YouTube’s Global Head of Music, Lyor Cohen, has publically admitted that if you use YouTube to listen to a lot of music, you’re also going to be seeing a lot more ads, in a sneaky attempt to “frustrate and seduce” you into paying for a subscription.
With the rising popularity of paid Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal subscriptions, streaming music to listen to passively for a long period of time is something that won’t be free anywhere for very much longer. Spotify already limits your ability to choose what to listen to if you’re not paying, and now YouTube wants to clamp down on their pesky freeloaders too. The ads won’t be increased across the whole site, just those who use it as if it’s a paid music service.
So, if listening to full albums on YouTube is how you get through your workday, be prepared to be hardcore bombarded with “seductive” ads, really soon.
In a way, this could be for the better. After all, it’s all in the name of a better relationship with the music industry.
YouTube is notorious for not paying artists and labels enough, since we all know that the website is a treasure trove of free, ripped off content.
If you decide to start paying, YouTube is offering exclusive playlists and videos as premium benefits. This isn’t particularly enticing, admittedly, but it sounds like it’s time to decide if you want to fork out the extra dollars or just put up with a million annoying ads.
