X's Livestream to be Exclusive to Premium Soon, But Why the Change?

Social media platform X will soon drastically change its live streaming experience for users. Moving forward, it will be exclusive to Premium subscribers only. This is a significant 180° move by X as it opposes its social media rivals in the market, which currently offer live streams to be started by all kinds of accounts without charge.

Its latest announcement is rattling its users on the platform, massively criticizing X for this move and bringing shade to direction as a 'video-first' platform.

X Livestream is Going to be a Premium Exclusive

A new update from X's Live account shared that in the future, its live streaming capabilities and features will be exclusive to X Premium and will no longer be accessible for those who are not subscribers. The company clarified that this will be for the service's live video streams, a.k.a. its Video Spaces, which it only introduced last February.

The company also said this will apply for encoder services with an integration on X, meaning apps stream videos on the platform.

It remains unknown why the company is making this change on live streams now, as it did not explain this latest move.

Start a Live on X with Verified, Premium Account

The post said that to go live on X, users need to upgrade their accounts to Premium, which means that Free accounts can no longer access it. X is known for paywalling several features, such as editing posts, long-form posts, going ad-free, and more.

This latest move has been heavily criticized by users, who urge that it is a 'video first' platform that requires subscriptions for the experience. Others have also enumerated Kick, Twitch, and YouTube, which allow livestreaming without a subscription.

X Premium Features and Services

The X Premium subscription has been one of the most controversial services in the social media industry. It was the first to require payments to get the verified checkmark back in 2022 under Twitter Blue. Since then, it has added significant features for users to enjoy, including long-form posts, two-factor authentication, and more.

Since then, X has added ads to the platform, and being on X Premium is the only way to avoid these advertisements, initially centering on a single subscription for the entire experience. However, it added more paid tiers to the service, as the Premium Basic would get the most ads, Premium Standard would get half of the usual ads, and only the Premium Plus would be the ad-free experience.

X Premium has its pros and cons, but many complain that since it was added, this was the only way to get the significant features on the platform, with payment being a requirement. Now, it is adding another feature to X Premium, with Live exclusive to the paid service for users to start one. The company does not explain the move behind it.