Since its inception, YouTube has been a purely Web-based affair. You visit the site, watch a video or two and then move on. But the chance to download videos is now changing all this. And there could even be some money in it both for Google and video producers.
YouTube Downloads
viewers have always had the option to download videos for later consumption offline. There are various ways and means of doing this, from using Keepvid to dedicated software such as Replay Media Capture.
But in January, there were the first signs that downloads were properly coming to YouTube. At the time (mid-January) nothing was officially announced, with the feature seemingly being merely trialled on a few videos. But that’s now all changed.
Now Official
The Official YouTube Blog details the move into downloads, although the Google Operating System blog noticed and posted about the changes to the site before the announcement went live.
YouTube is now giving video owners the chance to offer their property for download, either for free or for a small fee. Furthermore, the videos will be assigned to a specific Creative Commons license, which will govern how and where they can be reused and altered, if at all.
First To Trial
Several U.S. universities have been the first to offer their videos for free, while YouTube partners such as khanacademy, householdhacker, and pogobat are the first to trial paid-for downloads.
All payments for videos are managed by Google Checkouts and a new My Purchases tab allows you to keep track of what you’ve bought. There’s now also a help page on Google specifically dealing with downloading YouTube videos. While it’s being advertised as a trial, I can’t see this move being reversed anytime soon.
The Bigger Picture
While most people will think “so what?” about all this seeing as they can already download videos from YouTube anyway, that’s missing the bigger picture. If Google is offering downloads legitimately, those alternative methods of doing so may getting targeted, forcing everyone to eventually go through the official channels.
And then there’s where it could lead. There could come a time when Google decides to charge even for streaming high quality, premium content such as music videos perhaps. Even if it sticks just to charging for downloads, then it offers content providers another means of making revenue, which should encourage media companies to utilize YouTube more.
