YouTube is tinkering with one of Spotify’s better ideas

Looking for new ways to turn free video streamers into paid ones, YouTube is kicking the tires on a subscription option that will ring a bell for Spotify users. 

A trial for a two-person YouTube Premium tier is now underway in India, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and the option is striking similar to Spotify’s Duo tier, which allows for two members of the same household to share a single subscription, according to Money Control. 

YouTube confirmed the pilot program to TechCrunch, with a spokesperson adding that the streamer is “experimenting with new ways to provide greater flexibility and value to our YouTube Premium subscribers, including offering a two-person Premium plan option in some countries.” 

The new two-person YouTube Premium plan offers the same benefits as existing YouTube Premium tiers, including ad-free streaming, downloads for offline viewing, and the ability to stream videos in the background. 

Like Spotify’s Duo tier, the two-person YouTube plan is especially enticing for couples and roommates, who can share a single subscription at a discount while still maintaining their own profiles. 

Spotify Duo, for example, costs $16.99 a month for two people under the same roof, versus $11.99 a month for just a single user. That means a pair of roomies could pay roughly $8.50 each per month by going Dutch on a Duo subscription, a nice 29 percent savings compared to separate Individual plans. 

It’s not clear what YouTube might charge for a two-person Premium plan in the U.S., but it’s reasonable to assume a similar discount would be on offer. 

The two-person YouTube Premium trial comes roughly two months after the rollout of YouTube Premium Lite, a new YouTube tier that serves up a cheaper paid YouTube plan with some significant tradeoffs. 

YouTube Premium Lite costs just $7.99 a month, significantly less than the standard $13.99/month Premium Individual plan. In exchange, you get an ad-free streaming experience for “most” (but not all) YouTube videos, but you also miss out on key Premium Individual features, including ad-free YouTube Music, video downloads, and background video playback.