YOU TUBE - IN THE MONEY
I wrote some while ago that Google's You Tube service was due to launch a subscription service before the year's end. You will recall that the whole idea created much ire with the record labels - particularly the independents - who complained bitterly of You Tube's miserly fees for the honour of streaming their songs. You Tube have had to delay the launch of the service as a result, although it has now reached amicable agreements with what it says are "hundreds of labels worldwide". This should remove Google's implied threat to remove and block You Tube postings from labels who didn't sign-up with them.
And today, You Tube has confirmed that it's All Systems Go. It seems that some sort of compromise deal has been thrashed out to address the labels' worries about the fees being offered. Apparently, the more plays that a You Tube video gets, then the label is able to gain a larger proportion of the subscription pool available. Quite how this works and what the difference is from simply making micro-payments for each play remains a mystery for now.
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| You Tube - Music Key |
The monthly subscription to what is being called Music Key has been set at £9.99 and will initially be available on the Android operating system. Apple will follow shortly, although there is no mention at this stage of extending the service beyond phones and tablets to PCs. What does a subscriber get for their money? Users can stream ad-free videos and also download them for off-line use. Whole albums will be available and a unique service - for now - is that the Music Key also provides live concert recordings and other "unreleased rarities". Google's existing Play All Access is included too. The development is clearly a major challenge to establish streaming services such as Spotify and Beats Music and it will be very interesting indeed to see what sort of take-up it achieves. You Tube has the advantage that it is already the "Go To" source for much new music anyway, but whether music fans choose to subscribe in their droves remains to be seen.
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| You Tube's "Music Key" - Play Whole Albums - and no ads |
Google hopes that by enabling the audio content to continue playing even when users switch to other programs, they'll be offering the flexibility of (say) Spotify with the bonus of video content as and when a user chooses. Digital habits are sometimes difficult to change and I'm sure I'll be returning to this theme in the near future.
As for the launch itself, over the next six month, an increasing number of beta users will be invited to sign up to Music Key. As their experiences enable Google to fine-tune their service, the paid-for facility will be rolled out to potential customers in the UK, USA and a selection of European countries.
Alan Dorey
13th November 2014
