YouTube has long been the king of online video, and music videos are arguable the most popular clips the site has. Now it looks like the company is hoping to take that to the next level with its own subscription video service.
CNet reports that YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki confirmed the service was a work in progress during an interview at the Code/Mobile conference. Wojcicki didn’t say whether the service would launch before the end of the year, but confirmed its existence by saying the YouTube team was working on it and followed with this:
“I think there’s a lot of opportunity. It’s amazing how much music we have. … I remain optimistic that you can see it soon.”
According to Recode, YouTube is looking to take advantage of the platform’s current ad-supported model. The hope is that some people will want to get rid of the ads and will be willing to pay to make them go away.
“YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there’s going to be a point where people don’t want to see the ads,” Wojcicki told Recode on stage. Consumers generally “will either choose ads, or pay a fee, which is an interesting model. … We’re thinking about how to give users options.”
YouTube is owned by Google and the company already has a streaming service in the form of Google Music (it just added support for Songza playlists earlier this month).
Wojcicki also said that half of YouTube’s video views now come from mobile devices (tablets or smartphones), and stated the growth has coincided with the popularity of the company’s mobile apps.
[source]CNet[/source]
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