This week sees Google’s YouTube (or I should say Alphabet‘s YouTube) put a stake in the ground to compete with the online streaming media services such as Amazon Prime Video and Netflix and the music services such as Spotify.
With a new YouTube Red subscription of $9.99/month, US YouTubers will be able to watch all videos on YouTube with no adverts. They will also add the ability to save videos to watch offline on a mobile phone or tablet and play videos in the background.
Whilst having a video play in the background seems a bit weird – hard to watch while working on your spreadsheets – it makes more sense when you consider the amount of music stored on YouTube. You’ll be able to set up playlists and use YouTube to listen to your favourite music.
No adverts and music in the background is a tough sell for $9.99 a month, but YouTube are promising YouTube Red Originals – new series and movies from some of YouTube’s biggest creators – to justify the spend.
Viewers in the US can try YouTube Red for free with a one month trial starting on the 28th of October. Would you sign up?
One Response
I don’t get it… Can you get legit films on YouTube? And TV series?
If so, $9.99 seems a lot to get rid of adverts?