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Google raising price of YouTube Premium to $13.99 per month (9to5google.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 192 points 3 years ago (41 children)

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

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  • [–] 181 points 3 years ago (10 children)

    I have a YouTube Premium subscription

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  • [–] 36 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    Why

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  • [–] 155 points 3 years ago* (2 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.
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  • [–] 64 points 3 years ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 51 points 3 years 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.

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  • [–] 27 points 3 years ago (7 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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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    Imo it should be a choice whether we are tracked for monetary gains or not, and not a necessary evil. But with most basic services/devices you are not even presented with that choice. E.g. when buying a phone.

    And if you do have a choice, sometimes accessibility is restricted so much that you can't participate in our networked society.

    I think we have to find ways to provide access to the most basic services with a minimum of tracking. Anything else should still be an option of course.

    How to achieve this? I don't know. But EU regulations certainly wouldn't hurt for now.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    Tracking != taking all of your data and selling it for profit. That’s what Google does with YouTube, even if you pay for premium. So I see no reason to pay for it.

    Not to mention a premium sub costs more than most streaming services out there, including double the price of lots of Plex shares that have thousands of movies and shows to watch.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    I didn't know the channels get some of the revenue. Do you get to influence who the money goes to? Like a twitch prime sub?

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago (4 children)

    It’s not bad if you max out the family subscription (5 members) and use YouTube music.

    Still, I’m a hypocrite because I absolutely hate their habit of hiding features behind the paywall, and making ads more obnoxious to irritate users into paying for premium.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    How does it compare to a Netflix subscription, or whatever you got?

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  • [–] 17 points 3 years ago

    I'm technically still sharing a Netflix account with my parents, though I rarely use it at this point.
    Whenever I want to watch a movie, and I check Netflix, they don't have it. (It's worth pointing out that I'm not in the US)

    In contrast, YouTube Premium gives me pretty much exactly what I seek from it. Videos from channels that I follow, but now without ads.

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  • [–] 108 points 3 years 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.

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  • [–] 32 points 3 years ago (2 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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  • [–] 8 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    I fee like premium is really the only way to make youtube more sustainable for content creators and the platform alike.

    I really don't see how, unfortunately. You give Youtube the money and they decide what to do with it and they won't do it in a remotely fair way because they want profits for themselves. There are many better ways to support content creators directly than over whatever Youtube decides to pay them at any given moment. Most content creators know that of course and are already linking to other services that you can use to help them out. At least for as long as Youtube allows it...

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago

    Yea I've been kinda watching youtube through this whole social media moment, suspicious that they've successfully taken a middle road here that will probably last. Ads and profiteering? You bet ... but it seems that there's a monetisation model for "creators" that kinda works (though I'm not sure at all about that). And so, for anyone that actually wants to make any sort of living doing the creative stuff that the rest of us lurkers want to consume, the inevitable question of how do you live within capitalism seems to have an answer of some sort in youtube while all the other platforms perhaps don't have healthy or appealing answers.

    As for the fediverse, I think there's a massive opportunity for donations and crowd funding to become a much more central and normal aspect here so that making some sort of living by contributing to and being a part of this space is actually viable. Even some sort of subscription model for platfroms that are essentially non-profit creator-driven would make a lot of sense here.

    That's a problem that goes beyond any single platform though, and at the moment, cross-platform or fediverse-wide work seems to be lacking behind a little bit.

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    Yes, a family plan makes it cheaper. You won't see any ads on your devices, from your TV to your PC, and you can listen to YouTube videos even when your phone is locked. It also includes YouTube Music. It's a great deal, and I'm not sure why some people don't see it that way. Sure, you could get a different YouTube client for your phone, install an ad blocker on your PC, block ads on your router to get rid them on your smart TV, and listen to music on Spotify for free. But the value of a good service is that you pay a reasonable amount of money and get all these features without any additional work on your part.

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  • [–] 15 points 3 years ago* (7 children)

    If you already have a paid spotify/apple music subscription, and already have a buttload of streaming apps subscription (netflix, apple tv, etc), suddenly the prospect of adding $13.99 youtube subscription into your list of monthly subscriptions seems a lot less appealing.

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  • [–] 9 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    Yes, and you could even switch from Spotify/Apple to YouTube, because it essentially offers a similar service, but with added benefits. That's their proposition. It's up to you to decide whether you want to accept it or not. However, I find it hard to agree with the common online sentiment that YouTube Premium is worthless.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 years ago

    It's not that easy to migrate from Spotify premium to Youtube Music, especially with how Spotify somehow got more and more podcasts into exclusive contract. I also use spotify premium on various 3rd party clients as well, not sure if youtube music support that use case. But yeah, from pricing alone, youtube premium which includes youtube music sounds like a good deal if you're ok with switching away from spotify/apple music.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 years ago

    Out of all the streaming services I pay for I get by far the most value out of yt premium, I probably spend 10x longer watching yt vids compared to movies and TV shows, and it has a dedicated music app that links nicely with my android auto.

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  • [–] [S] 8 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    OP here. I do in fact confess that I share a YT Premium subscription with a friend, though I myself eschew the bog-standard YT apps with those patched using Revanced Extended just because of long-standing QoL issues on said regular apps.

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  • [–] 7 points 3 years ago

    Yeah, got YouTube music after they shut down Google play music. All my friends dog on me for not having Spotify but not having ads on iOS is so nice. I tried it once without youtube premium subscription and idk how people can sit through advertisment hell for every video.

    Also having the creators I watch get a larger share of the YouTube money pie cause I watch them as a YouTube premium sub is a nice feeling too.

    That being said though, I'm on a family plan and not this specific plan that got its price raised (although I'm pretty sure the family plan prices have also gone up recently if I remember right).

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    I do, and YouTube is my primary Media consumption for both video and music.

    That said, I have the family plan which went from $15-23 back a few months ago and it was difficult to keep. I actually cancelled it and used Spotify and some of the available ad-blocking apps, but ultimately didn't like Spotify, so I came back.

    If it were to go up again anytime remotely soon I'd be gone.

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago

    Subscriber here. I use YouTube pretty much all day long. I usually have it playing something for background noise while I'm working. I've got a family plan with 4 other people on it, who all also get the benefits of ad-free viewing.

    I also use YouTube on several devices of my own. TV, PS5, phone, tablet, three laptops... Trying to manage adblockers on all of those is such a pain in the ass. I'll never go back to troubleshooting Pi-holes and adblockers and adblocker-blocker-blockers. It's an objectively worse experience having to manage all sorts of goofy tools that keep getting circumvented by Google every week.

    Also, the content creators I watch get paid for my views. I spend hours watching these people's content, so making sure they're getting paid means something to me.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago*

    I actually dropped my other subs (Netflix, Deezer) in favor of the YouTube family plan. My kids watch a ton of Minecraft vids and I don't really care to have them digesting all those ads. My wife also uses it a lot and I get a music service that just works with all my casting devices flawlessly.

    I also love the ad free experience when I use a how to video etc.

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