WOULD you pay to watch cat videos on YouTube?

The popular video-sharing website will reportedly announce it will introduce paid subscriptions as early as this week.

The subscription-only videos will include up to 50 YouTube channels, according to the Financial Times.

Users will reportedly pay $US1.99 a month to subscribe to particular channels, so most content will remain free, for now.

YouTube told the Financial Times it was "looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer".

YouTube is also expected to release a music streaming service to rival Spotify later this year.