Pay-for videos at YouTube?

It is well known that YouTube are losing money hand over fist - with a large portion of their losses due to royalty payments to the music labels.

It certainly seems that with the recent changes on youtube - namely Muting of Videos and the advent of Official Downloads that they have something up their sleeves.

Maybe Google, unsatisfied with the losses they are still making after implementing video adwords are looking towards implementing pay-per-view or video downloads for otherwise copyright restricted music videos?

With the only major direct competition in this market coming from Apple’s iTunes store, it could be an interesting motion. It also sounds like the ideal avenue for independent producers being able to sell their wares - something that excites me a lot, and is definitely worthy of watching out for.