In a radical change scheduled to happen in a matter of days, YouTube may delete some of your favorite videos, possibly for good. In a complete makeover, the Google-owned video website will add a subscription service, rumored to be named YouTube Music Pass. This is an attempt to keep up with popular music streaming sites, like Spotify, Pandora, iTunes Radio and newbies Beats Music and Amazon’s Prime Music. With the new changes, YouTube users can pay a premium to skip ads. Listeners will also be able to download music, not just listen to it. Videos hosted by the Vevoplatform will not be affected, as the license agreement is separate.
Although the Google-owned company already has lucrative licensing deals with major record labels, the independent labels are refusing to sign, claiming their contract isn’t fair. If the indie labels don’t cooperate, they can not participate in the new service and their original, existing content on YouTube will be promptly removed.
Vice President and Global Head of Business at YouTube Robert Kyncl recently claimed the site already had deals with 90 percent of the industry and had no choice, but to move forward.
“While we wish that we had 100 percent success rate, we understand that is not likely an achievable goal and therefore it is our responsibility to our users and the industry to launch the enhanced music experience,” he stated.