YouTube plans to increase their number of ads to “frustrate” users

YouTube is aiming to drastically increase the amount of ads featured on music videos featured on the site in hopes of convincing users to sign up to their new, forthcoming music subscription service.

Over the last few months, there has been much talk about a new music subscription service that is in the works by YouTube. When Bloomberg first broke the news back in December, they reported that the service, which is apparently an attempt to compete with current services such as Spotify and Apple Music, was due to launch in March.

Until the start of this month, many were expecting YouTube’s new service to launch at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, last week, where Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, was appearing to talk about “seismic changes he’s witnessed and the importance of embracing the future.”

However, it seems that Cohen did happen to reveal some rather important information about the way that YouTube would operate in the near future while he was at SXSW.

As Bloomberg notes, Lyor Cohen has revealed the company has plans to increase the amount of ads that users see as part of a plan of getting new subscribers to their forthcoming service.

“You’re not going to be happy after you are jamming ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and you get an ad right after that,” Cohen explained in an interview.

Basically, what YouTube are attempting to do is target those users who utilise their streaming service excessively. By turning their constant listening experience into something that resembles a commercial radio station, Cohen explains that the company hope to convince users to make the decision to subscribe to their new service.

“Our top priority at YouTube is to deliver a great user experience, and that includes ensuring users do not encounter excessive ad loads,” Lyor Cohen continued. “For a specific subset of users who use YouTube like a paid music service today – and would benefit most from additional features – we may show more ads or promotional prompts to upsell to our paid service.”

Cohen explained that he has been rallying around his fellow YouTube colleagues to make changes that will see them become “good partners” with the music industry, as they continue to attempt to “smoke out” those who can afford the new service, and direct them towards it.

“There’s a lot more people in our funnel that we can frustrate and seduce to become subscribers,” Cohen noted. “Once we do that, trust me, all that noise will be gone and articles people write about that noise will be gone.”

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.