As was rumored for some time, YouTube has started charging for content, with paid channels making their debut. The pilot scheme gives qualifying partners the opportunity to erect paywalls, but will viewers pay in the numbers needed to make this worthwhile?

Paid YouTube Channels

YouTube has rolled out its first paid content, with a pilot scheme which sees 50 channels offering subscriptions costing $0.99 per month. All offer a 14-day free trial, and there are discounts for longer subscriptions.

The pilot scheme includes channels as diverse as Jim Henson Family TV, UFC Select, and GayDirect. In the coming months YouTube is promising a wider rollout which will see partners able to set up their own paid offerings.

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For one week in May YouTube is going to (try to) be the funniest website on the planet. The Google-owned property already boasts a multitude of funny clips, but YouTube Comedy Week is something altogether more ambitious. This represents the changing face of YouTube; from a site where anything goes to one which brings together the best people in a particular genre, whether they’re famous or not.

YouTube Originals

YouTube is fighting hard to change its reputation from being an online destination full of short clips of random people (and pets) doing funny things, to something more professional, more serious, more like network television.

It’s a tough sell, but it has already managed to shake off its reputation as a place where piracy reigns supreme. And now it’s trying to straddle the line between longform and short-form, professional and user-generated.

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In this day and age, YouTube is potentially more influential than any other medium in turning a song from one which no one has ever heard into a hit of epic proportions. Thankfully the music industry has realized this unsavory (at least to them) fact.

Music Charts

Once upon a time the music charts were made up of one thing and one thing alone: How many physical copies of a song sold in record stores. Now, with the way people consume music, and other types of content for that matter, having changed, so has the methodology behind the charts.

Several years ago digital downloads were added to the mix, as the industry realized it was fighting a losing battle against people buying digital rather than physical copies. Then came streaming services such as Spotify, which now also contribute to the charts.

This week saw YouTube added to the burgeoning list of sources used to determine whether a song is a hit or not.

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YouTube has long been seen as a possible alternative to pay-TV offerings, with a mix of music videos, television shows, and movies providing the needs of viewers. To truly be an alternative to pay-TV, YouTube itself may start charging for access.

Original YouTube Channels

There has always been original content on YouTube. Once Google had (generally) rid the site of the copyright-infringing clips that were its lifeblood in the early days, videos created by real people like you and I became the mainstream fare.

In 2011 YouTube sought to up the quality of its original content, giving producers a budget in order to create content for 100 premium channels. That process is continuing, with YouTube adding many more channels to the line-up at the end of last year.

The next logical step would be to start charging people to watch these premium channels. Which is exactly what looks set to happen.

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Google is currently carrying out a full-on assault aimed at cementing its place on iOS and Apple devices. We’ve already witnessed the Apple Maps vs. Google Maps conflict, and the latest front in this ongoing war is Capture, a new YouTube app clearly aimed at usurping the current default camera app.

YouTube Capture

YouTube Capture, which will appear simply as Capture on the homescreen of your iOS device, is designed to simplify the process of capturing, uploading, and sharing video clips recorded on mobile devices.

It’s currently only available on iOS for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but Google is already working on bringing the dedicated app to Android as well. Capture gives you multiple options in one complete app, all of which benefits YouTube, and, consequently, Google.

After recording your video clip you can label it, use enhancements such as stabilization and color correction, trim the length, and even add a soundtrack. You can then upload it to YouTube and/or share it with various social networks. All without ever having used Apple’s own camera app.

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You may very well be sick of Gangnam Style by now, but there are more people discovering this song every single day. With YouTube crucial to Gangnam Style becoming a worldwide phenomenon, it’s no wonder the PSY hit has become the most watched video on the site.

Most Liked, Most Viewed

Gangnam Style became the most liked video of all time on YouTube in September, knocking LMFAO off the top spot. Now, Gangnam Style has become the most viewed video of all time on YouTube as well.

This time PSY knocked Justin Bieber off the top spot, with his Baby having held the top spot since 2010. Gangnam Style has been watched more than 835 million times, and all since it was first posted to the Google-owned video-sharing site on July 15, 2012.

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When, on Oct. 14, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule hanging from the edge of space, he broke more than just the speed of sound. He also broke the record for the number of people watching a live stream on YouTube.

Felix Baumgartner

Baumgartner finally jumped from a height of 128,100 feet (2.4 km) after five years of preparing for the stunt. He became the first man to break the sound barrier, reaching a speed of 1342.8 km/h, as well as records for the highest manned balloon flight, the highest parachute jump, and the greatest freefall distance.

As reported by the Official YouTube Blog, Baumgartner also broke the record for the number of live streams on the Google-owned site, with more than 8 million people watching it happen concurrently. This is compared to the few hundred who usually watch live streams on YouTube.

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