The end of free music? YouTube plans to roll out a paywall by end of year

[Katzenfreund]

02 Sep 2015

With subscription services on the rise and YouTube implementing a paywall, maybe the radio will be the only way to listen to free music in the future

Listening to music for free on the internet may be a thing of the past, as scores of global internet brands from Amazon to Google begin to test paid-for online music streaming services, with artists exclusively releasing music on the streaming services they're paired with.

Now, even YouTube, a haven for people who are looking to listen to free music, is rolling out trial paid-for ad-free subscription services at the end of this year.

Music Key has been in beta since November, and another unnamed premium service is said to be on the cards. YouTube thinks that its paid streaming service will be successful, because it is the biggest music streaming service in the world.

However, there is a reason for this - it is free and easy to use. Adding a paywall and a lot of services will make it similar to other music streaming services out there, such as Spotify.

Streaming services were lauded as a way to stop illegal downloading when they first became popular - but as they shut behind paywalls this advantage could end.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/11838833/Is-this-the-end-of-free-music-YouTube-plans-to-roll-out-a-paywall-by-the-end-of-this-year.html

My comment: Obviously, these people haven’t heard of the resourcefulness of piracy.

 

[NavyRet]

Public radio streams will always be free. Public radio is popular here in the US, but I don't know about Europe. Here are links to a few that I listen to. You can find more by searching for pls on Google.

http://66.162.107.142:8000/cpr2_lo - classical
http://classicalstream1.publicradio.org:80/
http://currentstream1.publicradio.org:80/ - contemporary
http://sj128.hnux.com - this one is "smooth jazz"

 

[Katzenfreund]

There's also our BayW radio. Radio streams are free, plentiful and cover all genres allowing you to choose among them

But all radio streams have the common disadvantage that they choose what to play, and you can't search for the song you want.

A more flexible alternative is the free version of Spotify, where you can search, create playlists etc. Though it carries ads, they're not unduly annoying. But it's still not easy to download in full quality.

Unfortunately, Youtube currently beats them all by allowing search, showing the accompanying video, while there are easy ways to download video and/or music in full quality. And then, apart from music, what about all those cat videos?

 

[kmartshopper]

I hate about youtube are people who post a video and have the absolute worst music for background when NO MUSIC would have been better. Like a porn compilation with bad background music...

 

[Katzenfreund]

You can always turn the sound off and if it's a porn compilation also the picture.

But there are many excellent cat videos with matching music, so Youtube is always popular with me. Plus I can find and download many kinds of music and songs, especially old ones, that are otherwise hard to find, even on warez boards.