this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2024
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Unpopular Opinion

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YouTube Premium is the only correct way to consume more than one YouTube video a day. (feddit.de)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/unpopularopinion
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Edit: Since you guys are downvoting my post, I'll assume my post does not belong here, because I represent a POPULAR opinion. Remember "ah yes, this is unpopular = upvote" "wait no, everyone likes nutella with butter, popular opinion = downvote"

YouTube Premium is a good deal for most regular YouTube users.

I don't think there's much of a debate here, yet most people seem to disagree with me

Pricing: Absolutely fair IMO. Think about other streaming services. Netflix is more expesive, even music streaming services are barely cheaper. If you can't afford the single pricing, get a family plan, share with whoever you trust enough. How many videos do you watch in one month? How many minutes of ads is that? Likely quite a few minutes.

Who gets the money?: What did you expect? A lot of it goes to YouTube -> Alphabet/Google. Of course it does. Hosting a seemingly unlimited amount of on demand fullHD or even 4k videos and streams for a MASSIVE userbase is not cheap. Still, content creators do report that YouTube premium earnings per viewer are way more valuable than YouTube free earnings per viewer. So, I fail to see the problem.

Financially supporting Alphabet/Google: I mean, yeah, they aren't the greatest company, I'm with you on that. If you have a problem with supporting such a company, don't use their services. If you don't pay for them with money, you pay with time by watching ads. If you do neither, you're basically commiting petty theft. The victim being a "bad" company doesn't make that better.

Using AdBlock: Like I just said, that's petty theft and it's not okay just because you're doing it to a big bad company. Running YouTube costs money, if more people use it, it costs more. If nobody pays for it, it's dead. Additionally, if nobody pays, no content creator earns money. That's a secondary effect, as you could still pay creators directly.

Paying creators directly: If you do that, good on you, good on the creators. If everyone uses AdBlock with that, say bye to YouTube. Creators will use another hosting platform, either like YouTube (rinse and repeat) or selfhosted.

Content creators host their own content: That would be so so bad. The overlap of "content creator", "able to selfhost" and "willing to selfhost" is small. Anyway, even if everyone pulled it off, most would go out of business for sure. Also, have fun browsing videos if everyone selfhosts. We'd need a global platform for browsing now:)

YT premium paywalls features: Yes. So? Heard of Bitwarden? People love that company for their generous services. Even they paywall features like TOTP and emergency contacts. Paywalling features is normal. In fact, it's to be expected. Just because something was free once doesn't mean it should still be free. Just because a part of it is free doesn't mean everything about it should be free.

The YouTube App sucks / YT Music sucks: Nobody forces you to use it. But if you do, clearly you see some value there. Pay for it in some way if they request you do so.

Tell me why I'm wrong.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago

Nice try YouTube.

[–] Just_Pizza_Crust 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

YouTube is already a blackbox financially speaking. Nobody can say for certain how much money YouTube makes or loses, including YouTube/Alphabet. YouTube exists, like many other Google projects, to keep you using the Google ecosystem.

Should drivers pay for Google maps?

Should Gmail charge a fee for usage?

Should Docs charge per page?

Should free Play Store apps charge a fee?

If your answer to those questions is ~~no~~ yes, you're being narrow in your understanding of why they all exist: Google wants you using free services, because it incentivizes you to interact with their profiteering systems, namely AdSense. So if that's your interest, you might consider using social media sites integrated with AdSense so your data can be sold at a premium bundled with your account info.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If your answer to those questions is no...

You clearly know my stance about consumption of goods and services. I wouldn't say no to that.

Alphabet is a for profit company. They have every right to be. If they do something, it's to generate income in some way, at some point. Google Maps is here for a multitude of reasons. User data is what comes to mind. They also take sponsorship money. Be a restaurant, pay money to be on top of the "restaurants in x city" results. GSuite has a business model, the free model also tries to make you stay with Google. Of course this stuff can cost money. Of course it's also fine if they absolutely milk you for your personal data, as long as you agree, which in the past (and future) has been a problem... not topic of the day.

If they charge money (or ad consumption) for something and I don't feel like paying, I'm not using. This is the gist of it.

[–] Just_Pizza_Crust 5 points 11 months ago

I accidentally wrote "no" instead of "yes", but I think you still got the point I was making.

I personally don't care about Google as a company. I'm a consumer, so I care ONLY about good content. I want the best available for the smallest price.

I can see you're just trolling people at this point, so have a good day.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Linus? Is that you? /s

No matter how moral you think it is, simple supply and demand says that if people aren't paying for it, that it's not worth that much.

If you're a creator and think your videos should be worth more then set them to premium only and/or make them only available to patreon. That'll tell you if the market says they're priced competitively. Otherwise they are worth exactly what people are willing to pay for them - which even for people like Linus Tech Tips is essentially nothing

[–] [email protected] -5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure if Linus Tech Tips agree with me, but from context, I'll assume so. Anyway, the free market isn't a real argument to me. All it tells me is that YouTube and most big creators have a solid business model.

My argument consists of basically two aspects:

Paying money for Youtube content is better value than watching ads for YouTube content. Your time and to an extent mental state is, for 95% of users, worth more than that money.

Not paying money and not watching ads is not sustainable and morally reprehensible. Their service doesn't finance itself if nobody grants it any income. It they demand a compensation for their goods and services, you are to either compensate them or forego the offer. You cannot just assume that a bunch of other people compensate for the lost income through you. It morally doesn't work like that. If you do that, you better be okay with financially stablr people stealing in grocery stores too.

[–] kjPhfeYsEkWyhoxaxjGgRfnj 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

I mean you can believe paying is better than watching ads for your own experience. But the morality argument about whether they make their money through ad revenue vs subscriptions is pretty dubious.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I think you misunderstood. Them making money trough straight payments AND through ad revenue are both completely fine incomes.

However, there is no morality in denying them both while still benefiting from their goods and services. You'd support my argument if it was about some local busines. For some odd reason this shifts peoples perspecives. Someone offers something and says "hey it's not for free, but I won't actually know if you paid or not" (well YouTube does know, but that's secondary).. It's not right to deny them their pay. There are no consequences to it, but you know that it's not sustainable if everybody thinks like you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Right, but your morals aren't the same as mine. I personally don't find enough value in content on YouTube to justify the cost. So I'll watch with ads because that's how much value I personally put in it. I don't personally care if that's not moral in other people's eyes, it's available to me, and I'm not going to feel bad for doing it.

If it was only on a pair subscription I wouldn't watch at all. It could be argued that them getting anything from me is better than me not watching and them getting nothing.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

Watching with ads is completely fine. I just cannot justify watching 15-30 seconds of ads for a single video (it's probably more nowadays).

I actually did say just about that in my post, so I don't see how you disagree with me.

[–] kjPhfeYsEkWyhoxaxjGgRfnj 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

But if I subscribe, I don't see ads, they don't get ad revenue; they get subscription fees. I don't subscribe, they get ad revenue but not subscriptions. Its not both, there is no denial of pay

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

IDK maybe I'm bad at english or something, but this is exactly my point. Either you pay, or you watch ads. Both is okay, they get paid. I just don't think YouTube with ads is a better deal than Premium, due to the amount of videos and therefore ads a regular person watches on the daily.

[–] kjPhfeYsEkWyhoxaxjGgRfnj 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Maybe so. If both are ok, then what’s the claim of immorality?

I would agree it’s just a better experience for me personally. If I use a product extensively I would prefer to pay for it to remove the ads. But it doesn’t affect the creator’s compensation so far as I can tell.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Immorality only lies in circumventing ads via third party solutions. By that, you don't follow the contract, you have no right to consume their content, then.

[–] Sheeple 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually I have every right to consume the content because I control what's on my screen and I never agreed to their terms of service. God bless the basic human rights we have in the EU

I am under no obligation to do anything and am simply exercising my human rights as the owner of my device and freedom to tailor my own experience on the internet.

You have been severely brainwashed by corpos which is not my problem. You can keep whining about this as much as you want to and it won't change reality, hun

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

You are still not understanding. EU law doesn't protect you from having to pay for goods and services. EU law just banned tools like adblock detection, because you have a right to privacy under data protection law.

It's like going to the store and hiding a pack of chewing gums in your pocket. If a store employee accuses you of stealing, they have no legal basis to force you to show the gum. They don't have elevated law enforcement rights. Your pocket is private.

In the same way, google is not allowed to act on the information, that you use adblock. It's still violating their TOS, which you ACCEPT by accessing their platform. Since we don't have a petty internet police, nobody will proscecute you for it.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 11 months ago

I think you misunderstood. Them making money trough straight payments AND through ad revenue are both completely fine incomes.

However, there is no morality in denying them both while still benefiting from their goods and services. You'd support my argument if it was about some local busines. For some odd reason this shifts peoples perspecives. Someone offers something and says "hey it's not for free, but I won't actually know if you paid or not" (well YouTube does know, but that's secondary).. It's not right to deny them their pay. There are no consequences to it, but you know that it's not sustainable if everybody thinks like you.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago

I think you misunderstood. Them making money trough straight payments AND through ad revenue are both completely fine incomes.

However, there is no morality in denying them both while still benefiting from their goods and services. You'd support my argument if it was about some local busines. For some odd reason this shifts peoples perspecives. Someone offers something and says "hey it's not for free, but I won't actually know if you paid or not" (well YouTube does know, but that's secondary).. It's not right to deny them their pay. There are no consequences to it, but you know that it's not sustainable if everybody thinks like you.

[–] glimse 10 points 11 months ago

You're getting downvoted not because people think it's popular but because your title is absurd

If your point was "YouTube premium is a pretty good deal" you probably wouldn't get much hate but claiming that there's only one correct way to do something just looks like bait.

You're not presenting an opinion, you're claiming something is fact

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

why is on fediverse

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Nah just run it all through piped.video

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'll pay for premium when youtube starts respecting it's creators.

Something something sssniperwolf.

Not to mention channels getting banned for no reason whatsoever.

At the end of the day I have no problem being a pirate of sorts if I don't think YouTube is doing a good job. I'll spend that money on creators directly.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

I think that's morally quite okay... well, compared to people's general mindset in this thread.

But still, think about your creators without YouTube. Where do they go? Nebula? Maybe something like that would work. Likely, if YT is no more. Would that change anything? Not really. There will always be problems, the bigger something is, the worse it gets.

Also, I don't understand your reference, but that's okay.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Plenty of people here actually talking about YT. Not me. I never downvote things in this community unless it's spam or trolling.

But I'm very tempted to downvote you for stating most people like nutella with butter. I've never met any such person. This is about opinions, not facts, so downvoting for false fact claims is legit.

I will get to the truth of this matter

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

The heck , why would you not use butter before the nutella?

[–] [email protected] -3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The nutella butter thing was kind of a meme, bit kf ragebait. It's a shit comparison, on purpose. It's so shit, you should understand my point through that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

So you're shitposting, got it

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I found my self in the last few years to be an avid YouTube content consumer and I can say that yes, the premium is worth it because most of the content I consume is on the TV and I have not found an easy way to do it otherwise. I could go the piped tube route but I’ve got kids and its the only reliable way I’ve found to shield them from ads and have some kind of control to what they access etc (parental control have become really good in recent years). Sure, It’s not perfect but it’s one of the only 3 subscription I pay for (again, for the kids convenience more than anything). I wish all good content creators migrated to nebula or other similar platforms but that doesn’t look like it’ll happen anytime soon. I wish a YouTube-like fediverse would take hold and prosper but YouTube has huge momentum for the time being and, at the end of the day, servers and their operating costs are not nothing. It’s an unpopular opinion but it is valid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think there's SmartTube for smartTv's. Not sure how parental control stuff works.

Yeah, Nebula is great. But other than being not Google, their platform works in similar ways. You pay, you get content.. I mean, how could they even change that anyway?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah I recently switched from the shieldTV to Apple TV so my choices have become rather limited on that front, all for the convenience of use.

[–] PoliticallyIncorrect 1 points 10 months ago

www.revanced.app

[–] Noble_Stacking_1337 1 points 10 months ago

I just started using a minimal ad skipper chrome extension called Clear Skies and youtube is back to being usable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I use libretube because it respects my privacy and gives me all the premium features I'd want. Why should I stop? Fuck Google and fuck YouTube.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 11 months ago

"Using AdBlock: Like I just said, that's petty theft and it's not okay" ur bad