Christ. I am a premium subscriber for years but it’s always been on the edge of too expensive even as it is. They’re really pushing it.

I really wish they’d drop the YouTube Music aspect of this and just do an ad-free YouTube sub. Happy to pay content creators for their work; less happy to give Google money for a music platform after what they did to Google Music.

Oh well, too late to join now. Thought about that subscription in the past, but now it’s clearly out of the question.

So first.they butcher Google play music by making it YouTube oremtand now this. Fuck that. Unlock forever. And when it stops working I’ll stop engaging. Sorry Google, but fuck you

Pain

Wait… people PAY for YouTube?

It increased a couple months ago to like $25 CAD lmao. Still worth it, though. I watch so much YouTube.

It’s weird how people are fine paying for Netflix, Hulu, CrunchyRoll, Twitch, etc, but draw the line at YouTube, the platform that has infinite more content and actual value.

It’s still less than my parents pay for satellite. Also comes with YouTube Music if you wanna ditch Spotify. Kinda a 2 in 1 deal.

deleted by creator

I mainly use FreeTube on PC and NewPipe on phone, not to avoid ads, but I just find it a much nicer and more peaceful experience (free of recommendations, Shorts etc).

I actually do pay for YouTube Premium family subscription, but its mainly to protect my less tech-savvy family and friends from ads, and to avoid seeing ads on my Android TV projector.

YouTube Revanced ftw. Firefox with uBlock Origin ftw too.

Sucks for me. I use iOS (I’m sorry) and that’s the original reason I got YouTube Red (back then): they make iOS users pay for background playback. Most of my YT consumption is documentary / essay / spoken word stuff so I need that feature to treat it like a podcast player, basically. Most of the rest of my YT consumption is in my living room, where ad blocking isn’t an option (and I hear even if it was, they’re catching up fighting ad blockers).

I hate the Web 2.0 “enshitification” of platforms, and I hate advertisements, and I’m willing to pay for a good, useful service. But this is a mixed bag. It’s still ‘enshitified’ because most of what it serves me is algorithmic and nothing to do with the hundreds of channels I’ve subscribed to over the 13 years I’ve had this particular account. It’s still chock full of ads because videos do sponsor blocks these days.

And the worst of it is they’ve got you by the balls and there’s really nothing stopping them from being Netflix and just continuing to raise and raise the price. I was an OG Netflix Instant Streaming for Xbox 360 user…years later when they finally booted me off my own family plan, we were paying like…$23 a month? For what had at that point become the worst video service? What stops YouTube from bumping up to $19.99/mo a couple years from now? It’s the only game in town.

OH and they’re also selling all your metrics. That’s the other thing. If I’m paying (through the nose) for a service, it shouldn’t be double-fucking me by selling predictive measures of who I am and what I care about to filthy fucking “advertisers” (for-profit behavior manipulators).

YouTube (like every last piece of Web 2.0) was fun while it lasted. But it is now barely better than worthless.

My YouTube subscription costs 0. ublock Origin.

Increasing the price of a service that is already piss-poor value for your money is incredibly smart. Who the hell is gonna pay 14$ per month just to get rid of ads?

Well, I guess I bought the yearly sub in Turkish liras just in time (about $20/year)

I feel like this is the best money in streaming. I mostly watch you tube, and primarily on the tv and phone in the app. Frankly I would prefer to have much more of the internet paid for with you know money instead of ads and not use a blocker.

You tube music also has a much better algorithmic playlist than Apple Music.