Previously, we heard rumors of YouTube stepping their livestreaming game up a bit to make their already dominant video platform a new option for gaming livestreams.

Now, we’ve learned (via the Verge, Bloomberg) that YouTube is going to be empowering content creators on their service to lock their videos behind a paywall, in the next few months. The new paid subscription model will allow for ad-free browsing, as well as the ability to store videos offline on your mobile device.

Sources are reportedly quoted at saying the subscriptions will start at $10 a month. There are other reports of specific categories being lower in price, like music and children’s programming. This is a way for YouTube channels to make another source of income, although YouTube will still take a cut of their subscription money (like they do with advertising revenue).

The subscription money is pooled together, with partners getting 55% of the total amount. Each individual partners’ cut is going to be portioned to how much time viewers spend watching their channels – so this might not be good for smaller channels.

The most interesting tidbit coming from this report is that YouTube creators will be forced to participate in the program, otherwise all of their videos will be automatically set to private. This is probably going to make a lot of content creators unhappy, pending their interest in the program.

We’ll keep you guys posted.