Paying for Content on Youtube

Some days ago I was searching for an old movie which I wanted to watch to write an essay about it. I was searching online for legal and illegal ways to watch it. And in the end I watched the movie on YouTube and paid two dollars for it. Why did I chose this alternative? The easiest answer is: because it was offered to me. It was the first time ever I paid on YouTube to watch something. Why was it worth for me to pay for it, while I could have gotten it for free at the same time. There are several reasons. At first it was the good quality I could rely on.  Secondly I could be sure of what I will finally receive. No fake link, which is trying to sell you something or which is not working, what you finally often get when you try to find a movie somewhere else in the internet. You-tube as brand is something I can rely on and trust. Thirdly and most important, it was easy to find and fast to buy. Knowing where to search for what you want to have, with no need to work through the different layers of the internet is worth a lot to me. And also the online payment was really easy. When you already have an existing account on YouTube you just have to enter your credit card information and in a minute you are ready to go. And again, while you are often frightened to give your credit card information to a service in the internet, there is no need to question the trueness of that established brand.

 
New ways of entertainment

So what made me finally pay for a content, which I could have gotten for free, was the easy and trouble-free way to receive: its availability. And there you can see what the film industry finally understood. By blocking their products from an online approach, frightened to lose the control over it, they opened the way for illegal movie streaming. But now it seems to me, that they have understood that the internet is a opportunity to earn money in a different way. They just had to figure out what they have to offer, to make somebody pay for their products. YouTube or Netflix are just the beginning of that.