NewPipe (mobile), FreeTube (desktop), SmartTube (TV). If you did not know about these, you're welcome.
Does…. Any one, actually, you know, subscribe for YouTube?
I have a YouTube Premium subscription
Why
It really boils down to a few reasons:
You pay and you're still the product, they continue with all the tracking they do.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I miss Google play music. Shit was fire.
They want people to start using YT Premium while slowly blocking ad-blockers, but they increase the subscription price... what?
they're greedy fucking pigs who don't have a single coherent thought in their brain
That's why they increased the price. They know soon you won't have a choice
That a bold strategy to say the least
So I have a question for YouTube Premium haters:
How is this any different than what most people pay for both another music service and another video service? It's about half the cost of other music + video services (when combined), even with the increased pricing over the years. I've been paying for YouTube Premium since the awkward Google Play Music transition and it's a bargain, especially when I had my student discount at like $4.99 a month.
I have a YouTube premium subscription for one reason: I travel a lot and you can't put an adblocker on an old hotel TV that only has the YouTube app
Once I get to travel less, I'll go back to only using ublock origin and sponsorship block.
The monthly savings from boycotting youtube continue to rise.
Thankfully the price of my YT free account is still only the cost of everything I've ever written in email or a web browser so all good 👍
Who tf is actually paying for YouTube premium?!
I do since YouTube music is included and dislike Spotify UI.
I do. I watch a lot of YouTube videos, I hate ads and use YouTube music as my primary source of music.
They emailed me thanking me for being a part of their journey for so long and as a gift they are delaying my rate going up by 3 months. Cool…..
These services think people get their money from trees. Also seriously who even pays for YouTube Premium? There are both adblockers and website download tools, both of which are completely free.
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.
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.
My adblockers are holding steady with a 0% rise! I still ain't paying!
My YouTube subscription costs 0. ublock Origin.
Unlock origin and ReVanced is great, but it doesn't allow casting to the TV without ads..
I cannot imagine paying anything for YT Premium, let alone $14 lol.
Why? It gives the creators more money than watching ads and you get no ads on Smart TVs etc.
I mean yes you can watch youtube with vanced, Sponsorblock etc pretty much without ads everywhere, but because I hate ads and did that I like supporting the channels without having to manage a ton of little donations
Wait, what the FUCK!?!
This price increase is live for new subscribers as seen on youtube.com/premium. Instead of $11.99, YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month. Meanwhile, it’s $18.99 if you’re subscribing from the iOS YouTube app.
I’ve been paying $4/month over market rate this whole time?
Yeah. That's normal if you subscribe to things through (iOS or android) apps.
Google and apple don't allow apps you roll their own payment methods to "protect their users". Apps have to use the Google/Apple payment system where Google/Apple take a 30% cut of every payment.
With YouTube being owner by Google they probably don't have to pay those 30% on Android, but they have to on iOS.
Wow, they really didn't have much reason for me to want to use it before. I dropped Amazon Prime because it was getting too expensive and I was at least using that regularly!
I've pre-emptively raised my ReVanced usage to 100% so IDRC.
I pay ~$6.50 a month for a family plan following the guidance on cheapies.nz to sign up with a VPN and pay in Ukrainian currency (had trouble with turkish) - because google screwed me over when I was paying $19.99 a month on the grandfathered plan. if that ever stops working ill just cancel the lot and go back to sailing the high seas.
Want to fight back? Ask a friend to delete google chrome, switch out of gmail and tell them why.
Revanced is your new friend.
I never understand the practice of increasing prices to stuff like this when you have less income, because all it does is drive away current and potential customers.
It's like with cinemas, if you reduce the ticket price enough you'll easily fill up screens. If they want more money from YouTube premium they should reduce the price to increase membership to cover the cost and then some for what you reduced it by.
It's not rocket science.
Similar to rocket science, there are mathematical formulas you can use to analyze how many buyers there will be for a product at a given price point. Clearly Google did the math and found that this was the optimal amount to raise the price to without losing too many subscribers and that it would result in an increase in overall profit.
I cancelled yt music subscription today after hearing about the price increase. Musi is a much better iOS app than yt music anyway bc the interface is simpler and it actually lets me play all the music while yt music is like you can't play this song right now due to copyright.
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.
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.
People actually pay money to watch YouTube? I thought that was some kind of elaborate practical joke
Honestly by far the best subscription I have.
13€/month to never see ads on any device, give a lot more money to creators and free access to YouTube music so I don't need Spotify anymore. It's amazing how much you get for comparatively little money.
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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