Youtube is allowing Youtubers to advertise their merch even for premium users

deleted@lemmy.world to Mildly Infuriating@lemmy.world – 147 points –

I saw today new “merch” section below comments. I’m a premium users for a reason, I want 0 ads.

I just canceled my subscription and moved to yattee / invidious for good.

95

I don't agree with the commenters in this thread.

An ad is an ad.

I don't care if they're for the youtuber's own stuff. I don't care what their cut is from youtube premium, they can take that up with youtube. I don't want to see any ads of any kind if I'm paying for the content. Especially considering how much premium costs.

Disclaimer; I don't use youtube premium, I use youtube in browsers that allow adblockers, and on android I use firefox with ublock.

That’s a bit of an extreme take on the topic… not wanting ads from the broadcaster is one thing, not wanting to be separately presented with the promotional items of the youtuber himself is something else. I like seeing what the guys I follow are putting out. Maybe a 2nd option in ads content would be appropriate for you but don’t throw everyone in the same bag…

Well, I am fine if I can disable it, however I don’t believe it can be disabled.

I don’t care where the ad is coming from. To me if it’s not related to the video then it’s an ad.

I am OK with self promoting in the video, but taking real estate of my screen to show merch is advertisement.

An ad is an ad. If YouTube premium’s point is to remove ads then this should be included. Otherwise what’s the point? We should all just go back to using ad blockers.

We should not pay for content twice. Viewing ads is paying for content. Paying for premium is paying for content.

It’s less ads and more your youtuber’s shop… you pay YouTube premium to get rid of their ads but you don’t pay your content creator… maybe if there was a subscription patreon-like it would be equivalent.

it's an ad for the shop. i paid for no ads. i didn't pay for "no ads except those we think you'd like to see", i paid for no ads.

I understand it is a YouTubers shop but it is still an ad.

YouTube spends some of the money you pay for premium on the content creator, more than just user who watches ads, the only reason I would consider using premium, there will always be a way to block ads without spending money unless it's moved Serverside and you have to wait the length of instead.

Edit: The content creator can also just add a link in the end card to their patreon or merch store.

For niche content creators that aren’t in the million of subs what they get isn’t even subsistence money… hence their merchs. Those are not ads inserted in the video stream but screen space below the video… easily ignored especially compared to actual ads.

1 more...

no ads, $10/month

no ads except for the channel shop, $12/month

no ads except for the channel shop and products/companies mentioned in the video, $15/month

no ads except for the channel shop, products/companies mentioned in the video, and products/companies associated with concepts mentioned in the video, $20/month

no ads except for the channel shop, products/companies mentioned in the video, products/companies associated with concepts mentioned in the video, and products/companies we think you might be interested in based on your viewing history, $25/month

ads, $35/month

Reading through these comments, I can't help but think there's astroturfing happening here when every single comment seems to be saying the same thing nearly verbatim:

"This is a huge overreaction!"

"Most channels have excellent merch products!"

"I like seeing merch ads on videos I watch!"

It's one thing to have links in the description or creators mentioning their merch in the video. It's a whole other thing to have a banner in the client advertising products that take up nearly the same amount of screen space as the video itself. All these naysayers seemed to have been able to easily navigate to these shops and purchase merchandise before youtube started pushing it in our faces, so why is it necessary now, especially on accounts that are paying for premium? Should we also just accept additional ads outside the video from corporate sponsors since they also fund the channel directly? Where do you draw the line?

I mean. I like seeing merch from my favorite creators and sometimes I buy it. T-shirts are cool. It's easier for me to know what's available if there are thumbnails large enough for me to actually see the product.

And these links appear below the video, they are not intrusive to the watching experience in any way whatsoever. So yeah, I genuinely think this is a huge overreaction.

I pay for premium and not even once have I thought anything other than "oh cool, this channel has merch"

Most people see it favorably to actually support creators they follow. Not this guy though, fuck the content creators trying to provide you content and try to make a living out of it.

They're already getting the YouTube premium revenue and I doubt that they didn't spend at least 10 seconds advertising it in their videos.

Oh, you have a serious source that indicate how youtube premium revenues are shared between the platform, the right holders, and the content creators, including how it is split between what you watch and what you don't care about?

According to the YouTube content creator 'The Spiffing Brit' the revenue he receives per view from YouTube premium is higher than and revenue. So obviously it does help support the creator, though I'm sure YouTube makes more money off of it.

Being "higher than ad revenue" on YouTube is a stupidly low bar. Ad revenue for videos has been plummeting like a rock for years. That's why basically every big channel now either has merch, patron, or paid sponsorships / ads recorded by the creator as part of the video completely unrelated to YouTube.

It's pretty wild how many people in this thread (and in general) don't see youtubers as a business selling a product.

Its great if you want to buy stuff from your favorite content creators shop, but the shop is there to make money. It makes money for their business. What do we call it when a business goes out of their way to show consumers their products in the hopes that they'll purchase something? an advertisement. This isn't something debatable lol, it's literally the definition of the word.

Its awesome if you wanna support your favorite content creators, it's totally OK if you don't personally mind seeing their shop below the video, a simple toggle would let you keep that. But an ad is an ad, and people are right to be frustrated that they're being shown ads when they specifically paid extra money not to be shown them.

YouTube is also showing products below video listings in the home page. Even before you click on it.

See here:

I pay for YT Premium. This is excessive.

Because youtubers make products with love. /s

%100 agree.

That’s dumb. They should be able to have a merch store somewhere regardless. If you like them, you should think about giving them some money in some way. Not by only buying premium. This logic makes absolutely no sense to me.

Why buy premium then?

To get rid of ads. To think that premium goes straight to the content creators you love is insane and even if it did... it's not much.

Not an ad. This is literally just like linking the fanshop (say lttstore or gamersnexus shop) in the description.

Rather it should be an option to disable shopping but I doubt google would do the work after integrating it.

Well, I understand where are you coming from but this is not related to the video so still an ad.

I’m not even following this channel.

Also, no option to disable it afaik.

I mean it is related to the creator and therefore to the video. An option to disable it would be nice, but I dont think this is as bad as watching actual ads

Considering how every single video description is already one giant ad these days, maybe the creators need to chill with their ads.

I'd argue it is related to the video, because the channel who is selling the merch also made the video you are watching.

I am here for a submarine video not for the channel. If I want to support the creator, I can go to Patreon.

I am fine if creators use the description section, but this giant section that I cannot hide, which is made by YouTube, make the difference.

Your argument is like you drink Pepsi why are you upset if you see an ad from Pepsi.

If you don't sub to gamersnexus but look in the description and see the first line is their shop link.
Is it then an ad?

Advertisement:

"a notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service, or event or publicizing a job vacancy. "

I'm not sure if a link can be considered an announcement, but otherwise based on the definition I would say it's a gray area and could be argued either way.

Although I would tend to say it isn't an advertisement but a link to one.

Except one is a separate box, has images and is visible whenever (usually hidden due to the description being collapsed) Over all it just takes up extra space, is stuffed in my face and advertises a product

Has anyone brought up how this is just like tipping? Youtube wants me to pay them (rather than the creator) but they decide how much the creator gets and then if I care about that creators brand I can buy creator merch.

I'm fine with the merch window in the sidebar, although lately they've added an overlay on desktop that appears over the video (even in fullscreen) that I think is going to get annoying real quick if they keep it around. If I'm watching a video from a creator, there's a good chance I'll be interested in their merch, and having a standard place for creators to show off merch without having to shill it in every video, is a feature worth having IMO. But I don't want anything overlayed on the video - especially in fullscreen, and if anything it makes me less likely to support the creator by buying merch - even though the overlay is almost certainly something Google added without any opt-in from creators.

Merch section comes up with uBO as well.

I haven't seen it yet, but I've also been free of those adblock warnings.

FF + ubo

is it only me for who ublock origin does not work anymore? i tried adding filters and updating it

This all could be solved with a simple toggle for premium users to choose if they want to see these ads or not.

Yeah this might be a good option, but relies on Google Not making it a pain/using dark patterns to do so. . . Which ultimately they're incentivized to do.

I am against abusive youtube ads (long unskippable ads, more than 2 ads per video etc) but to me, merch is fine. Merch allows viewers to directly support youtubers since they get the largest percentage of profit from merc sales vs from youtube views. Many of them take the effort to make their merch ads interesting and funny too.

Why do you expect people to take this seriously? A YouTuber advertising their merch in a place you had to go to to even see is the dumbest anti-youtube complain I have seen.

Ooh guess you'll have to adblocker + premium

YouTube premium does allow adblock, just turn it on

This is iOS app.

Ye, you did that one to yourself :/

Tho if the EU gets their way you might be able to sideload apps soon-ish

Because you are paying YouTube for no ads not the channel.

I smell tipping culture here.

What? So buying sports team stuff is tipping culture? Im very confused by what you mean

That's a very extreme view, my friend. A lot of Youtubers come up with good products. For example, LevelOneTechs has come up with a pretty good KVM that a lot of mainstream companies haven't been able to perfect. So I enjoy it when Youtubers advertise their merch.

KVMs feel like they should be better at this point. If I'm paying $500+ so I can just click a button to switch my monitors and inputs between two computers and it only works half the time there is an issue.

The one I would need to get from L1T is $750 and I just can't justify buying a 3rd KVM when I already got a $400 CKL and a $600 TESmart. I guess I should have just went with the L1T.

I was so close to getting LTT merch once. Glad I avoided that.

Not that I'm opposed to YouTuber merch tho (owner of a Frank the Snake longboi plush here)

Edit: Looking at the KVM switches, I could go for one tbh. Expensive but I def have a use for it.

People don't seem too upset about this, so I'll go off in another direction! The Youtuber doesn't understand basic capitalization, in titles or sentences, and even the channel name is botched. To add some irony, the channel has "Learn" in its name.

I'm not expecting English majors be consulted for every statement, but the most basic grammar, that small children learn, is certainly not too much to expect from an "educational" channel. That's bottom-of-the-barrel, and they still can't be bothered. Hell, there are dozens of websites that you can just drop text into, and the site will automatically fix your capitalization, instantly, for free.

They describe themselves as an "advanced level" education channel. You can't even get away with that kind of sloppiness in junior high, so the actual channel "level" is likely below that. If they can't be bothered with such a basic detail, we should not trust anything else they have to say.

Apologies for the digression, and the rant. This is mildly infuriating, but I feel better now.

Knowledge or choice on application of grammar rules is unrelated to military knowledge and education.

I strongly disagree. How does one even acquire knowledge of military history without language skills? Youtube videos, TV shows, and movies are not "advanced level education" (their words), but writing research papers is. Even if they somehow soak up the knowledge without reading, if they can't write at a higher level than what I'm expecting here, they're going to fail their classes. Hell, they won't even make it to college.

This person is either lazy, sloppy, ignorant, apathetic, or some combination of those. Why on Earth would I want them as a teacher, when there are millions of other educators who don't have these issues? It's a red flag is all; that's my entire point. Of course, there are brilliant educators who cannot write, but the vast majority of people who have gone through higher education know how capitalization works in sentences. Again, just a red flag, not an absolute. There's no need to gamble; we owe this person nothing.

Basic language skills aren't an above-and-beyond expectation from someone calling themselves an educator, it's baseline. When even that's not met, it brings doubt to everything else they may say. Maybe you're fine with that, I am not.

This isn't an ad. It's just an opportunity to purchase something related to the video, or that you've searched for, or that the algorithm has determined you'll buy.

This isn't an ad. It's just an opportunity to purchase something

I really hope this is satire, but I honestly can't tell anymore lol

The interface, however, is very much intrusive like an ad. It will display a big banner in the lower half of the video with nothing but a "shop" button until you click up or click on it. If it just showed up in the MORE section of the description that would be perfectly acceptable.

Imagine paying for youtube premium lmaooooo

I think it's worth it personally. I use it for hours everyday for YouTube and music , you can't expect to be able to use a service ad free for free indefinitely and expect it to be able to survive. I think people are spoiled and want everything for free . I won't pay for most streaming services just to barely use it . But if it's a service I use alot I'm willing to pay for it . I wouldn't even mind ads as long as they don't interrupt or obscure the video . I do pirate things I don't think are worth paying for .

I think Youtube premium isn't worth paying for. Streaming services provide content that cost millions of dollars to produce. Youtube hosts content that someone recorded in his basement in 10 minutes or so.

I feel like you haven't used YouTube since 2010 because there are a lot of creators that put tons of work and research into the content they make and many have a full team of editors/writers . Just look at the content coffeezilla or Linus Tech tips make .

I think the people who are most angry about this are those without YouTube Premium.

Does it? Adblockers block these, too. So the people who pay for Youtube Premium are the ones affected, not the ones not paying for it.

Reading the responses here, yes.

It seems to be the principle of the matter, not a reaction from the userbase.

I use revanced. None of youtube's changes upsets me because I know within hours/days they'll be patched out.

I know all the private alternatives are useful, but using the google ecosystem directly without dealing with their money grubbing schemes feels like nice way of saying "suck it"