Does it bother any body else that YouTube has a commercial for their commercial-free membership? That is, they offer a version of YouTube that has no commercials at start of or end of or even interrupting a video; albeit you have to pay for it.
Advertising your commercial-free service? Does the irony not strike them as totally over the edge? Surely there’s another way to position it other than commercial free? Especially since so many folks make their living from YouTube ads.
Also, that’s occupying a slot that an advertiser who is paying YouTube to get exposure might have used. Conflict of interest on YouTube’s part; possible violation of contract (implied or explicit) with the advertisers.
For example, say I post a variety of videos and then make money from the ads you click on (you silly thing) while watching my breath-taking videos. Which tells me you are probably more interested in the ads than in my video, so I’m not sure I should actually be all that happy with it anyway, right? But it is income to me.
Consider also that YouTube is where it is because so very, very many people do the same thing: post videos, some of exceptional quality, hoping to make a few bucks, or at least enough money to continue promoting their message, yes? Now comes the Whammy. YouTube, made rich through advertising, now abandons the folks who got them there by offering to short-circuit the ads. I assume all that monthly money goes straight to YouTube and none of it is divvied among the folks whose videos I watch while enjoying the commercial free streaming.
I hate commercials. I gave up TV 30 years ago because the commercials had become just too insulting, too full of disinformation and too full of “programming” (you will buy this! Or “the only happiness you’ll ever know is when you buy, buy, buy”). And I don’t spend time on YouTube more than I can help because of the commercials (which 9 times out of 10 are for something I already have! Stupid! So it’s doubly a waste of time!!). Yet this just seems really, really unfair.
It feels disloyal on YouTube’s part to the very folks who put YouTube on the map. If YouTube’s going to do that then there needs to be some kind of compensation for video producers who might have made money on a given viewer but now can’t.
Perhaps it doesn’t affect many people; maybe YouTube even does compensate producers in some fashion — though I see no indication of such; I’ve received no indication of such as a producer myself, nor have I found any reference to such by searching the All-Knowing Internet.
Pay to get rid of advertising? Seems a bit like a protection racket. Pay us, and we’ll leave you alone. My conundrum here is that I’m already paying for access to the internet, now I should have to pay to get rid of commercials? If I have to watch commercials, why isn’t the internet service itself free? Worked for several decades with television, you know? In fact, internet is free in some countries, partly for that very reason — and partly because it’s the proper service-to-your-people thing for a modern, citizen-loving government to do.
A Pop-Up ad, covering part of the video I am watching (rude!), that says click here to get rid of ads. I really don’t think we need go any further in looking for what’s wrong with 21st Century Main-Stream Western Culture, you know?
Just my musings… (Your mileage has already varied, dig?)