YouTube ends the take a look at asking customers to get a premium subscription to observe 4K movies • TechCrunch

Earlier this month, YouTube ran an experiment the place it requested some free customers to improve to a premium account to observe movies in 4K decision. The corporate has now ended this take a look at — in all probability due to uproar from customers.

In a tweet, YouTube confirmed the top of the experiment and stated, “viewers ought to now have the ability to entry 4K high quality resolutions with out Premium membership.” So all customers can now watch movies on the highest decision with out paying for a subscription.

YouTube ran the take a look at to know to gauge customers’ reactions when a selected function was pushed behind the premium tier. In a now-deleted tweet, the corporate advised a person who received a pop-up asking them to improve that the person was “part of our experiment to know higher the function preferences of Premium & non-Premium viewers.”

Google expenses $9.99 per thirty days for YouTube Music and $11.99 per thirty days for YouTube premium within the U.S. — these costs fluctuate internationally. The corporate claims to have greater than 50 million paid subscribers throughout each choices globally. The Premium subscription provides options like ad-free viewing, video downloads for offline consumption, and background play.

YouTube tries some ways to transform free customers into paid customers. Earlier this yr, it ran an experiment displaying customers as much as 11 unskippable adverts earlier than the beginning of a protracted video to allow them to have an uninterrupted expertise. This take a look at was short-lived and the corporate ended it inside days.

Final week, YouTube launched a brand new function referred to as handles — which has similarities to what different social networks like Twitter, Instagram, and Fb supply — that permits creators to direct viewers to their channel simply.