Motionbox, the New York-based video sharing site that has differentiated itself by offering users the ability to edit and view specific segments within long uploads, has a new, unique monetizaton scheme:  The company has just launched a subscription service that allows viewers to upload an unlimited amount of high quality files and share them with friends and family.

It’s sort of a “Shutterfly” for online video — a mix of free and premium services.  In addition to hosting the big files, it is also selling “motionbooks,” little flip books that show 15 seconds of a video segment.  (You’ll see a demo in this interview.)

How this will all turn out is tough to say, but advertising is not the only game in town.

Check this out: IBM just came out with a big study titled “The End of Advertising.” From the results Marshall Kirkpatrick at Read/Write Web extrapolates that as many as 11% of YouTube users would switch to a subscription model.

It will be interesting to see what happens.  If  Motionbox gets it right, it could create a new trend in online video — and a sustainable business model.

Chris dropped by the Beet.TV studio last week to fill us in.

— Andy Plesser

Update:  Here’s the take on Motionbox and its new features by Rafe Needleman at Webware.

Motionbooks_screenshot