YouTube considering removing ads, if you're willing to pay for it

I had a feeling this day would come, and I’m very curious to see how users react to it. By now we are all most likely very familiar with those ads that run on YouTube when you are loading up your favorite video. Love ’em or hate ’em, it would appear that YouTube is developing a service that would offer access to all their videos without the ads appearing. That’s right folks… no more YouTube ads. The catch? You’ll need to pay for it.

YouTube is in the process of developing a paid subscription model that would allow you to access the service without ads. Long time Google veteran Susan Wojcicki, who recently took over as head of YouTube earlier this year, is heading up the project. The executive revealed the plans at the Recode Mobile conference yesterday.

Ms Wojcicki believes that offering an ad free subscription service along with an ad supported model would provide users with more options. She commented that there will certainly be customers that don’t want to see ads, and believes the model could be interesting for them.

YouTube does appear to be experimenting more lately with different types of models, as seen a year ago when they allowed users to create subscription based channels. This is however the first time that a model excluding ads has ever been offered.

From the sound of things, this is a project that will soon be completed. Ms Wojcicki also commented that she hopes to see the long awaited YouTube music service roll out soon.

After reading this report, a few thoughts came to mind. While there have been times that an advertisement for a game or movie has caught my attention enough to watch the entire ad, I think it’s pretty fair to say that a large majority of YouTubers aren’t crazy about the ads (that’s putting it nicely). Consumers love services that don’t use advertising, such as Netflix, but I can certainly understand from a business standpoint why companies/TV/online media use advertisements.

It boils down to if people dislike ads enough to pay a fee for not seeing them. Many people are aware of AdBlock, which is a browser addon that blocks advertisements for free. With it’s existence and very good functionality, would users be willing to pay for something when a free “solution “already exists? Or would Google put more pressure on services like AdBlock (which has been removed from Google Play)?

I’m very curious to see how much this subscription service will cost, and if the public will in fact be interested in it. As long as a paid and a free version exist, why not offer it to those willing to pay for it? What do you guys think? Would you be willing to lay down the credit card if it meant you would never see ads again on YouTube?