Google raising price of YouTube Premium to $13.99 per month

I have a YouTube Premium subscription

Why
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  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?
  
  It replaces the ad revenue the channel would otherwise have gotten from your view, at a higher rate than an ad impression.
  
  Thanks
  
  Basically a percentage of your premium is divvied out based on watch time. When I signed up it was half of my payment went to creators, I don't know the current split though
  
  I'm not entirely certain, but as far as I'm aware it is divided based on watch-time.
  
  On your watch-time? I mean then it's cool, cause you don't even have to do anything. On the other hand I would probably have to log out to watch content I don't want to support financially.
- 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.
  
  If you have an android tv device check this out. YouTube without the ads. Use it on my Amazon sticks. https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
  
  I’ll take a look at it, thanks!
  
  Thanks for the info. I played around with my parents old TV and managed to get it adfree with blockada and another YouTube app. But it's definitely a pain to set up and many people probably prefer the official app.
- 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.
  
  Ya'll should just VPN to Argentina and get the sub for cheap, it's a few bucks per month compared to the obnoxious 13.99.
  
  I pay around 2€ for mine per month plus the VPN fees, it's a no-brainer
  
  Just sign in via a turkey tunnel and sign up from there?
  
  Ah ok, certainly makes sense for ur usecase. I didn't meet anyone who was YouTube music yet. Does it have high quality audio or is it just YouTube quality?
  
  It has 256kbps AAC, which is the same as Spotify (in the web browser anyway - I think the Spotify apps do 320kbps)
  
  That's enough for most people I guess
- I dont like ads on my iPhone.
  
  Not sure how well it works on YouTube since YouTube ads might not come from third parties, but I set dns.adguard-dns.com as my DNS provider, and now Flow Free and other games don't have ads.
- Because I use YouTube more than every streaming app and my Plex server combined. And the creators I watch get money and I don't have to see ads
  
  Fair enough
- As blockers don’t work on Google TV
- I use it so much for work that I just can’t rely on a typical ad blocker and I can’t justify not paying for it at this point.
  
  Haha fair, I mean it's cool that people pay for it. I was just curious what the reasons were, because I never thought about it.
- I got premium because I have ADHS and need to listen to something when I want to sleep or do chores. With premium I can turn my phone screen off of let it run in the background.
  
  Dunno if you have iOS or Android, but on Android you can also just use Newpipe :)
How does it compare to a Netflix subscription, or whatever you got?
- I would dump Netflix before cancelling YT Premium. Everything on Netflix I can stream for free from pirate sites to my TV. YouTube actually has tons of informational and educational content and a premium subscription lets me support it without the ads. I probably watch YouTube twice as much as all my other vid subs combined.
  
  I've been so annoyed with the ads that I've started to go elsewhere for instructional content.
- 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.
- I watch a lot more YouTube than Netflix, personally
You should do an AMA
you hopefully mean you had a prem subscription, the more people quit because of price policy the better it will be for everyone
- Oh yeah, because historically, whenever a large internet platform starts losing money, things definitely get better for everyone. Nevermind Reddit and Twitter and Meta and Netflix and Hulu having to nickle and dime users for basic functionality of their platforms, things are definitely better. I love all those raised prices and lowered quality of service.
  
  Right.
- I don't think the prices in Europe are increasing (yet). My plan is still 12 euros / month.
  
  And regardless.. It's been 12 euros since it was launched in Europe in 2018.
  If the price were to go up to 14 euros in 2023, that would pretty much be in line with inflation.
  
  I've got €6/m ad free but without premium features. YT tries to make me upgrade but this is enough for me. I wouldn't pay €12/m but I'd rather go looking for adblockers and third party apps should it come to it.
  
  They introduced that tier a year ago, right?
  
  I remember looking into it at the time and deciding against downgrading. I'm not entirely sure why.
  I think it was because of the lack of background playback in the mobile app? 🤔
  
  (Bit expensive for such a tiny feature, but I digress..)
  
  Something like that, yeah. It was introduced conveniently after the YouTube Vanced crackdown.
Ditto. It is my most used subscription.

I watch more YouTube than cable (never) or Netflix (maybe one binge a month).

I use it for music in the car and at work.

I play audio from some sciencey channels while I try to goto sleep.

I’ll probably keep paying. I do get value out of it.

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 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.
- 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...
  
  When I signed up for premium half of my bill went to creators based on my watch time. I don't know the current split, but I do know LTT has said quite a few times that premium actually pays out a lot to channels.
  
  YouTube could claw that back at any point, obviously, but right now it seems fair
- Personally I become a member of the channels I’d like to support or join their Patreon if they have them and then use AdBlock+SponsorBlock and uYou+ on mobile.
  
  If you pay for premium Google is still collecting all of your data and using it for their own gain. Why support them at all?
  
  someone's gotta do the hosting part, honestly that's pretty difficult and I can't see anyone else being able to make a youtube other than google. The platform itself does have value. I don't think that value is 45% of the money but it's not a case of they shouldn't make any money.
  
  Their yearly revenue has increased by $20B over the last 5 years alone, let’s not pretend YouTube is hurting for money here.
  
  And other video platforms do exist and are successful. I think more people would consider premium, myself included if three things were different.
  
  The price. Over $10 a month for no ads is insane. If it were $4.99 a month I probably would have it and not care. I hardly even remember that I pay for Plex pass each month. I don’t want or need YT Music, make a separate plan.
  
  Paywalling old features like being able to watch videos with your screen off on mobile. Most videos where it’s just a person taking and there’s no on screen content worth watching is perfect for that. But they removed it as a free feature locking it behind premium. That and being able to throw the app into the background and have the playback continue. I mean come on…
  
  Screwing over the creators. YouTube, much like Reddit, has taken the thing that made the platform what it is today, that being the content and those who generate it, for granted. The whole adpocalypse and constant demonetization of videos for stupid reasons is getting old. Things might be a bit better now? But I support most of my favorite creators off platform through Patreon or whatever so they get what they deserve and aren’t shafted by Google being full of greedy fucks.
  
  So yeah, really it’s YouTube shooting themselves in the foot. It’d be very easy to get tons of people to sign up for premium but they’re choosing profits over people. We all know how that works out.
  
  Google can go fuck itself. Ever since they removed the “don’t be evil” slogan they’ve been doing a great job of being shit.
  
  Just to be super clear. There are other video platforms, and they are not successful, and not one of them could scale to youtube scale. And any that did would likely act similarly.
  
  There is value in the content delivery platform we call youtube, value for consumers and creators. As I said originally There is a limit to how much value there is, which might not match what they currently take.
  
  But to say vimeo? Could serve as a youtube replacement. It's just silly.
  
  that argument of 'they have money' doesn't make fucking sense lol. them having money has zero to do with them asking for payment in exchange for a service like every other company out there. the fuck does their bank account have to do with the costs of hosting millions of videos for millions of viewers? bupkus - that's what.
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.
Unlock origin on the desktop, brave browser for mobile yt seems to work fine at not showing ads
- it's cool how the tradition of only reading the first half of the first sentence is alive and well on lemmy too.
  
  As is apparently the misplaced opinion your bullshit is worth reading or responding to in full. People use yt-premium to block ads. Creators are going to survive or not on the platform not because someone uses an ad blocker.

I do, you get Youtube Music as well and no ads, which is a great combination.

YouTube music is superior to Apple Music and Spotify. Change my mind.
- Now i haven't been subscribed to spotify since at least 2015 so things may have changed but when i'm controlling someone elses phone with spotify i pretty much always prefer it to youtube music which has been my main player pretty much since it launched (i wont change for as long as i have yt premium though :p).
- I moved to YouTube Music from Spotify and I really miss being able to move the songs around in a playlist on the mobile app. I used to spend a lot of time curating playlists where order mattered (I might avoid having two songs back to back that are the same tempo/vibe, or I might tell a story with the progression of songs in the playlist).
  
  I'm also annoyed by the fact that sometimes YouTube Music will hang forever on a blank loading screen instead of accepting that there's no connection and sending me to my downloaded songs. I don't know if Spotify does better about this because I never had Spotify Premium.
  
  However, one good thing about YouTube Music is that you can find covers and unofficially released songs much more easily. I search for covers often, to see how others might interpret a song I like.
- I use Youtube music and I think it is inferior to Spotify. Offline music is much more seamless, music quality is superior, shuffling a playlist is easier, recommended music is better, dedicated desktop app, and more. The only reason I use YouTube music is because there is more selection.
  
  I'm not sure about Apple music though since I never had an iPhone.
- Is it better than Google Music was? Cause I had that for years and swapped to Spotify when they first announced they were axing Google Music to combine it into YouTube Premium.
  
  It is absolutely not better than Google play music in any way, shape, or form. It has improved a lot since launch though. I'm still bitter about that switchover.
  
  Same man. 😭
YouTube music is pretty great. I've got it through revanced so it's free, but being able to find random playlists is a huge plus.

Yeah I do.. family plan so split the cost with the fam. I find it worth it. But the price increases are certainly concerning. If it keeps going up I’ll drop it.

The combo with YT Music is a good deal.

I primarily watch YouTube on tv, it is my most used video streaming platform, so yes I do. As does all my friends.

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.

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.
- 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.
  
  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.
  
  I’d argue YT Music is worthless, but that’s just me. I hate that you’re required to bundle it because I have 0 intent to ever move away from Spotify and I’m being forced into paying for a service I don’t need to not have ads on my tv, where I watch the majority of my YT.
- That's where you get rid of the other streaming services and check !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com how to get your TV series ^^
- But you don't have to have all those subscriptions. You get YouTube Music included so you don't need a separate music subscription. You also don't have to worry about working out the latest app/add-on/plugin/site that lets you play YouTube without ads. It's pretty good value actually. I get more from it than I do my Netflix subscription. I rotate my other subscriptions based on the shows I'm watching. I always have a YouTube subscription and don't foresee stopping it just coz I can't go back to ads haha.
  
  I wonder if most of the complaints of ads on YouTube are coming from people who subscribe to something like Netflix, but spend just as much (or more) time streaming YouTube.
  
  I wonder if most of the complaints of ads on YouTube are coming from people who subscribe to something like Netflix, but spend just as much (or more) time streaming YouTube.
  
  Actually I don't watch YouTube that much, probably just one video per week or even less. But everytime I tried to watch a video in YouTube app, I got bombarded with ads. So what should happen to people like me who don't watch YouTube that much but don't want to see ads? Clearly paying the full subscription price is not worth it in this case, especially when I already have a Spotify family subscription.
  
  I'm not sure I see the problem. Is there a reason you expect to be able to use the service for free and even ad free?
  
  I might only listen to a few songs a week. Is it fair that I have to sit through ads when I try to listen to them on Spotify? I don't really want to pay for a subscription, especially because I already pay for YouTube. Clearly paying the full subscription cost for Spotify isn't worth it in my case.
  
  Edit: Don't mean to sound like a smart ass. But as you can see, you can basically swap Spotify for YouTube in your argument. Spotify is just more valuable to you, which is fine. That doesn't mean you should get the other thing free. Just like I shouldn't expect to get Spotify ad free.
  
  That's where I disagree. YouTube got this big because it's been free for so long, it practically squeezed out all of its competitors. Now that it no longer have competitors, YouTube started charging subscription, even raising the price now.
  
  Also, you can't exactly compare YouTube subscription with Spotify subscription, because Spotify got its content mostly by paying records companies. YouTube on the other hand got majority of its contents for free from their users, just like Reddit and Twitter. Even if you subscribe to YouTube premium, the majority of those video owners will never get any money from YouTube.
  
  YouTube Music is more comparable to Spotify, but why bundle it with YouTube premium and raised the subscription price instead of offering it as a separate product and keep the base YouTube subscription cheap so it'll make more sense for most people.
  
  But YouTube still is free. This article isn't about YouTube not being free, they've just increased the price of their subscription (like Netflix and Spotify do routinely). You just expect to get it for free and without ads. I'm confused at who you think is paying to store and stream all those videos if it was entirely free?
  
  Going down the rabbit hole of YouTube getting it's content for free is a slippery slope. I see what you're saying, but YouTube is hosting and streaming that content for those content creators. That isn't cheap. It's a double edged sword. Because you likely wouldn't know or have access to those content creators if they weren't able to upload those videos to YouTube and not have to pay to provide that service themselves. Is it perfect, no. But name another completely free streaming service.
  
  And I'd argue it's not entirely comparable to Reddit and Twitter. Both in cost incurred to store and stream that data, and they pay those content creators who generate a lot of views. Again, another rabbit hole in terms of what payment is fair etc. But it's not a fair comparison to put YouTube in the Twitter and Reddit bucket. It probably sits somewhere in between Spotify and those social platforms.
  
  Edit: I forgot to point out the biggest issue with your comparison to Reddit and Twitter. You seem to forget that those platforms also have ads.

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.

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.

I do. I watch a ton of YouTube. Revanced and NewPipe are rad but there's no effortless way to have an adfree experience on the TV.

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.

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).

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.

People with overpaid white collar jobs do that plenty and there are plenty of them who will pay probably up to $50 a month or more. Youtube is already testing predatory measures to make chrome users ditch adblockers by giving out warnings to people who use them. Many more will go Youtube Premium in the near future because of such measures and Youtube will keep ramping up prices of course.

So you are pissed off that people are actually willing to pay for service? Youtube hosts millions if not billions of videos and streams them to billions of users, dozens of times a day and they do all this essentially lag free. That infrastructure is not cheap.

Additionally youtube actually shares their premium revenue with content creators allowing people to actually make a successful living with their creative pursuits and you control how that revenue is shared by which videos you watch.

I strongly dislike ads, but want to support good platforms and content creators. I eagerly waited for it to become available in the Netherlands back when it was still called YouTube Red. I subscribed the day it became available.

Ethical ad free YouTube: you support creators and the platform that hosts them, much better than through ads.

Too bad most videos now feature sponsored segments so creators are effectively double dipping in my premium support and advertiser money. That is honestly more annoying. I have more respect for creators who have Patreon and don’t feature sponsored content.

I couldnt agree more. The money has to come from somewhere and i'm not watching any ads so it's the obvious solution. I frankly just use sponsorblock so it autoskips the sponsor spots. But the whole thing is just absurd tbh.

Yup. YouTube is most of what I watch.

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.

I've had it for a few years. I watch a ton of YouTube via Chromecast. I also use the music service every day. For me it's a good value.

I sub from Turkey, or whatever the new name is, for barely more than $2pm for a 6-person family plan in Australia.

I pay ~£1 a month for it by 'being Argentinian'.

This is on top of already using ReVanced and SmartTube because I actually use the download feature of YT Music.

I have one through my legacy Google Play Music subscription. I get YouTube Music and YouTube Premium for $7.99/month

I do but I got it „on my holiday“ in India

Question for you: I looked into trying this approach myself, but Google would not accept my non-Indian payment information.

As it happens, they also refused to take my payment information when I visited Argentina and Turkey, too.

How did you do it?
- I used my credit card (Visa by Klarna) and it worked just fine. But it’s been a while since I’ve been there, maybe they changed something?

YouTube has the creators I actually want to support. I don't mind paying for all the hours of content I'm getting for it

I did, sorta.

I subscribed to Google Play Music All Access from day 1, because (at the time) it was like Spotify but also allowed me to upload my own music. I added a family plan when that became available for my friends/family who wanted it as well, and was grandfathered into that price when GPMAA eventually turned into YouTube Music, which was also bundled with YouTube Premium. Ad-free YouTube isn't something I specifically sought out but it was bundled into a service that I was using as a perk.

I kept that subscription going at the grandfathered rate until I got an email from Google one day informing me that they were increasing the price, which was last October, and would only allow me to keep the grandfathered cost for an additional 6 months before hiking me up to the new price. That would bring me from $14.99/mo to $23.99/mo, so I said "fuck that" and canceled. The service only got worse after they killed GPM anyways.

Yep, I watch YouTube all the time, and use it for music, so I could cancel Spotify.

I do! Would probably give up my Netflix subscription before YouTube to be honest. As a family, we spend more time using YouTube than most other streaming services.

I tried a free month, but it really didn't tingle me. I still prefer Spotify to YouTube music.

Yes, the whole family watches YouTube on the TV, on the iPad/mobile phone apps, that it's worth it not to see the ads there, plus background play of audio, plus the whole family can stream their music from YouTube Music so no need for an aditional Spotify subscription.

Anyway, I just wish they'd remove the sponsor stuff on the apps like SponsorBlock does on the desktop for me.

I have a premium family membership and I pay around 18 bucks and allows 4 people into the membership I think.

This includes youtube music, which I use to upload my music and play it anywhere.

Yep, Family Plan here as well. It’s 4+1 of us, we all watch YT pretty much continuously at different age levels (two adults, one teenager and one preschooler), and since there was one extra seat left grandma also got ad free experience on her mobile. All 5 of us are also into different kinds of music so having access to YT music is also huge plus. The only other subscription I don’t mind paying for is Amazon Prime, for obvious reasons. Netflix, D+, Apple TV+ and such got the boot long time ago, with no plans to resubscribe any time soon.

I want to but the price is to high for what they're asking for. I could have gotten myself a subscription for crunchy roll or Netflix with the money they're asking

I used to when I used have it when subscribed to Google Music—which was amazing but then they tried to replace it with YouTube Music and yet another big amazing Google product died—and there was no point anymore.

I've considered it to stop ads on the TV app, but always thought it wasn't worth it. I can't even be bothered ad-blocking the network to include the TV, so raising cost of Premium now may as well make the product cease to exist in my mind.

Yep. I watch more YouTube than TV. Once you get a curated list of channels set up, YouTube is great. And I don’t like ads.

Yep. Between YouTube Music and watching stuff on my TV it’s probably the most used subscription I have.

I do, YouTube is my most used video app and I pay for a family plan

i pay for youtube premium, i don’t like seeing ads on my phone