YouTube Says It Has More Than 100 Million Premium and Music Subscribers

YouTube has announced it has surpassed 100 million YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers globally. Variety reports: The 100 million figure includes uses who are on free trials, according to YouTube. The company didn't break down how many are on YouTube Music versus YouTube Premium, the subscription service for ad-free viewing, background listening, offline video downloads and full access to YouTube Music. In November 2022, the company said YouTube Music and YouTube Premium topped 80 million paying subscribers combined.

The announcement comes after Alphabet, in reporting fourth-quarter 2023 earnings, boasted that YouTube and Google subscription services generated more than $15 billion in revenue last year. That includes YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, as well as YouTube TV and Google One cloud storage.

It's weird

[OrangeTide]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

(by free I mean you can find it legally or illegally without cost)

Re: It's weird

[sixminuteabs]

It is not weird to me at all that normal honest people are willing to pay for a good service and as much as dislike google in general, YouTube premium and YouTube tv are good services

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[penguinoid]

Normal honest people also might have doubts that our current system for granting artificial monopoly rights to ideas until after we are dead, is worth sacrificing for. Or in the US, that it's even legal for the Federal government to do, considering the 10th Amendment and the fact that those laws don't appear to be optimized for the advancement of science and the useful arts.

Similarly, you might not be willing to accept ad-supported free food (as offered by car salesmen or similar people) -- not even if the

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[noshellswill]

All WWW users pay ISPs  for the service, and most also pay website/email costs. Those amounts paid , whatever data comes across internet  bandwidth is mine to do with as I choose. I will reward artists as-I-choose. Don't like that ... pick a different band-pass. Perhaps YOU prefer to be THEGOOG/FACEBOOK/X  lackey.   

Re: It's weird

[sixminuteabs]

Maybe I am not the weird oneâ¦

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[swillden]

I refuse to pay to get censored by fascist youtube when i can get censored for free

How do you get censored while watching YouTube?

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[swillden]

YouTube premium and YouTube tv are good services

YouTube Premium (which includes YouTube Music), is a good service, and a good deal, IMO. YouTube TV seems overpriced to me. Maybe I don't watch enough TV for it to make sense. My family and I definitely get our money's worth out of YouTube Premium, though.

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[AmiMoJo]

YouTube premium and YouTube tv are good services

The pirate versions are better. While YouTube Premium is free of pre-roll ads, it doesn't do anything about in-video ads. You need SponsorBlock for that.

I wish Google offered an al la carte option. I'd take more cloud storage space and YouTube Premium, the rest I don't need. I'm not going back to the days of cable and paying for bundles of crap I mostly don't want.

WELCOME CORPORATE OVERLORDS!

[Pf0tzenpfritz]

I, too, welcome our new corporate overlords!

Re:

[nightflameauto]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

(by free I mean you can find it legally or illegally without cost)

Some people, despite current thoughts on the subject, don't mess around with piracy. I don't say that as a holier-than-thou stance. I say that as a creator that never wants to be in the position of having to explain to someone why I would expect people to obtain my creations legally, whether I provide ways for them to get them for free or not, while feeling I have a right to everything I want for free. Everybody else can do what they want, but I doubt I'm the only person that feels that way.

That said, I'd n

Re:

[Xenx]

That said, I'd never pay for Youtube anything. Their prices for the value of what you get seem way the hell out of line.

I think the circumstances matter. For Youtube Music/Premium I think the individual price is high, but the family price is reasonable. That said, other streaming platforms make you pay for the ad supported version and depending on the metrics involved make you watch more ads. The type of ads, and the type of content differ and will impact the actual value for the viewer. Either way, the individual price is at least arguably reasonable.

The price of Youtube TV is reasonable, if you want what it offers, I ju

Re:

[MindPrison]

I don't think the price is very high.

The server costs are insane. Have you ever tried running a game you developed, had 8 million people play it, and almost no matter how many ads you ran on it, it still didn't work out?

And people upload videos like insanity itself. Youtube is literally standard on every modern television and gadget on the planet (minus the Vision Pro, poking at Apple here), but seriously. People literally upload MILLIONS of videos every week. The bandwidth on that is unfathomable.

And then

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[Petersko]

I'm not at all surprised some people don't understand it.

Re:It's weird

[ebunga]

I paid for YouTube Premium when I dropped Netflix. I was watching more YouTube by about a 1000:1 ratio, and now the channels I like are getting paid without me seeing any ads. I mean, I didn't see any ads before because I use an ad blocker, but now at least the youtubers I like are getting paid.

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[ctilsie242]

I have been paying for Premium since it was YouTube Red. The content offered is well worth it. There are other reasons why people don't subscribe to it, which are valid, but I prefer to do something, as YT has an incredible amount of useful knowledge, including how to ensure that 10mm socket never vanishes.

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[Powercntrl]

and now the channels I like are getting paid without me seeing any ads.

Well, if you watch the top content creators such as MrBeast, yeah. But smaller YouTubers generally don't make much if anything directly from Google and usually have to find their own sponsors and/or have a Patreon to raise money for their content.

I'd personally feel a lot better about subscribing to YouTube if a portion of my subscription specifically could be allocated to only the channels I watch, but it's like the old record label model. Your purchase goes towards label profits and costs of promoting t

Re:

[ebunga]

Is MrBeast that guy that makes burgers? Not really into food channels.

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[waspleg]

Is the water getting warmer in that pot? You know as soon as they think they've hit critical mass they will start spamming you with ads and sneaking shit in as much as people will tolerate and you're back to basic cable.

Netflix and Amazon are doing it too.

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[misexistentialist]

Paid what exactly? $1 if you watch 1000 of their videos?

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[Waccoon]

the channels I like are getting paid without me seeing any ads.

No YouTube ads. Great. Now if only we could make those 2-minute sponsor plugs and "integration" go away.

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[irving47]

I'm gonna look this up, as well, but for the sake of anyone reading your comment, do you have any idea how the revenue gets shared from subscribers to premium to the channels they subscribe to?

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[strikethree]

The problem with Youtube Premium is that people like me have an email account that is ~20 years old and every other account I have created with Google has eventually been eliminated by them as a duplicate account. That means if/when I register, I am risking losing my email account over bizarre and obscure rules.

If they would allow me to have a second, non-risky account, I would be willing to engage. I have to admit, I am REALLY pissed off about one of the accounts they took me from me with my real name in i

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

It's worse than that: if you watch Youtube with FreeTube [freetubeapp.io] or NewPipe [newpipe.net] - or better, NewPipe x SponsorBlock [izzysoft.de] - not only is it free, it's miles better than the official client with a paid subscription. And it doesn't come with 24/7 corporate surveillance.

Re:

[GrahamJ]

+1 for FreeTube. I just wish it was available for iDevices and ATV.

Re:

[ncc74656]

...or SmartTube, which also supports SponsorBlock.

What I'd really like to see is an alternative YouTube client that supports Invidious, so you can move your subscriptions off of YouTube's servers. Invidious works pretty well in a browser window, but an app that runs on Android TV, talks to an Invidious instance (I run my own; it's pretty easy to do), and includes SponsorBlock support would be great. I might even be willing to cut a few bucks loose for such an app. :)

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

SmartTube is problematic: it comes with trackers [github.com] and it uses Google Mobile Services, which it claims it doesn't use.

In other words, if you care about such things, it's sketchy. That's why I haven't installed it myself, and that's why I'm not plugging it whenever a discussion on third-party Youtube clients pops up.

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[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like you had a good day of shoplifting.

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[Powercntrl]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

People buy bottled water, too. Monthly billing also does a good job of hiding how much you're really paying for something, so there's the thinking that you're really only paying the cost of one lunch at McDonalds each month, rather than that you're spending over $100 each year on friggen YouTube.

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[Berkyjay]

I pay for premium because I watch 100% of Youtube videos from my Xbox on my TV. It's become like a network channel that I watch regularly. The ads made it just awful to use, plus I don't pay for any other streaming service (yarrrrr) so it made sense to spend the $10/m (at the time).

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[misexistentialist]

Subscription is like a dark pattern, if customers had to pay the bill each month they'd lose 90% of them.

Simple Answer: Parents

[Somervillain]

We became subscribers so our kids can watch nursery rhymes, especially on our phone in public places or plane rides. Kids love YouTube, starting with Little Baby Bum, Baby Shark, whatever else was a kit 8 years ago. Paying for YouTube was a no-brainer because they wouldn't have to watch ads, many of which were inappropriate, we could download the videos to a device, and I got Google Music for free, which was a great service.

Many years later...now Google Music has been killed in favor of YouTube Music,

Re:

[rykin]

As someone who also has kids, I can say that we have very opposite experiences. My kids are not allowed very much Youtube time because it's very hard to filter what they're exposed to unless you're sitting there watching every video with them. I have no idea what Skibidi Toilet is. We don't give kids devices on roadrips or airplanes; We play audiobooks instead. My kids also love TMNT, but I have a young boy who starts mimicking the ninja-moves too much for my liking, so I typically avoid it.

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[swillden]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

(by free I mean you can find it legally or illegally without cost)

I know, right?

Like, I see people at restaurants all the time, actually paying the bill! Do they not realize that if you just put some pieces of paper in that bill folio thing and walk out quickly, the meal is free? Sheesh. So dumb.

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[Cyberax]

I don't understand how there are so many people willing to pay for something that is normally free?

There's no "free". Running Youtube costs money, and Google has to get it from somewhere.

You can just watch Youtube with ads, or you can pay for premium ad-free experience.

I've had people tell me I should just pay for it

[waspleg]

bro. Uhm, no. Fuck. Your. Ads. I don't owe you attention, nor bandwidth, nor time; at all. They will try to redirect to 45 minute ads on 2 minute videos, no joke.

Instead, how about Firestick w/ 3rd party sources enabled for slide loading + JSDownloader -> SmartTube [github.io]

No Ads, Sponsor Block on by default (auto-skip intros and in video ads flagged by other viewers), lots of shit you get from premium including all the technical details of the video, thumbs up/down, comments etc. It's far superior to the

Not so Humble Bragging

[rmdingler]

C'mon! Even McDonald's stopped advertising how many burgers it sold, eventually, after boasting that it served more than 99 billion cow patties.

The numbers may be misleading. As everyone on /. is undoubtedly aware, ahem, Youtube's premium subscriptions are way up this year in part because they've taken over selling the NFL package from Directv, another Satellite TV provider on life support.

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[Powercntrl]

C'mon! Even McDonald's stopped advertising how many burgers it sold, eventually, after boasting that it served more than 99 billion cow patties.

I think that's mostly because a lot of their customers look as if they'd eaten more than their proportional share of that number.

Remember?

[mcnster]

When youtube.com was Free and there was no advertising or subscriptions or content mysteriously being disappeared into the memory hole?

--
"Can you turn off this noise? It sounds like dirty water. It's the uglyification of the World." - Sabina complaining about the Muzak in a Swiss restaurant in The Unbearable Lightness of Being

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[Harry_Bawls]

Pepperidge Farms remembers.

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[cc1984_]

Quite, that was back in the day when YouTube could have had viable competition from the likes of Vimeo. Offer a service at a loss where nobody else can compete, then when you achieve market dominance, then crank the money generation machine into operation.

For that reason I will not give Google anything.

Seems people don't know...

[Kelxin]

There's a hundred or more different ways to get these "premium" subscriptions for free, including Google voices top unlimited cell phone plan. So don't think every one of these people actively went out and signed up for this service. I had a year of YouTube premium for free (that I never really used) with my cell service.

Bah

[GrahamJ]

Stop giving the World's largest ad network money!

Well....

[cooperaaaron]

I ain't one of those 100 million... I'll keep what I got for now....

wake me

[groobly]

Wake me when they reveal how many paying subscribers.