YouTube Premium Prices Increased Again in Numerous Countries (androidauthority.com) 86
An anonymous reader shares a report: YouTube Premium users around the world woke up to bad news today. In over a dozen countries, the price of YouTube Premium individual and family plans increased significantly. This is only the most recent sweep of price increases from Google, as many countries saw price jumps only months ago, with the United States being one of them last summer. Impacted countries include Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UAE, Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark. The prices have gone up by as early as 40%.
Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
I truly don't understand why anyone would pay for Youtube. I'm not hating on the platform just confused as to why someone would consider the 99.9999% of the crap on there worth purchasing. Install an ad-blocker and then wade through the muck to find something interesting.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)
I truly don't understand why anyone would pay for Youtube. I'm not hating on the platform just confused as to why someone would consider the 99.9999% of the crap on there worth purchasing. Install an ad-blocker and then wade through the muck to find something interesting.
on the premium side youtube lets you listen to music on your portable device with player in background/screen locked
Re: Why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I just tried that on my Android phone, YouTube videos will play just fine in Chrome on Android but wont play in the background or when the screen is locked or off.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In other words an artificial restriction that costs them nothing to lift. Personally I use a third party YT Music client that offers that for free, on principle.
If they offered a basic family plan, say 2 devices, ad-free, no downloads, no music, for about 10 Euro/month, that would be great. But your only option is the full fat family subscription that costs twice that much and still has ads.
Re: (Score:2)
Youtube has content created by you and me. I understand that the creators get paid too. But Google is taking an extraordinary amount of rent for us to watch our content by turning into a monopoly.
Re: (Score:3)
Youtube has content created by you and me. I understand that the creators get paid too.
Only some get paid. I don't.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
iPhone?
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
I don't have a problem with it during the day, when I'm on my desktop computer watching some....no ads there.
But, I'm finding more and MORE in the evenings that I'm watching it on my TV via my streaming box, and there's no real way to get an adblocker there on the YouTube app....which I can use with my remote control.
I've been seriously contemplating paying YT Premium.....I just find myself evenings and weekends finding more I watch YT content finding it much more entertaining and interesting than anything on TV.
Re:Why? (Score:4, Informative)
STN or smart tube next. I use it on my firestick and it brings so much peace of mind. Many a time I only take 2 seconds to decide whether I want to watch a particular video or not. But google forces me to watch 30 seconds of irrelevant and stupid ads before the video plays. That's why I do STN.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
I have it on my Google TV and it is excellent. The only down side is having to update it frequently. Luckily, these days it self updates.
Re: (Score:2)
Every ad I've seen on YouTube has a button that pops up 5 seconds into the ad, that lets you click on it to skip the ad.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That is still a PITA. Makes it unwatchable.
Especially if you are trying to watch a live stream
Re: (Score:2)
Lately I'm getting a 60 second unskippable block of ads every 10 minutes or so.
Then if you pause it for a few minutes, as soon as you come back and unpause it you get another 30 second unskippable ad.
They're getting far more intrusive than they were just a few months ago.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Every ad I've seen on YouTube has a button that pops up 5 seconds into the ad, that lets you click on it to skip the ad.
Lucky you
I don't get to watch a minute before YT pukes a black screen with an error message whining about ad-blocking software
Re: (Score:2)
Every ad I've seen on YouTube has a button that pops up 5 seconds into the ad, that lets you click on it to skip the ad.
Not every ad. The YouTube customer can pay extra for a 15 second ad that is not skip-able. About 35% of the ads that play at the start of a video are in this longer. not skip-able format
Re: (Score:2)
I'll have to look this STN up....my streaming boxes are: FireTV Cube...and Apple TV....is this an app I can use on those?
Does this stand between you and the YouTube app, or are you somehow running YT content through
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I also hate that watching 1 second of a video I didn't want, didn't like, or just had my mouse or tv remote linger slightly too long, puts that undesirable video into my history list as part of the mix of "things you like to watch".
Re: (Score:2)
Wouyldn't be so bad if it wasn't constant ads, and constantly the same ads for stuff I don't need, every 5 minutes, or more. I had an ad show literally 10 seconds after the video started, meaning 10 seconds after the previous ad! Possibly a bug or quirk (play ad every prime number N of seconds, and also every prime number M of seconds, and also at the beginning of the video, and also at every point that our AI mistakenly thinks is a cliffhanger moment, and only show video when the viewer appears to be look
Re: (Score:2)
The "skip in x seconds" is broken too.
YT: It's a feature, not a bug.
Re: (Score:3)
All the ads do is make me not want to watch YouTube. Ads already drove me off TV. I just find other things to do. Ads definitely don't make me want to pay Google money.
Re: (Score:2)
Pi-hole does fuck-all for YouTube ads.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
I will stand up for my Youtube Premium subscription:
- The YT Music service is bundled into the price as well so overall not a bad deal there, I would have to have one for my wife and myself anways so that's like $15 off the top.
- Youtube ad-blocking as told in many stories right here is a constant tug-of-war and I am so used to a default no-ads Youtube that I really can't be fussed to deal with it anymore, plus there are some other features (background play, offline downloads)
- Youtube has for me lots of great stuff once you have some subscriptions and tune your algorithm to your interests. I have fixed my cars with several tutorials there, plenty for other hobbies like woodworking, electronics, pets, lot's of great informational documentaries, political news, entertainment channels, video games, concerts, could go on and on. Yeah 90% is shit but what entertainment mediums exist today that break Sturgeon's Law? I think none, 90% of Netflix and Disney and MAX is crap just the same.
Is it overpriced for many? Absolutely, but for me, Youtube Premium would be the single subscription I would hold if I had to choose just one.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Same for me, yeah no doubt Spotify is overall a better music service but the libraries are like 95% identical and the YT Music features are improving so it is nowhere near worth for me to keep a separate subscription.
Something I would be intersted to see if it was ever published is what the ad-revenue-per-average-user works out to and what Youtube calculus on ad-free pricing works out at, like with the amount of videos I watch would they make more from the ads or the subsciption? I would just about always
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Great for long plane trips as well considering half the time the inflight wifi doesn't work anyways.
Re: (Score:3)
Greyjay [grayjay.app] gives the ability to actually get the files that was downloaded...
Re: (Score:2)
Being able to download videos in the app on my phone is a big benefit also... saves me a lot of mobile bandwidth.
I don't need no stinking app to download YT content.
It's easy to do that via other means if you know how and have some patience to learn.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ad blocking is fine, but that's an absurdly high price for that feature.
Re: (Score:3)
For sure, I am not going to say anyone can justify the price for just ads but as a whole with the all features of Premium that I do use along with the music it's altogether reasonable for me. If you only watch things on YT occasionally then I would it makes almost zero sense at the price, if it was =$10 a month I think a stronger general case could be made.
I also was compelled to join up a few years ago because I was getting ads again after YT changed their systems and wasn't having consistent luck of gett
Re: (Score:2)
I will stand up for my Youtube Premium subscription:
- The YT Music service is bundled into the price as well so overall not a bad deal there, I would have to have one for my wife and myself anways so that's like $15 off the top.
- Youtube ad-blocking as told in many stories right here is a constant tug-of-war and I am so used to a default no-ads Youtube that I really can't be fussed to deal with it anymore, plus there are some other features (background play, offline downloads)
- Youtube has for me lots of great stuff once you have some subscriptions and tune your algorithm to your interests. I have fixed my cars with several tutorials there, plenty for other hobbies like woodworking, electronics, pets, lot's of great informational documentaries, political news, entertainment channels, video games, concerts, could go on and on. Yeah 90% is shit but what entertainment mediums exist today that break Sturgeon's Law? I think none, 90% of Netflix and Disney and MAX is crap just the same.
Is it overpriced for many? Absolutely, but for me, Youtube Premium would be the single subscription I would hold if I had to choose just one.
Google is squeezing subs like you since they know that the ad-blockers are not going to give them money.
I was subbed to premium until the price doubled a couple of years ago. I had family plan and had 4 people on it. Cancelling was horrible as my family members were talking about horrible ads (some super scammy finance stuff). Now, they have weened off youtube all together.
Re: (Score:2)
The fact that the music service is included is precisely what makes YT Premium too expensive for me - I don't want music, give me an option which doesn't bundle it and I might consider it.
Until then, Im being forced to pay for something, indeed something which is trumpeted as a significant feature, that I simply do not want.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I do watch a fair bit of YouTube too, but 20 bucks for a family subscription is expensive. It's twice what Netflix ad-free costs.
It's not even fully ad-free either, you still need SponsorBlock to remove in-video ads, and DeArrow to replace clickbait video titles with descriptive ones.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
There is some interesting content on YouTube. The problem I have with paying for a subscription though, is that Google is just as bad as the old record labels when it comes to knowing that your money is mostly supporting the top popular content producers (such as MrBeast, et al.), which may not necessarily be what you're watching.
Also, there's the whole Google is an advertising company thing that rubs me the wrong way, too. Feels wrong to give money to a company whose primary business is selling obnoxious
Re: (Score:2)
The entire economy seems oriented around advertising and advertising related companies. Next up, the Dow Industrial Average will be based off of advertisers and "free" services.
The economics of advertising is still very unclear, and there's no reliable or proven formula that relates dollars spent on ads versus revenue. Advertising is mostly superstition, a lot of money is spent because it's unthinkable to not advertise. As such I think there's a massive amount of money being sloshed about that does nothin
Re:Why? [Because crime pays!] (Score:2)
I think YouTube has become one of the top contenders for most evil website. Not that it's just anti-intellectual, but that it makes thinking look bad.
Hard to describe the crimes without access to the secret information about the money, but here's my main menu of beefs:
(1) The part of the business model that this story is describing is mostly a kind of blackmail. You pay to reduce the harassment of advertising, but it doesn't help much since so many of the videos have embedded ads or are just disguised ads.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
YouTube Premium is literally the only subscription service I use that has a 100% absolutely, no-brainer recommendation from me, and it's kind of odd seeing anyone not feel similarly.
YouTube is not Tik-Tok; there's a crap ton of longer-form content on there in any of a zillion different subjects. The creators who put in the effort to make them -- especially the well-researched and high-quality ones -- deserve the compensation they're planning for. The world runs on ads, and ads are a part of life. No ads, no
Re: (Score:2)
Kids (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Creators smaller than YPP threshold (Score:2)
I kinda want to support small creators that make things I enjoy, is that not logical?
Small creators, those without both enough subscribers and enough annual watch minutes to qualify for YouTube Partner Program, get a 0.00% share of the ad revenue from the ads that Google shows to you through YouTube.
Re: (Score:2)
I truly don't understand why anyone would pay for Youtube.
Me either. People have enjoyed it for free for nearly 20 years. And for the most part people have used it for so long because it's a good deal. It's free and entertaining and useful.
If YouTube/Alphabet wants to alter the deal. Then would I be more likely to pay or go to some other free services. Given the history of me not paying for this long, I don't think I'm going to start.
Re: (Score:2)
C'mon editors.... Do your job (Score:1)
The prices have gone up by as early as 40%.
Early? I'd think "as much" would have been a more correct way to say it.. I
Re: (Score:3)
The prices have gone up by as early as 40%.
Early? I'd think "as much" would have been a more correct way to say it.. I
Back in the old days a farmer could get more work done in a day by waking up earlier. So if you get up 40% earlier than your competition, you'll make more money. So if prices go up by as early as 40%, "Sam's farm-workers equation" tells you that prices will go up by $10- 20 US dollars. Each country has to modify the equation by their government approved manure to egg ratio.
The enshitification continues (Score:2)
Lol. Won't get a dime from me. Ever since Google got their hands on it, they've been about one thing only --- monetization. Yeah, yeah, I know it's business, they need to make money, blah blah blah, but there are companies who make a profit AND don't continual piss off their customers.
Lately, it's been the whole 'you have to sign in' to watch a video crap. I know you want my data to sell, market to me, etc., but fuck off already, I will continue to find ways around it...
The inflate your way to profit method (Score:2)
Good luck with that (Score:1)
Mozilla Firefox Adblockers ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are still free ..
Re: (Score:2)
And don't work on TVs, and on PCs will very often stop working for periods of time. Adblockers really don't block youtube very well, you've got to use the script blockers, but even then it's a constant back and forth battle.
Re: (Score:2)
Ironically, Edge has the edge here. Edge plus uBlock Origin (the full fat version) works extremely well. And when it breaks, it's usually only broken for a few hours. Usually when I notice YouTube acting funny, a refresh of the appropriate definitions fixes it.
YouTube checks for script and site blockers - they
Re: (Score:2)
I use FF /w uBlock Origin on my phone and PC and Smart Tube on my Android TV, only issue was for a few days a month ago smart tube was getting 401s on playback. I just fell back to casting FF from my phone. I honestly can't remember the last time uBlock had an issue
the new cable co (Score:2)
YouTube is the new tv cable co but you bring your own cable. Prices will go up in perpetuity at a rate always higher than inflation. More and more of the content will become advertising. We did this all before with cable. If you need YouTube Premium you probably really need a less passive hobby.
Market Testing (Score:2)
I wish consumers would understand that when a service like this raises rates so frequently, it's not because they have needs to be met. They're market testing, seeing what people will tolerate. If consumers could come together and decide to just dump them right after a rate increase, it would probably bring the price back down. But? Apparently we're desperate for more trash to watch, because Netflix, YouTube Premium, Disney+ and all the others just keep raising rates, and cracking down on shared usage, and
Re: (Score:3)
I wish consumers would understand that when a service like this raises rates so frequently, it's not because they have needs to be met. They're market testing, seeing what people will tolerate. If consumers could come together and decide to just dump them right after a rate increase, it would probably bring the price back down. But? Apparently we're desperate for more trash to watch, because Netflix, YouTube Premium, Disney+ and all the others just keep raising rates, and cracking down on shared usage, and adding more ads, yet they continue to increase incoming revenue.
One would think we'd learn, but apparently all we've learned is how to more firmly embed the hooks we're all impaled on.
Why should they sell for less than what the market will bear?
Do you work for less than what your skills will earn you in a fair market? If so, won't you try to ask for more compensation?
Re: (Score:2)
Do you work for less than what your skills will earn you in a fair market?
Yes, because the skilled labor market is not a fair market. The interview process is biased against autistic people and people who do not own a motor vehicle.
Re: (Score:2)
Do you work for less than what your skills will earn you in a fair market?
Yes, because the skilled labor market is not a fair market. The interview process is biased against autistic people and people who do not own a motor vehicle.
Well, you seem salty about it then. So, no need to get angry when other people want to get fair market value.
And they banned the youtubers I watched (Score:2)
There is really nothing of value left on YouTube now. Late-Stage enshittification.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm just wondering, who were they.
Maybe I didn't even know they were gone since I don't subscribe to anyone.
Re: (Score:2)
The reality (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I had difficulty finding people who are paying for it. None of my friends admit it, but maybe they secretly pay for it.
What are the best replacements for Youtube? (Score:1)
It's getting really terrible on Youtube. Unfair demonetization *AND* they still run ads on the videos and keep the money.
Incredible levels of censorship. I was discussing the war in ukraine-- my response was being deleted. After trying it different ways, it turned out to be because I had "Russia" in the post 3 times. I was discussing the abortion issue and mentioned Kirsten Anaya and the post was deleted. I had to use dicritical marks for her name to get the post to stick.
I'm honestly getting sic
Why pay when you can stream anything for free..... (Score:2)