Scroll makes hundreds of websites ad-free for $5 per month

[Karlston]

Scroll makes hundreds of websites ad-free for $5 per month

Like ad blocking, but people actually get paid

Image: Scroll

A new subscription service called Scroll is offering ad-free access to hundreds of websites — not by blocking the ads, but by working with an expanding group of publishers to take the ads down in exchange for a slice of the subscription fee.

 

Scroll launches today with support for a number of major websites and networks, including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, G/O Media (which includes websites like Gizmodo and Kotaku), and Vox Media, which — important disclosure here — includes The Verge.

 

Once you sign up for Scroll, those websites should all be free of advertisements when you load them. For the most part, you don’t need to use a special app or install an extension. Scroll works by placing a cookie in your browser that lets the websites know not to serve ads, so it should just work across all of the websites you visit once you’re logged in. It works on both desktop and mobile. (There will be an extra step within mobile apps like Facebook that use their own browser, and some browsers like Safari require an extra extension to fully work.)

 

Because ads aren’t being shown, websites should load faster, and you should receive far fewer ad trackers. Some analytics tools are still allowed, and websites will be able to keep using affiliate links and paywalling some of their stories. Custom native ads are allowed in select situations, but generally, you should be looking at an ad-free site. “If you’re doing shitty chumbox links on native, that’s all gone,” Tony Haile, Scroll’s CEO, told The Verge.

 

Scroll costs $5 per month, though early subscribers can get their first six months at half price. Scroll keeps $1.50 of its $5 fee, and publishers divide up the other $3.50, primarily based on how each user divides their time. So if you only ever visit BuzzFeed News, then BuzzFeed News would get your entire $3.50. If you visit a variety of websites, it’ll be divided up site by site based on how much you’ve been visiting them.

Scroll users will receive a monthly breakdown of where their money went.

Image: Scroll

The goal is to deliver more money to publishers than they’d normally get from ad revenue for each individual user. Haile says that’s already happening and that Scroll’s payout rates are high enough that even higher-end publications would “kill for” them. “If you have one user coming to your site, that one user is now giving you more money than they would have before,” Haile said.

 

In order to properly pay publishers, Scroll keeps track of everything you read across the websites it supports. It’s up front with users about keeping that history, presenting it to them and showing them a breakdown at the end of each month of where their money is going. Haile says Scroll will never sell that information. Publishers will be able to see anonymized, aggregated data so that they can audit the payouts, but they can’t see what individual people are reading.

 

A number of startups have tried to solve the problem of paying for content online, and none have made it very far. Several companies have tried to create a “tip jar” system, where you distribute money to websites that support the feature, but they’ve generally been voluntary, without payment minimums or any kind of widespread support.

 

Scroll has partnered with these publishers, which seems like a far stronger start, so long as the payouts are actually what publishers hoped for. Apple has taken the same approach with Apple News, though it’s mostly working with magazines, and readers have to use the Apple News app to access them. Early reporting suggested that initial payouts to publishers were low.

 

The difficult part will be getting readers to sign up. People are used to reading the web for free, and — even if they don’t like it — everyone expects ads across the web. Some people turn to ad blocking, but most just let it go.

 

Haile thinks the better experience will ultimately win out. “It was kind of the same question Spotify had: ‘why would anyone pay for this when you had Limewire and Napster,’” he said. “It worked out pretty well for them.”

 

 

Source: Scroll makes hundreds of websites ad-free for $5 per month (The Verge)

[steven36]

That not  like and ad blocker  thats  pay to remove the ads  i know  some sites that  do that without using a 3rd party service by donating .  Just to remove the ads alone  is not worth paying for   Apple News is not worth paying  to remove  the ads   because adblocker will remove the ads  i subscribe  to it i get a email everyday it's free.  Sites like Spotify give you more features than just removing  ads  because the free version has  low audio bitrate  and the paid version has  other goodies .Same with paid YouTube gives you more than just removing  ads. A ad blocker  or 3rd party apps work just fine to remove ads  from the free version .

 

YouTube  free ad supported version have way more users  than any  streaming platform .  Only time  pay to remove the ads really works is if it removes other restrictions  besides just ads or gives you extra benefits  worth paying for . I never paid to remove  ads or for paid for  a adblocker .  Before i would pay  i  would just  go back to watching the news on TV  and listen to it on radio  and podcast . Music can  be downloaded still  ad free  and no good new music is really coming out  anymore because the Artist are being sued  for ripping off other songs so there scared to release them and proof that everything has already been done .

 

If charging money really  worked on the internet  they would  be no ad companies , ad supported sites  or  any software with ads . Some ad supported sites have billions of more users than any site you pay for. Same with some free apps .

 

The internet is just code,  digital media  has no materialistic  value  and its not  something you have to have  people  only  buy it out of convenience  and a smart person wouldnt buy it at all. If you want  to support the industry   go to concerts  . Buy Vinyl .CDs , DVDs  and Blu-Ray , Electronics   and computers  at lest it has  some materialistic  value . If you have to pay for everything  you may as well go back to buying satellite or cable because  they won .

 

The reason some  people  use Spotify over Limewire and Napster  is these  programs dont  exist no more  in years and  there is a risk of being sued involved  to use BitTorrent apps and still  if you dont use plugins  you need  to use a browser and adblocker and some programs that are not BitTorrent are just mostly word of mouth now  .  If you use file host  or stream pirate sites you have do the  foot work to find them  and use and adblocker. Google blocks them from it's  search and social media bans news about them . While legal sites pay  millions a year for averts to promote theirs and sites  like The Verge  post news about it  so they can be paid for showing  ads. Some places  give  people who promote there products it free  for doing it even,  plus what ever cash they make from ads.

 

Openload  had more users  than most legal paid streaming  sites and  it's hard to compete when you dont exist no more  because you was wiped  out by the ACE who is made up by members  who own the  the legal streaming sites.