Online video-sharing site YouTube is reportedly preparing to launch its two separate subscription services before the end of 2015 — Music Key, which has been in beta since last November, and another unnamed service targeting YouTube’s premium content creators, which will come with a paywall.
According to Updated News, YouTube will be a mix of free, ad-supported content and premium videos that sit behind a paywall.
The company, which has always been a free, ad-supported service, is ready to get serious about subscription services, offering new ways for the users that create videos to make money.
With over 1 billion users, YouTube is large enough to support multiple streaming services, but reaction within the music industry — which enjoys a mutually beneficial, yet strained relationship with YouTube — is mixed, reports Updated News. The music labels are split on the idea of multiple subscription services, with some believing that YouTube won’t properly market Music Key. They point to a lack of advertising around Google Play Music as a prime example of Google’s lack of commitment to pushing its music services.
According to the report, some of YouTube’s deals with the major record labels are expiring in 2016 and the multiple delays of Music Key, which was announced last November, sources believe that YouTube is just attempting to appease the labels before negotiations begin, noting that “this feels very much [like] too little too late.”
The tussle between the labels and YouTube has gone on for years and is showing no sign of abating. According to the report, the labels complain that YouTube doesn’t pay them enough for their music, which makes up a substantial amount of YouTube’s traffic, while YouTube says it has paid billions to the labels over the past few years. The labels are eager to push users away from free, ad-supported offerings over to paid subscriptions, which are more lucrative.
YouTube is still the largest music streaming platform in the world — 45 out of the 50 most-viewed YouTube videos of all time are music videos — and still the place where teens get the majority of their music.
It was reported back in April that the subscription service is aimed at YouTube’s most popular creators and their audiences, and will offer ad-free videos and the ability to save videos offline, as well as access to premium content behind a paywall. According to the report, Music Key could be joined by subscriptions targeted at children’s programming or gamers in the future.