YouTube

There’s been some brouhaha about YouTube blocking a huge swathe of music videos before launching its paid Spotify rival. The truth, however, is a little more nuanced. Labels who haven’t signed up to the website’s new terms, the majority of which are independents like XL Recordings, will have their artist channels blocked in the next Continue Reading →

YouTube will launch a new subscription music service, the company acknowledged Tuesday after being dragged into a public dispute over royalties that will result in the blockade of some independent artists’ music videos. The Google Inc.-owned video site said in a statement that it is “adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube” and that “hundreds Continue Reading →

It’s official: Google is about to ruin YouTube. A company exec told the Financial Times it will start blocking videos from record labels that refuse to sign licensing deals for its forthcoming premium service, YouTube Music Pass. This is the dumbest thing Google could do, and it threatens the very heart of what has always Continue Reading →

Among people in the U.S. who say they use social media to get news at least once a week, 37% said they get it from Facebook. In the same group, 65% said they used Facebook for other purposes — people who use Facebook often tended to get news from the site often enough, too. Not Continue Reading →

Even as the number of paid streaming-video services like Netflix and Hulu become more accessible on gadgets, built into TVs and installed on videogame consoles, people watching video online still prefer free. Google’s YouTube service soaked up 48% of the time people spent watching online video, according to a March 2014 survey by nScreenMedia that Continue Reading →

Google released an U.S.-focused version of its video quality report Tuesday, which offers users a way to check which of their local ISPs deliver the best-looking YouTube streams. The report is singling out some ISPs as “HD verified” which YouTube Product Manager Jay Akkad defined this way in a blog post: “If your provider can Continue Reading →

YouTube announced a new initiative called Creator Preview, a video series in which the Google-owned company shares what features it is working on for creators. In the first video, YouTube reveals it is building a mobile app just for creators, a feature that lets fans directly contribute funds to creators, and a “way to harness Continue Reading →

Google’s YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact. The deal, in an all-cash offer, is expected to be announced imminently, sources said. If completed the acquisition would be the most significant in the history of YouTube, which Google Continue Reading →

In a move that bucks the standard set by Microsoft itself back in 2005, both the Xbox One and Xbox 360 will drop the requirement for an Xbox Live paid membership to access services like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube. Microsoft announced this morning that it would be streamlining its offerings and bringing its prices and Continue Reading →

Google on Tuesday announced plans to bring targeted mobile app install ads to YouTube and Search. Through the Google Play store, the company is already able to analyse which search terms result in the highest number of downloads for any given app category. If someone is looking for a last minute hotel room, for instance, Continue Reading →