YouTube has been adding a lot of new features over the past few months, giving users new ways to watch and also create. The firm has also been expanding YouTube Shorts, giving creators a new way to earn starting next year. While these have all been excellent additions, a recent change for some, that has popped over the past couple of weeks, has caused concerns. It looks like YouTube is requiring some users to have a Premium subscription if they want to watch content in 4K.

It is currently unknown if this is some kind of test or a slow roll out of a new feature. There could also be restriction for certain kinds of devices. Unfortunately, these details are unknown at the moment, but there are a number of reports that have been growing over the past couple of weeks through online communities like Reddit and Twitter. Most folks that seem concerned about 4K are those that watch YouTube on their TVs, while smartphone users seemed okay with 1440p or 1080p quality. Other users voiced their concerns about YouTube putting other resolutions behind a paywall sometime in the future. YouTube has not made a public statement about this change, but it is understandable.

So what do you get with YouTube Premium? Most importantly, you get ad-free videos, along with the ability to download videos for offline play. You also get the ability to play videos in the background or while the screen is off, picture-in-picture support, access to YouTube Originals, and YouTube Music Premium. Now, all of this doesn't come cheap, costing $11.99 per month or $119.99 annually. While some would agree that gaining all of these features is worth the price, others would argue that there are other ways to get an ad-free experience. It will be interesting to see what happens when this rolls out to the general public and if there will be new alternative ways of watching YouTube in 4K.

Source: Reddit

Via: Nils Ahrensmeier (Twitter)