Feel like we're watching a lot of tech companies making a lot of bad decisions all at once. Reddit, Google, Netflix, Meta, Twitter, Hulu, etc. Regardless of the individual circumstances and bad actors in each case, it feels like they're all being fueled by a shared, low-key desperation.
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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I know it sounds a little silly to blame this on one person, but honestly think it’s Elon’s fault.
A bunch of tech-bro CEO types idolize him and are jealous - thinking he is cool for getting to “say whatever he wants” to the public, his detractors - Hell… even the SEC… and he “gets away with it.”
Not only that, but he has gotten to present to cheering crowds on stage for companies people still mistakenly think Elon both founded and runs single-handedly like Tesla and SpaceX… and he has been positively referenced and guest appeared over the past decade in Marvel films and other “cool” pop culture like South Park and Rick & Morty.
…And so when Elon just said “fuck you” publicly to a bunch of his workers by firing a bunch of them… The Elon wannabes loved it.
Worse - they are influenced by his actions. Some have even openly said it.
So not only do people like spez go and fuck over their devs, their users, and advertisers… but the folks at the heads of lots of companies are doing the same. For example - and I don’t know if it was mentioned here but - Plex recently fired like 20% of their workforce.
The venture capital free money train is gone and they're realizing their revenue models make zero sense.
Interest rates. This bursts the bubble.
It's unreal how many people don't know that. It's always fun to think about on my way to work at 5am.
Easy money pipeline has been cut off, makes sense we're all seeing this kind of thing at the same time when you consider it from the POV of the investors bankrolling these companies.
Costs are going up, investment is wising up.
What fucking idiot pays for YouTube premium? Like, I'm sorry... But what the fuck?
- No ads
- Creators get more money than from ads
- YouTube is less dependent on advertisers
- You can get it in a bundle with YouTube music It's not that bad of a deal. Music and YouTube are the two pieces of media I consume most, so it makes sense for me.
Same reasons here. Also, if you regularly watch Youtube on smart TVs/streaming boxes, etc. it's just the most hassle free way to not get ads there.
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I kinda wanted to for awhile because I'd much prefer to have a service like that be paid instead of driven by ads, but it's getting harder to do that with how they're operating.
I don't pay specifically for YouTube with no ads, that's just a nice bonus, the primary reason is YouTube Music which is amazing.
yeah, ad-free youtube, downloads, and background playback is only a couple dollars more than spotify. it's one of the easiest subscriptions for me to justify.
i mean i would get it if the platform wasn't trying to take advantage of you, but considering youtube's moves in the past few years and especially recently with some people getting adblock-blocked, yea i don't think supporting them further is a good idea
I pay!
I was paying $90 a month for cable TV. Something that I hardly watched. When I did watch it, half the time I was watching OTA channel that I could just pick up with rabbit ears.
I was spending more time watching YouTube (everything from car crash videos, to videos of people doing lawn care, to reviews of tech stuff), and I was getting fed up with the ads.
So, I stopped paying the $90 for TV, bought a new HDHomeRun with a new antenna, downloaded the Pluto TV app, and subscribed to YouTube Premium.
Now I get my OTA shows, get some of the stuff I liked with cable (The 24/7 Tosh.0 channel on Pluto TV is pure delight), and I can binge all the dumb shows I want on YouTube without a single ad getting in my way.
NewPipe costs $13.99 less on my phone (where I watch YouTube most), and it has a better UX (for me) than the official app.
If you’re just a bit tech savvy and don’t use your tv as your primary YouTube player then it’s reasonably easy to avoid ads and download stuff on YouTube no matter if you’re on Android, PC, or even iOS (yes without jailbreak).
I pay for it since I use it pretty often on my tv. I’ve gotten rid of other subscriptions to cover the cost. I use YouTube fairly often. My kid watches it on tv and I didn’t want him inundated with ads.
I feel like they forced me to pay though. I’d put on a show for my kid and 3 minutes in, there would be a 2 hour ad that played something completely different and pushed bullshit ads in front of him. I couldn’t subject him to that and there really isn’t an alternative.
Count me in on the group. Have been a family subscriber for awhile. Daughter is 7 and autistic so when an ad pops up she always installs the games then they are horrible and piss her off or she wants me to spend money on it because they force it down your throat. Easier to just give Google some money and not have to deal with it.
Revanced Manager for phones. SmartTubeNext for TVs.
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I pay Google for Google domains (shutting down, being transferred to somewhere) and YT premium and they didn't tell me either of these things.
All Google domains are transferring to SquareSpace, and you get 1 renewal at the old rate before SquareSpace can charge you whatever they want.
A nice email from Google explaining that would have been lovely.
I got an email saying there was a price increase coming soon
I love that I learned about Google Domains being shut down from a Lemmy comment~ I was debating moving those away from Google anyway. Has anyone else already done research and narrowed down the list of decent registrars worth using?
VPN and Argentina. Less than $2.50 US per month. Did this over a year ago and no issues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nordvpn/comments/nu4st9/youtube_premium_subscription_for_way_cheaper/
I must be grandfathered in. I have YouTube Music for $9.99 a month that also includes YouTube Premium
I got an email from YouTube explaining the increase along with a few extra months at the old price before they raise it for me. 🤷♂️. Seems fair
Wow, and I just cancelled mine yesterday, crazy timing.
How can billion dollar companies justify this bullshit, when their main source of income is advertisers anyways?
YouTube premium is their way of hedging bets against advertiser revolts they don’t want a controversy like Elsagate or Logan Paul’s forest adventures to cause their profits to tank.
Thus reinforcing the easy decision of never getting YouTube premium.
And yet they will probably say that subscribers are up, without mentioning that most of them are from countries like India where it costs $22.50 CAD per year.
So I’ve had YouTube premium for years now, going all the way back to when it was still called YouTube red so I’ve been on the legacy $10/month plan and because I got to keep my old pricing it’s stopped me from canceling at any point when I was rebudgeting and it even stopped me from getting the cheaper $8/month student plan as I didn’t want to lose my legacy pricing once I was done with college but considering they’re hitting all subscribers and not just new subscribers I’m going to jump to that student plan to pay less each month instead.
It just doesn’t quite make sense why they’re increasing prices besides greed(or they know they can with the roll out of ad blocker blockers). If it was still during the YouTube red era they could have at least used the argument that they were re-investing in originals but they stopped creating YouTube originals. The only real new thing to YouTube premium since the rebrand from YouTube red is PIP and you can join the beta program.
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