Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday October 23 2015, @07:22AM   Printer-friendly

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/youtube-red-offers-premium-youtube-for-9-99-a-month-12-99-for-ios-users/

Google describes YouTube Red as "the ultimate YouTube experience." The $9.99 subscription will cover all of YouTube products, meaning YouTube, YouTube Gaming, YouTube Kids, and the newly announced YouTube Music. The new service will let you watch YouTube videos without ads, save videos to watch offline on a mobile device, and play videos in the background on a mobile device.

There is a big catch about that $9.99 price: $9.99 will cover Android, desktop, and the mobile Web, but if you purchase a subscription via Apple's in-app purchasing on iOS, the price goes up to $12.99/month. Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all subscription revenue on its platform, and Google is passing that cost directly onto the consumer. (Most likely, customers will be able to bypass the higher price by paying $9.99 directly to Google and using the service across all platforms, including iOS, simply by signing into the app.)

YouTube won't talk about revenue sharing with content creators, but the company says it will pass on the "majority" of the revenue. In lieu of ad revenue, subscription revenue will be split up among creators by view time from Red subscribers. The subscription service changes things for YouTube creators, and anyone that doesn't agree to the new subscription terms will have their content set to "private" on YouTube.

darkfeline suggests the following specific points and topics for discussion:

1. iOS support costs extra, YouTube is passing the cost of Apple's cut directly to the consumer.
2. Up-to-date ad blockers and youtube-dl bypasses all YouTube ads to the best of my knowledge.
3. youtube-dl allows you to download videos for offline play.
4. How do you feel about exclusive paid content?
5. Who the heck is Pewdiepie and why does he make so much money? (How do you feel about YouTube "celebrities"?)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by CaTfiSh on Friday October 23 2015, @07:30PM

    by CaTfiSh (5221) on Friday October 23 2015, @07:30PM (#253717)

    I'm not familiar with the Google+ thing, but my YT account was deleted because I refused to associate it with a Gmail account. I was harangued with warnings prior, but forcing users to utilize your services across the board is just wrong. The benefit to them is great with the enrichment of personal data.

    If there were viable alternatives, I would block all of Google at the DNS level. For now, I simply mitigate damage.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2015, @07:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 23 2015, @07:47PM (#253727)

    That's all fine and dandy, but ultimately you deleted your youtube account by clicking the "Delete my account" button when given the choice to add a bogus gmail account or not. I have not been forced to make that choice for G+ for any of my youtube accounts. The GP has likely not been forced to make that choice either, so they are dumb, disingenuous, or can't read.

    The gmail thing is not a big deal, and I say that with my tinfoil hat on pretty tight. It doesn't have to be an existing account or ever actually used. It just has to exist. All of my youtube accounts have gmail accounts but I don't use any of them. They have no (accurate) personal information and are never used to send or receive email. The accounts are never logged into from the same browser or a non-"private" session, and no cookies are shared or allowed to persist. Flash isn't installed either.

    • (Score: 1) by CaTfiSh on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:35AM

      by CaTfiSh (5221) on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:35AM (#253939)

      That's not accurate. It was deleted by YT after repeated warnings they were going to do so if I didn't associate it with an account. I never clicked anything, it just wasn't there one day. You can argue that my unwillingness to attach an account was my consent to them deleting it, but the fact remains that it was coercion.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @12:40AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 26 2015, @12:40AM (#254469)

        LOL at "coercion" for something you got for free. Methinks you doth not knoweth what that word means.

        • (Score: 1) by CaTfiSh on Monday October 26 2015, @07:59AM

          by CaTfiSh (5221) on Monday October 26 2015, @07:59AM (#254567)

          According to a quick dictionary search, "use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance.". The messages expressly stated that I would lose my account, subscriptions, etc., unless I complied.

          Methinks you are of the personality type to not relent despite facts that may be presented and argue a point into the ground. Good luck propping that ego up over the coming years.