Just a week after making “likes” private, Elon Musk’s X announced that live streams will soon be exclusive to premium subscribers. Over the past few months, X has been steadily adding new features, locking some of them, such as the ability to edit posts and share long-form content, behind a paywall.
Although the company did not provide any information on when the change will take effect, it will make X the only social media platform to charge its users for hosting a live stream. Other social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitch and others allow users to start a video live stream for free.
According to a recent post on the company’s “Live” account, “Starting now, only Premium subscribers can stream live streams. This includes live broadcasting from an encoder with X integration.”
⏩Starting now, only Premium subscribers can live stream (create live video streams) on X. This includes live streaming from an encoder with X integration. Upgrade to Premium to keep streaming live. https://t.co/4uy4Ju0cmU
— Live (@Live) 21 June 2024
Although X has not moved some existing features to the subscription tier, there are numerous signs that Elon Musk’s platform plans to do so for basic features. Earlier this April, Musk confirmed that X would soon start charging a one-dollar fee for new users who want to post on the platform, and that users would have to pay this annual fee to use basic features like bookmarking, replying, or “liking” posts.
However, users who do not pay the fee can continue to follow other accounts, read posts and eventually share posts after three months. To recap, the X Basic, Premium and Premium+ subscriptions cost Rs 215.87, Rs 566.67 and Rs 1,133.33 per month respectively if paid annually.
