Subscriptions can be just as powerful a revenue stream as ads, and it appears YouTube is about to give users the option to choose which way they'd like to pay for enjoying the site's streaming video.
YouTube attracts more than a billion visitors each month, according to YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. Those billions of pairs of eyeballs must translate into caravans of cash delivered each quarter, though the streaming video company keeps its finances under a lid.
During an interview with Re/code, Wojcicki revealed her company is considering giving users the option to pay not see ads injected into YouTube videos.
"YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is great because it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; but there are going to be cases where people are going to say, 'I don't want to see the ads, or I want to have a different experience'," said Wojcicki.
Wojcicki's comments on YouTube's latest look into a subscription model aren't the first time the topic has arisen in the mainstream, as the site has long been rumored to be prepping a music streaming service of sorts. Rumored to be named YouTube Music Key, the service was said to have plans to place a subscription model over concerts and performances for both professional and amateur artists.
YouTube Music Key ran into problems when artists spoke out against what they asserted were aggressive practices conducted by the Google subsidiary. YouTube is accused of offering paltry revenue to artists and threatening to block any music label that didn't agree to the streaming service's terms.
Helienne Lindvall, a songwriter and journalist, was a part of a coalition that spoke out in January 2014 against YouTube's alleged practices with regard to artists' rights.
"Now they're even bigger than they were back then, and basically YouTube is the only game in town for music video streaming," said Lindvall. "They have a stronghold. And now when they are moving into [the] audio streaming market, there is competition: Spotify, Deezer, Beats and a few others... they will undermine those other services with their behavior."
While Wojcicki didn't touch on the matter of artists' rights in her recent interview, she and Lindvall noted YouTube has gone through a drastic evolution since its early days.
"Really, having the ad sales has been one benefit," Wojcicki said. "I think it's important to point out that when YouTube was acquired by Google, it was still a pretty nascent business, and most of the people were hobbyists. ... So I think what we've gotten is a long-term consistent investment. As well as free food."
