this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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[–] FuglyDuck 192 points 1 year ago (53 children)

Does…. Any one, actually, you know, subscribe for YouTube?

[–] Humanius 181 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I have a YouTube Premium subscription

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (21 children)
[–] Humanius 157 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

It really boils down to a few reasons:

  • I don't like ads, and I prefer not to see them
  • Running a platform like YouTube is not cheap, and I understand that Google needs money to keep things running.
  • The revenue of Premium is split between YouTube and the creators, much like ad revenue is. So it also supports the channels that I follow.
[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 year ago (3 children)

You pay and you're still the product, they continue with all the tracking they do.

[–] Humanius 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That hasn't stopped me from using other Google services like Gmail, Docs, or Drive either.

If I ever decide I want to opt out of Google's ecosystem I'll just serve them a GDPR data deletion request.
That's what I did when I deleted my Twitter account as well.

[–] Jackthelad 28 points 1 year ago (11 children)

If you don't want to be tracked, you shouldn't own a smartphone.

Because let's face it, you're never going to be able to stop it unless you get rid of all your tech.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (3 children)

For me its solely because of a ad free experience on my TV, since its the primary device I’m using it on. And i got it relatively cheap from turkey so it's not that big of a deal. I might reevaluate if the price increases though.

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[–] echo64 108 points 1 year ago (5 children)

out of all the subscriptions, it's probably the best one. you can get youtube for free but either you're gonna get ads or you'll block them, and the creators you like will start seeking other forms of revenue that are just as/more annoying, or just quit.

yt-premium makes youtube an actually nice experience and keeps money flowing to creators. There's a limit to how much that nice-experience is worth but it's better than paying for netflix, and a bunch of netflix execs get paid, and the creators don't. then the show you like is cancelled and removed anyway.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I fee like premium is really the only way to make youtube more sustainable for content creators and the platform alike. However, youtube has currently deemed that demonetized videos should lose all youtube premium revenue. That’s incredibly stupid.

Imagine if premium revenue went to creators you watched, regardless of monetization status. Premium subscribers would be highly sought after for content creators, since it’s a more reliable revenue source that gives them the freedom to make what they want. It’s good for YouTube/google too because thats less reliance on advertisers.

It could use some adjustments, maybe taking some inspiration from patreon.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I do, you get Youtube Music as well and no ads, which is a great combination.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Yeah I do.. family plan so split the cost with the fam. I find it worth it. But the price increases are certainly concerning. If it keeps going up I’ll drop it.

[–] Robin 23 points 1 year ago

The combo with YT Music is a good deal.

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[–] Noxvento 134 points 1 year ago (15 children)

My YouTube subscription costs 0. ublock Origin.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (33 children)

Unlock origin and ReVanced is great, but it doesn't allow casting to the TV without ads..

[–] Noxvento 53 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Smarttube Next works great on my TV with FireTV. No ads.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's my secret, Cap. I don't own a TV.

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[–] CosmoNova 25 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They started blocking users with advanced adblockers completely in some places. It's expected they'll roll out that policy in most countries. Prepare to either ditch Youtube completely, watch dozens of ads as well as sponsored segments every couple of minutes (because why would Google pay content creators who make them a huge pile of money by providing content for free adequately, right?) or pay hundreds of dollars a year. Even then they might start showing you some ads because why the hell not? Big tech stole the internet from us and now they're banking in on it big time. Needlesly to say this is not a sustainable business model, but since when did that ever bother mega corporations?

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a cat and mouse game, and history has proven that in this case adblockers will win. Or we'll get ad blocker blocker blockers.

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[–] daniskarma 128 points 1 year ago (15 children)

I don't have the money to sustain the "everything is a subscription" simple as that. So adblockers and piracy is the only way to get media content.

I still go to the cinema, but some cinemas over here are already experimenting with subscriptions.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd be willing to pay for a few subscriptions if I didn't feel like subscription services are trying to gouge me left and right. I miss the days when subscriptions to Netflix and Spotify gave me access to 90% of content online.

Contrast this with Steam, which gives me centralized convenience, seamless updates, online sync, achievements... No wonder that's where I spend almost all of my entertainment money these days.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (11 children)

It’s like what cable networks did back in the day, if you want to view a channel, subscribe to it. We have come full circle.

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[–] flossdaily 118 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

I pay $22 per month for the family plan because I don't want my kids or my folks to have to be constantly inundated with ads. And I enjoy being and to play free music that is exactly the songs I want.

I was really upset when they raised the price on me, and kicked me off the grandfather plan. But in the end I decided it was still worth it.

But what the real cost to Google is here is that they have evaporated my loyalty and good will. I now see them as a company that will squeeze me when they know they can get away with it, and that my loyalty and being an early adopter means nothing to them.

That will definitely affect every future buying decision I make for future products and services.

[–] bloopinator 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I love Youtube Premium on the family plan. People on the internet act like there's no benefit to it as long as Adblock and Youtube Vanced exist. Meanwhile I have an iPhone, smart TVs, and my whole family does too. My nieces and nephews don't have to get bombarded with ads, and that's well worth it to me. But the way they silently jacked the price up $5 per month was a total dick move that I'm not happy about. If they keep pulling this shit, it's only a matter of time before I find another solution.

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[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (66 children)

The amount of downvotes on comments trying to help people not get price gouged and comments supporting these subscription price increases shows me just how many corporate shills are actually out there. No wonder these corps keep getting away with this bullshit.

Edit: Wow so many people took personal offense to this...almost like it they know it's true but are afraid to admit it. Everyone is hurting financially right now, some more than others. Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation and record profits. Keep shilling folks, enjoy emptying your wallets for the millionaires while you struggle.

[–] deweydecibel 49 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

I'm not going to defend the price increase, but a lot of comments in here are just aimless hatred of the idea of paying anything, ever.

Pound for pound, YouTube Premium has been a decent deal at $10. Has been. This is pushing it, but there's a lot of comments that seem absolutely indignant at the idea of paying YouTube period (and by extension the content creators).

There's got to be some room for nuance here. The internet is plagued by advertising and paywalls, yes, but it can also not exist without them, so we find some middle ground.

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[–] 0Xero0 94 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Firefox+UBO and Revanced users: Oh no... anyway...

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[–] jerdle_lemmy 63 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Revanced still costs $0/month.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago (20 children)

That's nice. continues to enjoy effectively yt premium with NewPiped for free

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[–] theyresocool 54 points 1 year ago (6 children)

They gave me 3 months free and it was just the same broken website without ads.

Youtube is completely broken. The algorithm doesn’t even auto play undiscovered music or videos. It’s just serving me the exact same videos I already watched. It used to be a really fun and good service that was free and now you get shit and have to pay for it.

Why would anyone pay for that?

Is anyone running the company or are they all just doing drugs?

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[–] ovec 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I'd rather have a cheaper version premium just for Youtube without ads though. I've heard there is or was Premium Lite in some countries, but not where I'm from. I don't need Music, I already pay Tidal for that.

Or is YT Music with Premium so much better than the free one? When I cancelled my Spotify and were looking where to move to, I gave the free YTM a try. It would be two birds with one stone - YT without ads and a replacement music streaming service. But I just hated the whole experience. The UI, that my music "follows" get mixed with YouTube subscriptions, and that it always plays a video with every song.

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[–] CaptPretentious 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

We believe this new price reflects the value of YouTube Premium

I disagree. YouTube offers nothing without the content creators. While reason I ever started using it because TotalBiscuit made a good case for it. But I have to say, while they keep jacking up prices I don't feel like I'm getting anything more. I never asked for YT Music and would gladly take a discount to have it removed.

Keep fucking around and find out Google, I got no issues going back to ad blockers. Whole reason I got premium was to support those I watch and all I ever hear is how Google is fucken them over.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (11 children)

NewPipe (mobile), FreeTube (desktop), SmartTube (TV). If you did not know about these, you're welcome.

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[–] davetansley 33 points 1 year ago (14 children)

I really wish they'd drop the YouTube Music aspect of this and just do an ad-free YouTube sub. Happy to pay content creators for their work; less happy to give Google money for a music platform after what they did to Google Music.

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[–] BaldrOdinson 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lol. Theres already no way I'd pay for YouTube premium. Raising the price more and more just entrenches that more and more.

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[–] Smex 31 points 1 year ago

My adblockers are holding steady with a 0% rise! I still ain't paying!

[–] codanaut 30 points 1 year ago

Google’s really been on one lately. They’ve also been laying off staff, increasing ads while trying to ban ad blockers from YouTube, raised the pricing of workspaces yet again and closed the unlimited drive storage loophole. Removed photos from the album archive thingy. And I feel there’s been a few other things within the last couple months I’m forgetting.

[–] WhiteHawk 27 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Increasing the price of a service that is already piss-poor value for your money is incredibly smart. Who the hell is gonna pay 14$ per month just to get rid of ads?

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I really wish they’d decouple it from YouTube Music. I don’t use it and if just Premium was about $10 or so I’d at least consider it.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (8 children)

It increased a couple months ago to like $25 CAD lmao. Still worth it, though. I watch so much YouTube.

It's weird how people are fine paying for Netflix, Hulu, CrunchyRoll, Twitch, etc, but draw the line at YouTube, the platform that has infinite more content and actual value.

It's still less than my parents pay for satellite. Also comes with YouTube Music if you wanna ditch Spotify. Kinda a 2 in 1 deal.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Newpipe has me covered on my phone, and a few extensions in FF has me covered on Desktop, and I've already got Spotify. YouTube Premium offers me nothing, and I suspect it's the same for a lot of people.

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