
YouTube recently briefed its partners to agree with the new partner terms by June 15, 2015. But that isn’t a certain date when users will be able to watch commercial-free videos.
According to the updated terms, YouTube will continue to pay content providers 55 percent of the revenues from monthly subscriptions, which is the same percentage the site pays its contributors from advertising revenues.
In their e-mail, YouTube employee wrote that they were confident that the new service will bring additional income to both the channel operators and their partners. In its e-mail, YouTube promised that the new service would “excite” users and tap an additional source of revenue to content creators.
YouTube also disclosed that whenever a piece of content is viewed by somebody under various subscription offerings, YouTube will pay its partners the 55 percent calculated based on the subscription offering with the highest net revenues.
Tech experts believe that YouTube didn’t disclose the amount of the monthly fee, nor the release date because it plans to launch the new service after June 15. Until then, the company seeks to settle the legalese with its partners.
Nevertheless, anonymous sources claim that the new paid offering will be made public this year.
But the move was indirectly announced last year, when Susan Wojcicki, chief executive of CEO, announced at the Code Mobile conference that such an option would be especially appealing to users that watch YouTube content from their mobile phones and some of them are desperate to skip the ads.
Additionally, Wojcicki pushed another subscription-based service earlier this year, when YouTube announced Music Key, a paid music service. Music Key however is currently under beta testing since its launch date on March 8, 2015.
Music Key was launched simultaneously in the U.S., Italy, Spain, Ireland, the U.K., Portugal and Finland. The new paid service will allow users to watch YouTube music videos offline with no ads included.
However, users that receive an invitation code will be able to use the service for free for six months. After that period, they will also have to pay a $7.99 fee in the U.S. or a €7.99 fee in Europe.
But when the trials end, Music Key will cost $9.99 a month.
“You’ve asked us for ways to listen to music without ads, to keep playing music videos even if you lock the screen or start using another app, and to play music even if you’re not connected to the internet,”
said YouTube officials on Music Key beta release day.
YouTube also thanked its users and content providers for making the channel “the biggest music service on the planet.” However, Music Key beta will be first available only to YouTube’s “biggest music fans.”
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