Watch out, Internet surfers. YouTube has its eye on your pocket change, and it’s coming for it this spring.
YouTube has been in contact with its most popular content producers, urging them to create content for a paid version of their channels.
YouTube channels that draw in millions of subscribers, like Machinima, Maker Studios and Fullscreen, have been asked if they want to join in on YouTube’s new moneymaking venture.
The proposed cost of a subscription to your favorite YouTube channel is $5 a month. That’s not bad, until you have to start paying for five or six different channels a month.
YouTube currently makes a sizeable chunk of change through advertising before, after and in between videos. YouTube is also owned by Google.
In seeing the dedication most YouTube users have for their favorite channels, YouTube believes there is a way to profit from it.
For me, as much as I like using YouTube, I really couldn’t bring myself to spending money on the content.
It’s not like Netflix, from which you get a selection of thousands of feature films and television shows for a relatively low price.
No, subscribing to a YouTube channel would get you two to three five-minute videos a day. Those videos are of YouTube qualit, of course.
I don’t think there is a chance that YouTube will ever become a fully paid subscription service.
At least, not anytime soon.
Being free is YouTube’s hook. The online video uploading service is not that unique. YouTube would shoot itself in the foot and lose out to competition if it charged for access, no matter how popular it is right now.
I don’t think YouTube users should get up in arms over this news either. It sounds more experimental than anything else. If YouTube producers really start charging for their content, I am sure they will see a steady decline in viewership. No matter what, there will be someone on YouTube doing the same thing as them for free.
Personally, I think any YouTube producer who starts charging for content needs a reality check.
You’re a YouTube celebrity. Nobody wants to pay for your stuff. If they did, you wouldn’t still be on YouTube.
Chasen Doerr is a senior journalism major and the opinions editor for the Daily 49er.
