- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- android@lemdro.id
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- android@lemdro.id
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Does…. Any one, actually, you know, subscribe for YouTube?
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.If you don’t want to be tracked, you shouldn’t own a smartphone.
Because let’s face it, you’re never going to be able to stop it unless you get rid of all your tech.
Imo it should be a choice whether we are tracked for monetary gains or not, and not a necessary evil. But with most basic services/devices you are not even presented with that choice. E.g. when buying a phone.
And if you do have a choice, sometimes accessibility is restricted so much that you can’t participate in our networked society.
I think we have to find ways to provide access to the most basic services with a minimum of tracking. Anything else should still be an option of course.
How to achieve this? I don’t know. But EU regulations certainly wouldn’t hurt for now.
You’re objectively wrong. You can have a fully free and open source android rom without any spyware (not even from google) and be free, and I also use Piped for watching youtube because I don’t have a google account. Check out privacy communities on lemmy.
Edit: And about getting rid of all tech, of course you can’t be 100% independent and have 100% privacy, but you can mitigate most of it if you know what you’re doing.
Many years ago I tried that, and found out that privacy is possible, but the cost is incredibly high.
By using pi-hole I was able to find out if my mobile phone was communicating with Google. As long as I had GAPPS on LineageOS, there was plenty of traffic. When I removed GAPPS, the traffic went quiet, but my phone became severely crippled.
Sure, I still had some smart apps on my smartphone, but I was also cut off from my bank, so basically living without money in todays society. Not really a viable option. Also, updating apps from fdroid was incredibly inconvenient, but I hope that issue has been fixed now.
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.
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!
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
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.
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 watch a lot more YouTube than Netflix, personally
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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…
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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 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?
i pay for youtube premium, i don’t like seeing ads on my phone
My YouTube subscription costs 0. ublock Origin.
Unlock origin and ReVanced is great, but it doesn’t allow casting to the TV without ads…
Smarttube Next works great on my TV with FireTV. No ads.
Its the only way we can watch TV in our house.
Im just afraid that they might remove thr ability to install custom apks altogether.
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All of these options are unreasonable when you are talking a whole household and catering to a family that is not tech savvy. I have a pihole and it does not block ads from the YouTube TV app.
I have a plex going with content enough for the adults, but the kids consume so much media there is no reasonable way to get enough and fast enough and to meet their current interests. Youtube is the only streaming subscription we have left in the house because nothing even comes close for kids. Even Disney+ completely fumbles when it comes to appealing to what used to be its target market.
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They started blocking users with advanced adblockers completely in some places. It’s expected they’ll roll out that policy in most countries. Prepare to either ditch Youtube completely, watch dozens of ads as well as sponsored segments every couple of minutes (because why would Google pay content creators who make them a huge pile of money by providing content for free adequately, right?) or pay hundreds of dollars a year. Even then they might start showing you some ads because why the hell not? Big tech stole the internet from us and now they’re banking in on it big time. Needlesly to say this is not a sustainable business model, but since when did that ever bother mega corporations?
It’s a cat and mouse game, and history has proven that in this case adblockers will win. Or we’ll get ad blocker blocker blockers.
Can you cast it to your TV with no ads?
I have SmartTube Next on my shield which requires no casting. No ads and sponsor blocks.
I pay $22 per month for the family plan because I don’t want my kids or my folks to have to be constantly inundated with ads. And I enjoy being and to play free music that is exactly the songs I want.
I was really upset when they raised the price on me, and kicked me off the grandfather plan. But in the end I decided it was still worth it.
But what the real cost to Google is here is that they have evaporated my loyalty and good will. I now see them as a company that will squeeze me when they know they can get away with it, and that my loyalty and being an early adopter means nothing to them.
That will definitely affect every future buying decision I make for future products and services.
But what the real cost to Google is here is that they have evaporated my loyalty and good will. I now see them as a company that will squeeze me when they know they can get away with it, and that my loyalty and being an early adopter means nothing to them.
You really expected more from Google?
Yes. I was an early adopter away back when their motto was “don’t be evil”, when Android devices were premium hardware at extremely low prices, when Google apps were free or super cheap.
They have changed over time. They weren’t always greedy scumbags.
I’ve had a bunch of their pixel phones and one ended up breaking. So I did a warranty exchange and they kept sending me bad phones with even more problems than the one before it. Like their refurb department doesn’t even bother fixing a bad device before sending it to their next victim. And they have zero customer service, so I was pretty much screwed. No more pixels for me.
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Google, like many tech companies, often promotes the idea that its services are designed with customer interest in mind. Features such as personalized search results, targeted advertising, and location-based services are promoted as benefits to the user. Google Meet, Google Classroom, and Google Docs are some tools that are particularly relevant in remote working and learning environments. Additionally, they have made efforts towards user security with two-factor authentication, safe browsing technology, and by alerting users to suspected phishing attempts.
However, Google has also been criticized for its data collection and privacy practices. Critics point out that these personalized and location-based services also mean collecting vast amounts of personal data on users, which may compromise their privacy.
So, it could be seen as a mixed bag - while Google provides expedient and useful services, concerns about data privacy and how this information is used persist. As an individual user, it’s important to stay informed about these issues in order to make choices that best serve your own interests and comfort level with privacy.
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get caught in an automated process and have your life ruined, for starters. I’d say that’s a pretty real world consequence of letting Alphabet scan all of your photos.
Doesn’t matter to them what you think, since they can simply buy any good alternative that show up.
Basically these companies are similar to kings now. They own our services and our data. And the peasants may whine a bit but can do nothing.
At least on Lemmy we are left alone for now.
I had that for $14 a month and they were going to raise it to $22 so I said bye just at the perfect time since ReVanced released it’s manager to install.
I don’t have the money to sustain the “everything is a subscription” simple as that. So adblockers and piracy is the only way to get media content.
I still go to the cinema, but some cinemas over here are already experimenting with subscriptions.
I’d be willing to pay for a few subscriptions if I didn’t feel like subscription services are trying to gouge me left and right. I miss the days when subscriptions to Netflix and Spotify gave me access to 90% of content online.
Contrast this with Steam, which gives me centralized convenience, seamless updates, online sync, achievements… No wonder that’s where I spend almost all of my entertainment money these days.
By the time steam chokes and shittifies we are all doomed
Software subscriptions are what really bums me out. Back in the day you could just buy your software and have it forever. Now Microsoft Office is a subscription, Adobe Photoshop is a subscription, and so much more. Nothing pisses me off more than when I install a basic app on my phone and find out it’s actually a subscription app.
Literally the only major software I can think of right now that isn’t subscription based or insanely expensive is Apple’s Final Cut Pro at $300.
Fortunately Microsoft Office isn’t fully subscription yet, but with how much they’re pushing Office365 it’s not too surprising that people don’t seem to realize this. You can still buy a permanent license from MS directly (with some digging around to get to the correct page) or from 3rd party websites. Only downside is it locks you into the current version of Office, but for the average user (me) that’s not too much of a big deal - I can’t recall them releasing any major must have features over the past 10 years.
This right here is one of the biggest reasons I turned to exclusively open source software, cuz man the amount of internal rage I feel any time I have to log into software is unreal, like I open the software I want it to just go
It’s like what cable networks did back in the day, if you want to view a channel, subscribe to it. We have come full circle.
Good lord they are going to put ads again in streaming services aren’t they
They already have.
Where? Haven’t seen one on Amazon prime, Netflix or HBO yet
Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu, and YouTube TV all have ads or ad plans. Some even just have ads on popular shows no matter the price you pay.
I’ve started getting ads for other shows and movies on Prime. I’m sure they’ll start putting other ads in front of the actual content too soon
going to
Uhhhh
NewPipe (mobile), FreeTube (desktop), SmartTube (TV). If you did not know about these, you’re welcome.
Newpipe is great, with a play in background mode as well.
I looked up NewPipe on the Google Play Store. First, there’s, like, four different options that are suspiciously similar. I click the one with 4.4 stars (others had, like, 2), and it says it collects and shares location data with third parties, and this data can’t be deleted?
Yeah, I’m gonna have to say no to that.
From what I know, none of the apps in the play store is the real thing, for obvious reasons: how do you think Google would allow it? Hence the ratings.
And no permissions required at all.
Oh, hell yes, that’s more like it! Thank you!
NewPipe
Yeah, definitely don’t get that app from the Play Store. F-droid is a reliable source for that and many other open source android apps. You could also go straight to the source like @Bloodyhog@lemmy.world mentions below.
Newpipe on the google play store is a scam
Revanced is your new friend.
Wait, what the FUCK!?!
This price increase is live for new subscribers as seen on youtube.com/premium. Instead of $11.99, YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month. Meanwhile, it’s $18.99 if you’re subscribing from the iOS YouTube app.
I’ve been paying $4/month over market rate this whole time?
Yeah. That’s normal if you subscribe to things through (iOS or android) apps.
Google and apple don’t allow apps you roll their own payment methods to “protect their users”. Apps have to use the Google/Apple payment system where Google/Apple take a 30% cut of every payment.
With YouTube being owner by Google they probably don’t have to pay those 30% on Android, but they have to on iOS.
Oh yeah. When you put it that way, it’s totally understandable.
But now I’ve betrayed the fact that I’m willing to pay a lot for community driven content :D
Still switching around as soon as I’m back at my PC though
Apple tax.
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Not really though? Apple makes good hardware and operating systems, and generally have a good privacy-forward stance when it comes to software (in my opinion).
Unfortunately it’s not as cut and dry as “use Gentoo” - if my ad revenue is potentially worth x, lemme just pay x for the service. I know I’m not alone in this sense.
These services think people get their money from trees. Also seriously who even pays for YouTube Premium? There are both adblockers and website download tools, both of which are completely free.
Restrictive corporate environments who do not allow for custom software installation. I pay for it but with the VPN trick. I am on vanced and sponsor block as soon as I leave the work place. Sucks but that is one of the use cases.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Google is one of the richest companies in the world.
Revanced still costs $0/month.
Newpipe = all the pros of YT Red, none of the cons, and you don’t need root. 🤌🏼
NewPipe’s great, but it’s less useful because I prefer some features it doesn’t have (like the ability to log in).
🤓 Uh, logging in is a feature of NP…
Wait, is it? Switched to Revanced because NP wouldn’t let me.
Either’s cool, no judgement 🙌🏽
They emailed me thanking me for being a part of their journey for so long and as a gift they are delaying my rate going up by 3 months. Cool……
I pay ~$6.50 a month for a family plan following the guidance on cheapies.nz to sign up with a VPN and pay in Ukrainian currency (had trouble with turkish) - because google screwed me over when I was paying $19.99 a month on the grandfathered plan. if that ever stops working ill just cancel the lot and go back to sailing the high seas.
Lol. Theres already no way I’d pay for YouTube premium. Raising the price more and more just entrenches that more and more.
Increasing the price of a service that is already piss-poor value for your money is incredibly smart. Who the hell is gonna pay 14$ per month just to get rid of ads?
I suspect that most existing subscribers won’t even notice that the price is increasing and will keep letting it charge them anyway. AOL still makes money this way.
And not everyone is as savvy to set up an ad blocker, especially on mobile.
As for value, that’s always subjective. There are probably people who would argue that is more than worth their money. Not me though.
That’s nice. continues to enjoy effectively yt premium with NewPiped for free
Seems like a good alternative. Do you know if there a way to import my current subscriptions?
Also, I’ve been using the music service for some time now as well. Do you have any suggestions for viable replacements for that?
YouTube Music ReVanced exists if that suits you.
ReVanced can patch quite a few apps, actually, not just YouTube.
What all do you use it for?
I mainly just use ReVanced for YouTube and YouTube Music. It supports some other apps I use (like Twitch or Spotify), but there are better alternatives to those two. (If you’d like to see a full list of the apps supported by ReVanced and the patches available for those apps, go to https://revanced.app/patches .)
Someone created a version of the Twitch app that supports BTTV emotes, blocks ads, auto-claims channel points, and auto-updates whenever there’s a new version available. They called it BTTV, though I don’t believe they’re actually associated with the BTTV browser extension.
As for Spotify, I use xManager. They patch the Spotify app to allow ad-free music, among other Spotify Premium features. (Not every Premiums feature is enabled. Some require communicating with Spotify’s servers, and those aren’t enabled.)
SmartTubeNext on AndroidTV. Complete with SponsorBlock and everything.
Blocking YouTube ads I support.
Sponsorblocker is just shitty. That money goes directly to the content creators, not Google. It hurts the wrong people.
Besides, you can fast-forward those.
I refuse to watch ads anywhere, sorry.
Besides what others have said, many YouTubers that include sponsor segments get paid a flat rate for doing so before/when the video is published. They don’t get recurring revenue based on sponsor segments, only from YouTube ads.
Does SponsorBlock automatically skipping vs me manually scrubbing actually make any difference to what the creator receives in compensation?
No, I doubt the analytics software can tell the difference. It just sees the user skip from timestamp X to Y
ReVanced is the way.
I don’t find a way to download easily videos like on Youtube Premium, do you know how?
You can enable it on settings, you’ll probably have to download one of the suggested apps that do this, newpipe is probably best.
Yeah. You have to download in an external app. That was something I did use a fair bit with premium but it’s no biggie that it’s gone for me.
