Twitter Blue is the new verification system introduced by Elon Musk. To remain verified with a blue tick on the platform, users will need to start paying the increased fee of £9.60 per month for the service or £100.80 for the annual subscription (this is currently the cheapest option).

We know it's been a hard decision for artists we've spoken to on whether to sign up for this or not. So here are the key advantages / disadvantages:

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Why artists should think about getting it:

1. You can expect to lose your blue tick if you do not sign up
2. Priority in replies: your replies and notifications will rank higher than non-verified users.
3. This price may go up, so if this isn't a big increase in price for you it might be best to jump on asap.
4. Key features include: half of the ads of normal Twitter, the ability to post longer videos on the platform, and the option to undo sent tweets (rather than going to profile then deleting it).
5. Users can cancel whenever they want so you can jump off if it gets too expensive.

Why artists should think twice:

1. This model is all about getting rid of bots but only around 250K users have signed up to this new offering so far; with the amount of users being 450 million per month, they've got quite a long way before the benefits can even be properly rolled out.
2. New platforms are popping up all the time like Hive Social, Mastodon, and Post.News. and this could force Twitter to take back their subscription model, meaning you've paid for nothing.
3. The key features have not been rolled out yet.

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Our conclusion

For more established or developing artists we'd recommend getting verified in order to avoid anyone else claiming to be you as a hack.

Read more info here: https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/twitter-blue

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