Imagine living in a world where watching a cat use his paws to make music on a keyboard or seeing a goat perform rousing renditions of hit pop songs was impossible without first paying an entry fee. The horror of this thought may come to reality as YouTube, the sub-entity of Google Inc., adopts paid subscriptions in the coming weeks.
YouTube opened 52 subscription channels this month at an average monthly rate of $2.99, starting at $0.99. They also announced that the choice to switch to paid subscriptions for other “YouTubers” would be coming soon. Under this incoming system, the YouTube channel owner would receive half of the profits acquired from the monthly costs and YouTube would receive the rest. However, some users of Youtube believe that making viewers pay is an unnecessary means of getting more money.
“I think that they should just keep it the way that things are,” junior Sebastian Fitzgerald said. “There have been so many YouTube pioneers who have gotten by fine. Shane Dawson made like $275,000 just off of merchandise and he didn’t have to do paid subscriptions or anything.”
YouTube has already proven itself as a prime way for video makers throughout the world to make money off of their work. Creative minds with a video camera flock to the opportunity presented in having a free form of hosting videos to a global viewership. YouTube also allows for YouTubers to make money through advertisement banners and commercials that play before videos. Over one million businesses pay to advertise on over three billion of YouTube’s videos. Subscriptions would allow for even greater funds to be accrued by channel owners who work hard to produce quality videos on a consistent basis.
“Certain people have to spend money and buy props to make their videos, so this can help them balance out what they have to spend,” senior Rebecca Alvarez said.
The switch to paid subscriptions reminds many of the transition that media streaming website Hulu made toward using the Hulu Plus service, which involves a monthly fee of $7.99 as opposed to the unlimited free streaming it once had. Criticisms from Hulu users came along with this announcement.
“I used to use Hulu a lot and then they started to have people pay,” sophomore Lilah Kalfus said. “Now I don’t use Hulu anymore.”
It also bears resemblance to another media streaming service, Netflix. Netflix has streamed movies and television shows since 2008 and currently features a plan exclusively for streaming, which costs $7.99 per month. However, what sets Netflix and Hulu aside from YouTube is that they hold contracts with companies that allow streams of full length films and shows without dealing with copyright laws.
“Unless they are going to bring legitimate TV shows to the website like Netflix then it’s not worth it.” Fitzgerald said.
YouTube currently features full-length films available for viewing at a fee. The video providing service made this system available in 2010, yet its popularity never took off. This makes many believe that the business world may run difficulties forcing people to pay for YouTube videos that were once free for endless view.
“I hope they don’t do it but at the same time I’m not surprised,” sophomore Lilah Kalfus. “A lot of other websites make you pay for things.”