Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, will soon restrict its live-streaming feature to premium subscribers, according to a report by Deadline. The verified @Live account on X announced that only Premium subscribers can create live video streams, including those using an encoder with X integration. However, the post did not specify when this change would take effect.
This move is part of Musk’s broader strategy to boost the company’s revenue. Earlier this year, Musk proposed charging a “small fee” for new users to post immediately after creating an account to combat spam and bots. Non-paying users could only read posts from other accounts, not create their own.
X offers three subscription tiers: Basic, Premium, and Premium+. The Basic tier includes features like editing posts, creating longer posts and video uploads, prioritizing replies, text formatting, bookmark folders, and custom app icons. The Premium tier offers all the features of the Basic tier, plus a blue checkmark, fewer ads, creator subscriptions, participation in ad revenue sharing, and more. Premium+ users get all the features of the previous tiers: no ads in the “For You” or “Following” tabs, a considerable reply boost, and the ability to write articles.
These changes reflect Musk’s continued efforts to transform X into a more profitable platform while attempting to enhance the user experience and reduce spam. By limiting live streaming to paying subscribers, Musk aims to add value to the Premium and Premium+ tiers, encouraging more users to subscribe and thus increasing the platform’s revenue. The date on which these changes will be implemented remains unknown. Still, users are encouraged to upgrade to Premium to continue accessing the live streaming feature.
