The amount of downvotes on comments trying to help people not get price gouged and comments supporting these subscription price increases shows me just how many corporate shills are actually out there. No wonder these corps keep getting away with this bullshit.
Edit: Wow so many people took personal offense to this...almost like it they know it's true but are afraid to admit it.
Everyone is hurting financially right now, some more than others. Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation and record profits. Keep shilling folks, enjoy emptying your wallets for the millionaires while you struggle.
I'm not going to defend the price increase, but a lot of comments in here are just aimless hatred of the idea of paying anything, ever.
Pound for pound, YouTube Premium has been a decent deal at $10. Has been. This is pushing it, but there's a lot of comments that seem absolutely indignant at the idea of paying YouTube period (and by extension the content creators).
There's got to be some room for nuance here. The internet is plagued by advertising and paywalls, yes, but it can also not exist without them, so we find some middle ground.
It can definitely exist without advertising and paywalls. It just going to be smaller.
I've been using the internet for over 24 years. I can tell you that the internet can survive without ads or paywalls. Ads and paywalls are a product of greed. Ads are way more efficient these days but many used to take up so much memory. I remember when AdBlock or whatever it was called came out. It made browsing the internet smoother.
The only way the internet can survive without ads or paywalls is for the person/business hosting the content to pay for everything out of pocket.
A platform like YouTube could never exist without some form of revenue. I understand that there are small platforms out there, such as PeerTube, but they will never be comparable to the scale of YouTube without some form of revenue. Sure, people could grow PeerTube by spinning up their own instances, but then they need to provide their own hardware and storage. At which point you’re spending just as much, or likely more, than you would on a subscription service.
I think its possible it will just be slow and requires people to sacrifice a bit just like we are trying to do with lemmy. maybe find a different route for ads like how Brave the browser does it where it give the user the choice to see ads and give them and the content creator a cut if they agree to it, not that I trust that browser but its an interesting concept
Yeah. We can’t have free, privacy, and creators that eat. Pick two.
(We might end up paying and getting neither privacy or paid creators… but at least it is worth the attempt to do things right.)
Poeple think they are sharing their enormous profits with creators. Maybe they get a few bucks from the billions.
It's surprising to me. First moment I've thought maybe Lemmy is a worse place to be. Is there really that many astroturfing trolls here? Yikes.
I can afford $13/month on my income and watch YT on a daily basis, much more than any other streaming service by a wide margain. Does that somehow make me an astroturfing troll?
Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation
Well yeh, that's what inflation is...
I don't understand what shilling will earn for these people. The corps don't care about you. They never will and never have. Do these shills think there's some comfy bonus to be gained if they wave their flag around in support of greedy practices?
I think what you are seeing here so far is the organic result of those dumb enough to pay this kind of money for youtube being personally offended and defending their bad decisions.
We will get there but I'm not sure that this platform is large enough to be a major target for corpo bots just yet. Just dummies.
Ya how dare people actually pay for a platform that hosts billions of videos and streams to billions of users essentially lag free and is actually decent and shares revenue with it's content creators. /s
Things cost money. You don't have to be a corporate shill to not expect everything to be free, you just have to be an adult.
Google is one of the richest companies in the world.
Ok? And? They aren't a charity and don't owe you free video hosting services.
EDIT: I find it hilarious that point out the fact that you aren't entitled to free hosting services is getting down voted. Lmao how old are the people here?
Dude they sell our data to advertisers and big data for profit. The least they can do is provide some services for us for the amount of analytics they collect from us on a daily basis.
Dude, they ARE the advertiser. That's Google's main business. They have no incentive to export ANY of your account data to 3rd parties. Business tell them what groups of people to advertise to, and their systems handle the rest. They're open about how it all works.
As someone who's actually worked in this industry, your data isn't enough to pay for video hosting services to the scale youtube provides. Youtube makes up a significant chunk of all network traffic in the world. It costs money.
You're a content creator, aren't you? 🤣
No i am not. But I am happy to support actual content creators and the platform that they host on and gets them the most views because I spend more time on YT than I do on any other streaming platform.
And I don't owe them a subscription if I don't agree with the value they've placed on it. Free market, baby. 👍
Sure, absolutely, you don't. No one is claiming otherwise.
You seem oddly offended at the idea people wouldn't lol. I don't know why you're taking this so personally.
No I just think it's stupid to call people who would pay for a service a corporate shill. I have no issue with someone who doesn't think a subscription is worth it. Maybe read the whole thread first next time.
They were already being paid and profitable, both from direct cash and ad revenue, but that doesn't ever seem to be enough.
You are free to disagree with their pricing and cancel a subscription if you have one. That's how the free market works.
"Free market works" is by itself a very questionable statement.
But there sure are some more options beyond that. Although some people think we shouldn't be free to pick them.
You are free to pick w.e you want. That doesn't make someone actually paying for a decent platform a corporate shill.
Our definitions of "decent" are definitely different. But this is not just about what you choose to do, it's about all the fingerwagging people do at people who don't believe this is worth paying (even more) for.
The only finger wagging going on is people calling people corporate shills for actually paying for a service.
Then you need to look better because you are down a thread pointing out how people are getting downvoted and ragged on for suggesting ad blocking options.
I find it hilarious that point out the fact that you aren’t entitled to free hosting services is getting down voted.
Actually nevermind. Just look at the mirror. You really are talking of Google like it's a struggling charity.
Then you need to look better because you are down a thread pointing out how people are getting downvoted and ragged on for suggesting ad blocking options.
No I am a thread calling people corporate shills for disagreeing with people saying we should all be pirating.
Actually nevermind. Just look at the mirror. You really are talking of Google like it’s a struggling charity.
It doesn't matter how rich google is, it doesn't owe you video hosting services. It's not a charity. You can disagree with their pricing and you can find another platform if you like. But services cost money and just because a company has money through other sources doesn't mean they need to subsidize all their products.
It doesn’t matter how rich google is
Of course it does. Not only Google has plenty of money to keep it running, don't even try to make a moral argument out of one of these companies stripmining everyone's data
If you care so much about the costs of hosting, I hope you donate to the Lemmy.
Would just like to interject; while I agree with what you're saying, and yes, lots of people think an amazing service should be free, which is wrong.... But YouTube/Google is now 100% beholden to their shareholders, and this, plus the last couple of price rises, is gouging to make some millionaires richer and is fucking despicable
That's for consumers to decide. If people still pay for it and think it's worth their money, then they aren't really gouging, they were just under priced. If people don't and start cancelling their subscriptions, they have over priced it and now need to bring the price back down. For me personally, Netflix is the one teetering on that point, YT isn't there yet.
No but I'm not going to pay Google for anything. It's obscene to give them even more money.
Whether you think that service is worth it or not is up to you.
But don't act like you have some moral high ground here and that people who are actually paying for a service that you are stealing from and a service that actually shares revenue with it's content creators and encourages independent creators are just corporate shills.
Some of us are adults and realize things cost money and not entitled children that expect everything for free.
And some of us are adults that don't have your innate need to wield your moral high ground like a smug pedantic asshole.
I am not the one calling anyone who isn't pirating a corporate shill.
And yet that's obivously not what this thread's context was before you started self-jerking to moral superiority.
Have some self awareness.
This isn't a Wendys Drive Thru.
Here, since you have difficulty following, let me copy where the original thread started.
The amount of downvotes on comments trying to help people not get price gouged and comments supporting these subscription price increases shows me just how many corporate shills are actually out there. No wonder these corps keep getting away with this bullshit.
I am not the one who started the moral superiority, I just disagreed at being called a "corporate shill" before a bunch of insecure assholes started losing their shit.
Maybe try having self awareness yourself before suggesting it to someone else.
Self inserting as a main character to claim you've been attacked so you can shill your moral superiority is the cherry on top of your bullshit sundae.
We are at fault for youtube giving shit away for free. We are responsible for youtube's profits.
We not only need to offer content FOR FREE to youtube ... but then accept that we must pay youtube for our content.
Get fucked.
Before telling others to get fucked, maybe learn to read and grow the fuck up.
YT shares revenue with content creators. No one is offering shit for free.
Things cost money, wether you think the service is worth it or not is up to you, but no one owes you shit just because you are an entitled prick.
I am a grown up. But I have little tolerance for corporate cheerleaders of any shape or sound.
Ok feel free to build your own alternative.
Oh take your ball and go home already.
You should take your own advice. Your bs hasn't worked.
I get that, but the vast majority of content creators seem to make their money with sponsorships or their own ads, so most of what google is doing is content distribution, not creation. Which makes the amount of money they want for that seem ridiculous when pretty much every other streaming service that produces high profile and expensive shows themselves is way cheaper.
This feels like your supermarket requiring entrance fees in addition to you having to pay for stuff you actually buy.
Youtube spends more on revenue sharing than some big streaming services do on content creation. Content creators who also have sponsored segments are essentially double dipping but that's on the content creator.
Also I don't know how much it is in the US, but in Canada, YT is one of the cheapest streaming services if not the cheapest, and I get way more value out of youtube than I do from Netflix, Crave, Prime, or Disney+.
I don't know about the revenue sharing. But in Germany, youtube premium is 12€, Amazon prime and Disney is 9€, Paramount is 8€ and Apple tv is 7€. Only Netflix is the same price for hd or more expensive with 18€ for 4k.
The amount of downvotes on comments trying to help people not get price gouged and comments supporting these subscription price increases shows me just how many corporate shills are actually out there. No wonder these corps keep getting away with this bullshit.
Edit: Wow so many people took personal offense to this...almost like it they know it's true but are afraid to admit it. Everyone is hurting financially right now, some more than others. Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation and record profits. Keep shilling folks, enjoy emptying your wallets for the millionaires while you struggle.
I'm not going to defend the price increase, but a lot of comments in here are just aimless hatred of the idea of paying anything, ever.
Pound for pound, YouTube Premium has been a decent deal at $10. Has been. This is pushing it, but there's a lot of comments that seem absolutely indignant at the idea of paying YouTube period (and by extension the content creators).
There's got to be some room for nuance here. The internet is plagued by advertising and paywalls, yes, but it can also not exist without them, so we find some middle ground.
It can definitely exist without advertising and paywalls. It just going to be smaller.
I've been using the internet for over 24 years. I can tell you that the internet can survive without ads or paywalls. Ads and paywalls are a product of greed. Ads are way more efficient these days but many used to take up so much memory. I remember when AdBlock or whatever it was called came out. It made browsing the internet smoother.
The only way the internet can survive without ads or paywalls is for the person/business hosting the content to pay for everything out of pocket.
A platform like YouTube could never exist without some form of revenue. I understand that there are small platforms out there, such as PeerTube, but they will never be comparable to the scale of YouTube without some form of revenue. Sure, people could grow PeerTube by spinning up their own instances, but then they need to provide their own hardware and storage. At which point you’re spending just as much, or likely more, than you would on a subscription service.
I think its possible it will just be slow and requires people to sacrifice a bit just like we are trying to do with lemmy. maybe find a different route for ads like how Brave the browser does it where it give the user the choice to see ads and give them and the content creator a cut if they agree to it, not that I trust that browser but its an interesting concept
Yeah. We can’t have free, privacy, and creators that eat. Pick two.
(We might end up paying and getting neither privacy or paid creators… but at least it is worth the attempt to do things right.)
Poeple think they are sharing their enormous profits with creators. Maybe they get a few bucks from the billions.
It's surprising to me. First moment I've thought maybe Lemmy is a worse place to be. Is there really that many astroturfing trolls here? Yikes.
I can afford $13/month on my income and watch YT on a daily basis, much more than any other streaming service by a wide margain. Does that somehow make me an astroturfing troll?
Well yeh, that's what inflation is...
I don't understand what shilling will earn for these people. The corps don't care about you. They never will and never have. Do these shills think there's some comfy bonus to be gained if they wave their flag around in support of greedy practices?
I think what you are seeing here so far is the organic result of those dumb enough to pay this kind of money for youtube being personally offended and defending their bad decisions.
We will get there but I'm not sure that this platform is large enough to be a major target for corpo bots just yet. Just dummies.
Ya how dare people actually pay for a platform that hosts billions of videos and streams to billions of users essentially lag free and is actually decent and shares revenue with it's content creators. /s
Things cost money. You don't have to be a corporate shill to not expect everything to be free, you just have to be an adult.
Google is one of the richest companies in the world.
Ok? And? They aren't a charity and don't owe you free video hosting services.
EDIT: I find it hilarious that point out the fact that you aren't entitled to free hosting services is getting down voted. Lmao how old are the people here?
Dude they sell our data to advertisers and big data for profit. The least they can do is provide some services for us for the amount of analytics they collect from us on a daily basis.
Dude, they ARE the advertiser. That's Google's main business. They have no incentive to export ANY of your account data to 3rd parties. Business tell them what groups of people to advertise to, and their systems handle the rest. They're open about how it all works.
As someone who's actually worked in this industry, your data isn't enough to pay for video hosting services to the scale youtube provides. Youtube makes up a significant chunk of all network traffic in the world. It costs money.
You're a content creator, aren't you? 🤣
No i am not. But I am happy to support actual content creators and the platform that they host on and gets them the most views because I spend more time on YT than I do on any other streaming platform.
And I don't owe them a subscription if I don't agree with the value they've placed on it. Free market, baby. 👍
Sure, absolutely, you don't. No one is claiming otherwise.
You seem oddly offended at the idea people wouldn't lol. I don't know why you're taking this so personally.
No I just think it's stupid to call people who would pay for a service a corporate shill. I have no issue with someone who doesn't think a subscription is worth it. Maybe read the whole thread first next time.
They were already being paid and profitable, both from direct cash and ad revenue, but that doesn't ever seem to be enough.
You are free to disagree with their pricing and cancel a subscription if you have one. That's how the free market works.
"Free market works" is by itself a very questionable statement.
But there sure are some more options beyond that. Although some people think we shouldn't be free to pick them.
You are free to pick w.e you want. That doesn't make someone actually paying for a decent platform a corporate shill.
Our definitions of "decent" are definitely different. But this is not just about what you choose to do, it's about all the fingerwagging people do at people who don't believe this is worth paying (even more) for.
The only finger wagging going on is people calling people corporate shills for actually paying for a service.
Then you need to look better because you are down a thread pointing out how people are getting downvoted and ragged on for suggesting ad blocking options.
Actually nevermind. Just look at the mirror. You really are talking of Google like it's a struggling charity.
No I am a thread calling people corporate shills for disagreeing with people saying we should all be pirating.
It doesn't matter how rich google is, it doesn't owe you video hosting services. It's not a charity. You can disagree with their pricing and you can find another platform if you like. But services cost money and just because a company has money through other sources doesn't mean they need to subsidize all their products.
Of course it does. Not only Google has plenty of money to keep it running, don't even try to make a moral argument out of one of these companies stripmining everyone's data
If you care so much about the costs of hosting, I hope you donate to the Lemmy.
Would just like to interject; while I agree with what you're saying, and yes, lots of people think an amazing service should be free, which is wrong.... But YouTube/Google is now 100% beholden to their shareholders, and this, plus the last couple of price rises, is gouging to make some millionaires richer and is fucking despicable
That's for consumers to decide. If people still pay for it and think it's worth their money, then they aren't really gouging, they were just under priced. If people don't and start cancelling their subscriptions, they have over priced it and now need to bring the price back down. For me personally, Netflix is the one teetering on that point, YT isn't there yet.
No but I'm not going to pay Google for anything. It's obscene to give them even more money.
Whether you think that service is worth it or not is up to you.
But don't act like you have some moral high ground here and that people who are actually paying for a service that you are stealing from and a service that actually shares revenue with it's content creators and encourages independent creators are just corporate shills.
Some of us are adults and realize things cost money and not entitled children that expect everything for free.
And some of us are adults that don't have your innate need to wield your moral high ground like a smug pedantic asshole.
I am not the one calling anyone who isn't pirating a corporate shill.
And yet that's obivously not what this thread's context was before you started self-jerking to moral superiority.
Have some self awareness.
This isn't a Wendys Drive Thru.
Here, since you have difficulty following, let me copy where the original thread started.
I am not the one who started the moral superiority, I just disagreed at being called a "corporate shill" before a bunch of insecure assholes started losing their shit.
Maybe try having self awareness yourself before suggesting it to someone else.
Self inserting as a main character to claim you've been attacked so you can shill your moral superiority is the cherry on top of your bullshit sundae.
I see.
We are at fault for youtube giving shit away for free. We are responsible for youtube's profits.
We not only need to offer content FOR FREE to youtube ... but then accept that we must pay youtube for our content.
Get fucked.
Before telling others to get fucked, maybe learn to read and grow the fuck up.
YT shares revenue with content creators. No one is offering shit for free.
Things cost money, wether you think the service is worth it or not is up to you, but no one owes you shit just because you are an entitled prick.
I am a grown up. But I have little tolerance for corporate cheerleaders of any shape or sound.
Ok feel free to build your own alternative.
Oh take your ball and go home already.
You should take your own advice. Your bs hasn't worked.
I get that, but the vast majority of content creators seem to make their money with sponsorships or their own ads, so most of what google is doing is content distribution, not creation. Which makes the amount of money they want for that seem ridiculous when pretty much every other streaming service that produces high profile and expensive shows themselves is way cheaper.
This feels like your supermarket requiring entrance fees in addition to you having to pay for stuff you actually buy.
Youtube spends more on revenue sharing than some big streaming services do on content creation. Content creators who also have sponsored segments are essentially double dipping but that's on the content creator.
Also I don't know how much it is in the US, but in Canada, YT is one of the cheapest streaming services if not the cheapest, and I get way more value out of youtube than I do from Netflix, Crave, Prime, or Disney+.
I don't know about the revenue sharing. But in Germany, youtube premium is 12€, Amazon prime and Disney is 9€, Paramount is 8€ and Apple tv is 7€. Only Netflix is the same price for hd or more expensive with 18€ for 4k.