YouTube Premium quietly goes up in price to $14 per month | That's a significant $2 increase with no official announcement.
engadget.com
YouTube Premium quietly goes up in price to $14 per month | That's a significant $2 increase with no official announcement.::Google has quietly increased the price of YouTube Premium by a significant $2 from $12 to $14, according to the updated signup page..
Feel like we're watching a lot of tech companies making a lot of bad decisions all at once. Reddit, Google, Netflix, Meta, Twitter, Hulu, etc. Regardless of the individual circumstances and bad actors in each case, it feels like they're all being fueled by a shared, low-key desperation.
I know it sounds a little silly to blame this on one person, but honestly think it’s Elon’s fault.
A bunch of tech-bro CEO types idolize him and are jealous - thinking he is cool for getting to “say whatever he wants” to the public, his detractors - Hell… even the SEC… and he “gets away with it.”
Not only that, but he has gotten to present to cheering crowds on stage for companies people still mistakenly think Elon both founded and runs single-handedly like Tesla and SpaceX… and he has been positively referenced and guest appeared over the past decade in Marvel films and other “cool” pop culture like South Park and Rick & Morty.
…And so when Elon just said “fuck you” publicly to a bunch of his workers by firing a bunch of them… The Elon wannabes loved it.
Worse - they are influenced by his actions. Some have even openly said it.
So not only do people like spez go and fuck over their devs, their users, and advertisers… but the folks at the heads of lots of companies are doing the same. For example - and I don’t know if it was mentioned here but - Plex recently fired like 20% of their workforce.
Interest rates. This bursts the bubble.
It's unreal how many people don't know that. It's always fun to think about on my way to work at 5am.
Easy money pipeline has been cut off, makes sense we're all seeing this kind of thing at the same time when you consider it from the POV of the investors bankrolling these companies.
Costs are going up, investment is wising up.
The venture capital free money train is gone and they're realizing their revenue models make zero sense.
If you’re just a bit tech savvy and don’t use your tv as your primary YouTube player then it’s reasonably easy to avoid ads and download stuff on YouTube no matter if you’re on Android, PC, or even iOS (yes without jailbreak).
I pay for it since I use it pretty often on my tv. I’ve gotten rid of other subscriptions to cover the cost. I use YouTube fairly often. My kid watches it on tv and I didn’t want him inundated with ads.
I feel like they forced me to pay though. I’d put on a show for my kid and 3 minutes in, there would be a 2 hour ad that played something completely different and pushed bullshit ads in front of him. I couldn’t subject him to that and there really isn’t an alternative.
Count me in on the group. Have been a family subscriber for awhile. Daughter is 7 and autistic so when an ad pops up she always installs the games then they are horrible and piss her off or she wants me to spend money on it because they force it down your throat. Easier to just give Google some money and not have to deal with it.
I also pay so my kids aren't bombarded by ads.
Anyways, let me tell you about Raid: Shadow Legends...
Revanced Manager for phones. SmartTubeNext for TVs.
For anyone reading who’s curious about iOS options, using Yattee with your Invidious or Piped instance of choice is a good way to go!
Or getting a tweaked YouTube app sideloaded.
Even with a TV there are options. I know Android/Google TV and LG WebOS both have apps available to sideload.
LG webOS? Please do tell what to do? I hate watching YT on my LG tv, its like two ads between each and every video...
I haven't done it personally because I have an Android TV box connected to my LG TV with SmartTubeNext, but here's an archived reddit post with a guide for it.
They patched it a while ago on the webos and I lost the app with an update (either the TV updated itself or someone pressed ok when it prompted). Is there any new way to do so?
There's even Playlet for Rokus!
NewPipe for the win! Probably one of the best apps I have ever downloaded.
Care to share iOS tips for the uninitiated?
You can install uyou+ (a tweaked youtube app, found on github) via sideloadly, which requires a mac or pc.
You can look it up, theres plenty of guides. If you get stuck feel free to DM me or reply here.
❤️
NewPipe costs $13.99 less on my phone (where I watch YouTube most), and it has a better UX (for me) than the official app.
I know I am gonna be one of the few, but I use YouTube as my main viewing of things. I don’t use Netflix, or any of the other services much. Premium is something I can’t be without anymore tbh, the ad free and downloading is super convenient for me and I like how a lot of my premium subscription goes to the creators I watch the most.
That’s where I’m at. I use it regularly for learning new things and for entertainment, so I don’t mind paying for it, and getting rid of ads while supporting creators is perfectly fine with me.
Same, YouTube is the first app I go to when turning on my tv
I pirate EVERYTHING I watch... except for YouTube. I gladly pay that.
I don't have a problem with them charging for the service. But they keep raising it dramatically over and over. You're paying $15 a month to watch content a YouTube creator is getting 25 cents to create. If they wanted to charge $9.99 a month for a family plan I'd be all about it. At the prices they're charging there are services running full blown movie houses
YouTube is a full blown movie house as well as a place for independent creators *Oops I was wrong
It appears to me they've stopped their original productions.
Yup happy to pay what I pay for youtube premium and youtube music, totally worth it for both!
Maybe I could find it expensive if it was only one service
I don’t use YouTube music and don’t find the price too absurd considering the average daily watch time I have.
You can get ad free Youtube with Firefox plus ublock origin for free. There are even Firefox extensions to skip the paid sponsor ads in every youtube video nowadays. There are also countless Youtube downloader programs out there. You don't need to pay for it at all to get the features that YouTube premium offers.
Paying to support content creators is the only reason I would consider YouTube premium unless I was very tech illiterate, I guess. YouTube music also seems somewhat worth the price, in my opinion.
Edit: This comment can come off as condescending. I don't mean it as such, if you pay for YouTube premium that's cool. I just wanted to make it known that people don't have to pay YouTube money to get those features if they don't want to.
I get where you’re coming from, however I find it is personally easier and it is within my financial means to pay for premium instead. I am aware not everyone can but I am glad I can do that. I also support some creators through Patreon for their YouTube content as well. Currently, I am almost completely ad free with the content I consume and sometimes that means I pay money and other times I use an ad blocker. I should also note that I watch the majority of YouTube on my iPhone or on a PS4 and while there are alternatives on the App Stores I prefer the native YouTube apps.
I must be grandfathered in. I have YouTube Music for $9.99 a month that also includes YouTube Premium
Same. Hope it lasts
I just got an email saying they're going to raise those rates too.
You're not the only one. Sad times, although I'm probably keep it with the bump. I was using another service for hi-rez, but gonna be canceling and just moving back to YT Music. Moved off in the first place because the UI is kinda ass (still is for the most part).
And that my work center, for the longest time, blocked YT from COVID to limit bandwidth for people that got to work from home. Luckily it's not anymore. So just had to pay a service to get all of my liked songs over.
What fucking idiot pays for YouTube premium? Like, I'm sorry... But what the fuck?
Same reasons here. Also, if you regularly watch Youtube on smart TVs/streaming boxes, etc. it's just the most hassle free way to not get ads there.
yes, but this increase is a bit rough.
Also the fact that they were sneaky about it. But this is just how YouTube does things. They know being loud is the best way to get hate, just like what happened to Netflix. They have pushed longer ads in sneaky ways over the years. Now they are evaluating blocking ad-blockers, also in sneaky ways, they are never loud about it.
Consider this: It's a shit business model.
A lot of things should have been wiped out a long time ago via survival of the fittest.
SO your saying that subscriptions are shit or advertising and you being the product is shit?
Both
Don't agree with that. Subscriptions work. Nothing's free
I kinda wanted to for awhile because I'd much prefer to have a service like that be paid instead of driven by ads, but it's getting harder to do that with how they're operating.
I don't pay specifically for YouTube with no ads, that's just a nice bonus, the primary reason is YouTube Music which is amazing.
yeah, ad-free youtube, downloads, and background playback is only a couple dollars more than spotify. it's one of the easiest subscriptions for me to justify.
i mean i would get it if the platform wasn't trying to take advantage of you, but considering youtube's moves in the past few years and especially recently with some people getting adblock-blocked, yea i don't think supporting them further is a good idea
I pay!
I was paying $90 a month for cable TV. Something that I hardly watched. When I did watch it, half the time I was watching OTA channel that I could just pick up with rabbit ears.
I was spending more time watching YouTube (everything from car crash videos, to videos of people doing lawn care, to reviews of tech stuff), and I was getting fed up with the ads.
So, I stopped paying the $90 for TV, bought a new HDHomeRun with a new antenna, downloaded the Pluto TV app, and subscribed to YouTube Premium.
Now I get my OTA shows, get some of the stuff I liked with cable (The 24/7 Tosh.0 channel on Pluto TV is pure delight), and I can binge all the dumb shows I want on YouTube without a single ad getting in my way.
I pay Google for Google domains (shutting down, being transferred to somewhere) and YT premium and they didn't tell me either of these things.
All Google domains are transferring to SquareSpace, and you get 1 renewal at the old rate before SquareSpace can charge you whatever they want.
A nice email from Google explaining that would have been lovely.
I got an email saying there was a price increase coming soon
I love that I learned about Google Domains being shut down from a Lemmy comment~ I was debating moving those away from Google anyway. Has anyone else already done research and narrowed down the list of decent registrars worth using?
I saw the switchblade comb, even without animation.
Lol 14 dollars for YouTube without ads when you can just run Newpipe. :)
VPN and Argentina. Less than $2.50 US per month. Did this over a year ago and no issues.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nordvpn/comments/nu4st9/youtube_premium_subscription_for_way_cheaper/
Wow, and I just cancelled mine yesterday, crazy timing.
How can billion dollar companies justify this bullshit, when their main source of income is advertisers anyways?
YouTube premium is their way of hedging bets against advertiser revolts they don’t want a controversy like Elsagate or Logan Paul’s forest adventures to cause their profits to tank.
With the way YouTube treats creators with their demonetization policies, there's no way I am going to pay for that.
i guess they've done the least [that i'm noticeably aware of] to destroy the site recently
And yet they will probably say that subscribers are up, without mentioning that most of them are from countries like India where it costs $22.50 CAD per year.
Maybe mentally I've already been hit with inflation, but $2 and "significant increase" do not tie out to me.
I got an email from YouTube explaining the increase along with a few extra months at the old price before they raise it for me. 🤷♂️. Seems fair
Is there any alternative on Xbox? I kinda doubt it. I have premium mainly because that’s where I watch it. Getting sick of every tech company shoving their fingers in my purse though
Maybe the web browser and going to an Invidious / Piped instance, but the experience probably wouldn't be optimal...
You could also change your DNS settings to AdGuard or PiHole. This would block ads even outside the YouTube app. Try this: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-block-ads-and-trackers-xbox
Doubt it. Your best bet will be an Android TV with side loading.
So I’ve had YouTube premium for years now, going all the way back to when it was still called YouTube red so I’ve been on the legacy $10/month plan and because I got to keep my old pricing it’s stopped me from canceling at any point when I was rebudgeting and it even stopped me from getting the cheaper $8/month student plan as I didn’t want to lose my legacy pricing once I was done with college but considering they’re hitting all subscribers and not just new subscribers I’m going to jump to that student plan to pay less each month instead.
It just doesn’t quite make sense why they’re increasing prices besides greed(or they know they can with the roll out of ad blocker blockers). If it was still during the YouTube red era they could have at least used the argument that they were re-investing in originals but they stopped creating YouTube originals. The only real new thing to YouTube premium since the rebrand from YouTube red is PIP and you can join the beta program.
This doesn't concerned me one bit because I have Revanced Premium
These services won’t survive Web 3.0. Interest rates are squeezing them and their only way to pivot is making their user experience worse. It’s a double edged sword for them and the rest of Web 2.0. Change is coming.
What do you need an announcement for? They'll have informed the affected subscribers by mail, as they always do, and adjusted the prices on the sign-up page. Who else needs to be informed? I don't really give a shot about the pricing of a service I don't use.
I'm a subscriber and received no such notification. This is the first I'm hearing of it.