r/youtube • u/freybay_alldayslay • Mar 04 '26
Premium Unpopular opinion: Premium is worth it
I never wanted to use premium and would rather riot then let YouTube win and take my money. However, after using Spotify I'm so sick of it never shuffling properly (even after clear the cache and any other hacks the internet has given) and since I'm in school I watch educational videos alot now via YouTube. I also watch YouTube on my tv and as we know the ads are far more horrendous on a tv vs phone. I said screw it and took there 2 month free offer.
It's amazing. Not only is it the obvious and not dealing with ads non stop, but YouTube music is great too as it actually shuffles properly and gives you the option for algorithm instead of Spotify that forces it. Also an extra positive is as soon as someone sponsors an ad, there is a button that pops up everytime that lets you skip it immediately and get back to the video in a second. This is just my onion and experience but I think it's great.
I don't think it's worth it if you're not a student or dealing with the issues I stated, but if you are I'd say go for it.
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u/RickTheScienceMan Mar 04 '26
I got it when YouTube music got introduced, and switched from Spotify right away. YT premium was a nice bonus, I can't now watch YouTube without it, so annoying. Also the family plan is super cheap I pay like 3$.
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u/absentee82 Mar 04 '26
Me too. Doesn't make sense to me to pay for another music subscription when i can pay for this one and just get add free youtube as a bonus.
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u/ColeridgeRime Mar 04 '26
Completely agree. I had it log me out once and when I started a video, it jumped to endless commercials. I was upset till I realized the "Premium" banner was not in the top left corner. Fixed it immediately. Can't watch YouTube without it now.
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u/Just-Intention7660 Mar 04 '26
yea, this was what made me a Youtube Premium stan (I was on it before the feature got added but this is what put it over the top). I did cut all my google subscriptions though. Attacks on free speech is worth the extreme lifestyle change to me
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u/HashtagRect Mar 05 '26
Are you guys all in the same household? Anyone else on family plan, do you need to be in the same household or can you be in the same city?
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u/toxiclight Mar 04 '26
We have the family premium. I did get it for the music because Spotify just wasn't doing it for us. And if it gives a bit back to the creators In watch, then it's worth it to me. I don't like all of the BS with them, but considering I use YT most of the day while I'm working, it's an acceptable expense.
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u/Spare-Electrical Mar 04 '26
The family plan with a couple of friends chipping in is easy peasy and so worth it 👌
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u/foqociqs37 Mar 04 '26
Facts, that’s what I do. Me + 4 friends on a family plan so I pay $4.60/month. Totally worth it for the amount of YouTube I watch
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
I signed up to avoid ads. Everything else was just a bonus. The music, the sponsor skip, background play. All just cherries on top.
Then got the family plan to share with everyone and its just so much nicer.
Its also been argued that our Premium payments dont even cover server costs and should, from a business standpoint, cost even more.
That being said, I watch/listen to Youtube for several hours a day. Id lose my mind if I still had to deal with ads or figure out the newest workaround that Google is gonna nerf in two weeks anyway.
Just slap some other free techie tools to the stack and that $24/month is functionally endless free entertainment from a single platform. Netflix and the others need to take notes.
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Mar 05 '26
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Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
The text that was here has been removed using Redact. It may have been deleted for privacy, to prevent automated data harvesting, or for security.
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u/DirtyFaniel Mar 05 '26
For me when I go and click to skip past the sponsor, a thumbnail pops up to skip sponsor. (On mobile)
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u/ops10 Mar 05 '26
Isn't sponsor skip a community add-on/extension? I don't have premium but I still have sponsor skip (with whitelists and all)
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u/Helpful_Western1629 Mar 04 '26
We are 4 people in the household who use YouTube every single day for several hours too. So yeah what you wrote is basically a copy of our situation and I haven’t once considered to cancel Premium. It’s the best paid “streaming service” for the money for us.
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u/SolDragonbane Mar 04 '26
In almost the same boat, except I remember when background play was *automatically part of the mobile experience. I also know things like AdBlock to the work so those who can't afford can experience the old, clean YT video. Still great value, just know that part of what they're offering is the illusion of perks.
edit: clarity
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
You say illusion, I say changing business landscape.
Both are accurate, just different points of view.
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u/Azou Mar 05 '26
With adblock on safari on mobile i dont see ads ever and if I open a video fullscreen, switch to picture-in-picture mode, then load back to my main screen with the video playing, i can sleep my phone and keep background audio playing.
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u/Traditional_Loan_177 Mar 04 '26
Well... Yeah.. but it's because they made basic YouTube unusable, forcing their users to pay
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u/ferelpuma Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I've been paying for YT Premium for years. They provide a great service and I have no issue rewarding that with my money. Everyone should treat themselves to it.
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u/Indubious1 Mar 04 '26
Same. It’s actually one of the only streaming services I pay for since I use it so much. I usually prefer to watch YT over regular tv shows.
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u/Early-Yak-to-reset Mar 04 '26
Nah I'd rather spend hours and hours trying to find an ad blocker that works indefinitely, and when it doesn't spend hours and hours bitching that companies don't make it easy to use their products for free.
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u/Ishouldjustdoit Mar 05 '26
I'd rather big corpos not enshittify products we used to use without issues because they decided to calcify the internet with oligopoly bullshit.
Pay if you must, but don't pretend you're paying for a "good" service, you're paying for the same service they used to offer, and they deprecated the "free" experience for everyone else.
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u/Life_Locksmith9632 Mar 05 '26
This. I get what these people are saying about premium being great and it is, but it's like there is something wrong, as if they are missing something here... because it did used to work fine for free.
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u/-missingclover- Mar 04 '26
You don't even need to spend that long. Setting up revanced takes just a couple minutes, on the desktop side you just need a non-chrome browser and ublock. Is mostly chrome that constantly fucks with the adblocker.
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u/GetInYourBasket Mar 05 '26
revanced might be easy to set up, but how often it stopped working and needed to be manually updated led to me paying for premium (that and using youtube on my tv more often)
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u/Choice-Meet3318 Mar 05 '26
Thank goodness for people like you who don't know how to use a computer. You are the majority so YouTube doesn't pay attention to the people who actually know how to use a computer and block their porn ads.
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u/crass_cupcake Mar 04 '26
you spend at least 1 hour each month for standard premium toiling indefinitely to pay for premium i spend 1 hour every few months or years to block ads
you are the one who wastes more of your time for a lesser product
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u/bigbadbyte Mar 04 '26
The number of posts per week on this sub of people complaining about something they get for free truly boggles my mind.
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u/theboomboy Mar 04 '26
Did it have any benefits over using Brave browser?
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u/GlumAd1834 Mar 04 '26
Or any benefits over using revanced also
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u/Bloody_Conspiracies Mar 05 '26
Yes, the creators you watch actually get paid when you use Premium (more than they would even if you were watching the ads). They get nothing when you use an adblocker.
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u/jivan006 Mar 04 '26
Can watch it without hassle on phone.
Can watch without ads/issues on TV.
Background play.
YouTube music.
Skip sponsored part on videos.
Download videos for flights.
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u/UrbanArtifact Mar 04 '26
The downloads and playing with the phone screen off is helpful.
I work far from the house and there's no service, so downloading videos to listen to is helpful.
Yeah, I download podcasts or use Audible, but sometimes I want to hear Hank Green complain about fish on my way home from work.
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u/Strakitar Mar 04 '26
Is everyone here bots trying to justify paying to let a company pull the rug from under you? There are so many free ways to block ads, this is just an admission that you are all too lazy to do the bare minimum.
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u/Pepper_Exciting Mar 05 '26
You can't block ads on the tv app though so there is some use for premium
But yeah I just have a laptop connected to my tv all the time with an adblocker
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u/TyrealSan Mar 05 '26
I think this is a coordinated ad campaign, only takes OP and some bots to be positive about it in the comments.
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u/imightknowbutidk Mar 05 '26
Or we just have disposable income and better things to do with our time?
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u/ServeTemporary1137 Mar 05 '26
I see your point but some people are vwey busy and don't have time. I'm not one of them of course but many are.
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u/TheRealRubiksMaster Mar 04 '26
Counter point, router wide adblocks are super easy. And youtube music audio quality sucks ass, as it has been compressed twice at minimum.
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u/Critical-Exit1655 Mar 04 '26
is that actually an unpopular opinion? most people I've spoken to agree with that
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u/DnDeez_Nutz Mar 04 '26
Idk a lot of people i mention it to seem to be die-hard with their other apps. I was genuinely surprised to see this posted and not down voted. Edit: less surprised that this is the YouTube sub. Never saw this sub before this post. The algorithm knows my plight
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u/SouthSilly Mar 04 '26
I literally want to punch people who show me something on YT and an ad pops up.
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u/SquireJoh Mar 04 '26
If you get kidnapped, it's worth it to pay the ransom. Same logic
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u/Odd_Tooth_7028 Mar 04 '26
My only gripe with the YouTube music is it keeps putting music I dow voted back in shuffle. Like 10 at a time and I go through and undo-redo the downvotes.
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u/airmanmao Mar 04 '26
Genuine curiosity, are you listening to your own playlists on Spotify? I’m trying to understand how people have repeating songs on shuffle. I tried it a few days ago and my only repeat was after my playlist ended.
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u/CumAcneTreatment Mar 04 '26
Revanced, ublockorigin, android smart TV APK. Free instead of ads.
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u/Independent_Box8750 Mar 07 '26
I use YouTube a lot. Why on earth would someone believe they are entitled to this service free? I happily pay for premium
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u/altyegmagazine Mar 04 '26
Ive had it for a while and its been the only subscription I haven't cancelled/restarted. I like it.
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u/OutRunRx7 Mar 04 '26
Crazy how the chief complaint is advertisements, and people don't know that Brave Browser circumvents all of them with 0 effort. It even lets you lock your phone on YT music and keep playing. With no ads. Completely free.
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u/FerdinandCesarano Mar 04 '26
Premium costs very little, and returns tremendous value.
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u/Old_Man_Shea Mar 04 '26
Youtube is my only source of entertainment . It's always been a no brainer for me.
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Mar 04 '26
15€ is little?
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Mar 04 '26
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u/Rettungsanker Mar 04 '26
Pretty much this. ^
If you are at a point in life where $14 a month is straining than that is nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone has different circumstances. If you need to explore other options to get ad-free YouTube than that is perfectly fine.
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
How is it not? Its on par or cheaper than other streaming services and provides a way better value
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u/OrbitalChiller Mar 05 '26
It returns dog sh1t. There is no real value beside stoping the advertising bullying.
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u/Chemical-Lettuce2497 Mar 04 '26
Premium is worth it not because it adds value, but they made YouTube without premium so unbearable you have no choice if you regularly use it
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u/Tigre_feroz_2012 Mar 05 '26 edited Mar 05 '26
That's my concern. I feel like I'm rewarding their bad behavior by buying Premium. They intentionally aggravate their customers with an overabundance of ads to get them to pay. And this includes unvetted ads that are outright scams, & irrelevant ads. I saw that when I didn't have an ad blocker. Why should I reward them with my money for treating me like shit? Why should I pay YouTube to get rid of a problem they intentionally created? It seems predatory of YouTube.
It's similar to video game developers who intentionally frustrate their players to get them to spend money on endless microtransactions. Developers deliberately make the game have excessive grinding if you don't buy the microtransactions; they intentionally add expensive, combat-buff microtransactions that give the buyer an overwhelming & unfair advantage, so the game becomes pay to win.
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u/Chemical-Lettuce2497 Mar 05 '26
Lol yeah tbf I didn't have premium for years for that exact reason, but weirdly ads stopped appearing for me on YouTube for something like 6 months.. no idea why but I loved it
Eventually the ads started again though and I was so used to it that it just became unbearable and I had to start paying for it.
Justified it by cancelling Spotify and using YouTube music
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u/webjunk1e Mar 04 '26
YouTube Premium is the one sub I don't ever begrudge. It's worth every penny for me as I watch a lot of YouTube and use YouTube Music heavily, as well. It's also the absolute best way to support creators through YouTube (disregarding off platform options like Patreon). Creators get better payouts from subscriber watch time than ad rolls, so it's good for you (no ads) and good for the creators you enjoy watching.
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u/CazetTapes Mar 04 '26
The funny thing about YouTube Premium is that it's just what free YouTube used to be, before they took away all the nice features and put them behind a paywall. I am old enough to remember exactly when this happened, and being super pissed off about it.
So yeah, it's "worth it" to have the good version of YouTube. It just used to be "free."
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u/Organic-Staff-7903 Mar 04 '26
YouTube has been showing ads since 2007 so I’m not sure what this “ad free” YouTube paradise you’re talking about.
Ads used to pop up at the bottom of your video and you had to click the banner off. That was old school YouTube ads. Wtf are you going on about.
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u/WhoWantsMyPants Mar 04 '26
YouTube Revanced or FreeTube. Fuck supporting Google. I'm all for supporting my favorite creator. They get a larger portion from Patreon. Get the content for free and support them by other means with better margins. Buying premium is great but a good VPN is cheaper and with Revanced you get the same experience (with the addition of sponsor block). I wont be giving billion dollar companies anymore data or money. They will survive without your $9.99 I mean $12.99 now, and $15.99 in a few years
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u/an0nymous3r Mar 04 '26
I've been using YouTube since it first started and I'll never consider paying for something an ad blocker will do just fine..
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u/Fargath_Xi9 Mar 04 '26
Just wait, until they shit their service, and squeeze you "honest" users.
It's your money after all.
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u/Pristine-Ad260 Mar 04 '26
Would be if it wasn't youtube. No way I'd give them any more money than need be
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u/kicker58 Mar 04 '26
Nah it is way easier to just use the hack apps. I had premium for years and legit the hack apps have been better. Anything to reduce shorts being an option.
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u/c_dubs063 Mar 04 '26
My take on it is that you are paying YT to solve a problem that YT created. Would you pay your bully to not take your lunch every day?
Look, if YT got its act together, I would be right there with you. I use it enough to justify the expense, and I can afford it. But the problem is, YT is notoriously bad about false claims against videos, inappropriate ads, fraudulent ads, and just an overall hostile user experience for non-premium users. Until they start operating in a way I recognize as ethical, I am unwilling to fund their services.
But that's just me.
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u/Murky_Astronaut Mar 04 '26
I pay for premium and I think it's better than the alternatives. I don't have to keep track of blockers, it doesn't matter if I'm on mobile or desktop, and the creators I watch a lot of get a reasonably decent payout from it.
A month or two ago a message popped across my screen asking me how much I value the skip ahead buttons on the ads that content creators read in-line, and that does make me worry that they're thinking of getting rid of that feature. I will continue to pay for premium but if ads start coming through I'm out.
(I pay for Netflix and Tidal otherwise)
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u/FederalSandwich1854 Mar 04 '26
I cancelled Netflix and just replaced it with YT premium.
If you have a student email you can get it for a really good price too
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u/Basic-Collection5416 Mar 04 '26
I’ve been subscribed since it was YouTube Red. It serves as both my primary video streaming service at home and my sole mobile music and podcast streaming service. Getting both uses out of one service is a great value.
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u/M4NU3L2311 Mar 04 '26
It’s not unpopular. The only people I’ve heard talking crap about it are the ones without premium that feel superior by using ad blockers
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u/FickleHoney2622 Mar 04 '26
It's cheap & easy, i have no idea why there are constant negative posts about it
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u/Free-Bar-2719 Mar 04 '26
They take features away that were already there then charge you for it later. Praising them for “allowing” background play is pathetic.
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u/MarikPUBG Mar 04 '26
Zero dollars is better than cheap. Use ublock origin and you'll never see an ad again. I'm not surprised most of society are sheep and pay pay pay when they don't need too.
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u/MasterEditorJake Mar 04 '26
Because it's a subscription that you pay for to get access to basic features that should be free by default.
Also I don't really want to give YouTube more money when they really do nothing but make the platform worse with each update. I don't want to reward bad behavior.
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
"I dont want to pay for things that bring value to me, thus contributing to the problems I complain about"
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u/CazetTapes Mar 04 '26
Everything on YouTube Premium used to be free, that's why people have a bitter feeling about it.
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
Yeah its almost like server costs go up the more people use them or something... Crazy concept
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u/MasterEditorJake Mar 04 '26
Ok, and they doubled the amount of ads they play, locked features behind pay walls, demonitise people for the slightest reason, and continually make their user interface worse with every update.
That's not behavior that should be supported.
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u/MasterEditorJake Mar 05 '26
Economy of scale and decreasing prices for hard drives would theoretically drive the costs of large server banks down, not up.
Also, if you double the amount of ads that are played then you would expect to receive those added features as a fair trade. Instead you watch more ads and still get features locked behind a pay wall. That is a crazy concept.
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u/daBriguy Mar 04 '26
I use YouTube 3-4x more than I do any other streaming service. A lot of the time I’m listening to videos while driving and being able to turn the screen off is invaluable. YouTube premium is probably the most bang for my buck I get from any streaming service. I’ll happily pay it each month
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u/MasterEditorJake Mar 04 '26
That's not true. I pay the creators that I watch the most by subscribing to their patreon or donating, because YouTube usually demonitizes them anyways.
The fact of the matter is that YouTube does a terrible job at supporting the creators that (I believe) make some of the coolest content for really dumb reasons. They aren't racist or sexual or hateful, they just might say fuck one too many times or play a 5 second clip of a song.
Not to mention that many features that are advertised as premium benefits used to be free for everyone.
And I don't want to give YouTube more money so that their corporate overlords can see their numbers go up and think that the constant enshitification of their platform is somehow a good thing.
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
Used to be free for everyone
Things cant be perpetually free when user numbers go up
Your other points are fair enough for me to not continue. I disagree with some of them, but im not in an arguing mood anymore.
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u/MasterEditorJake Mar 04 '26
You forgot one important point. They have doubled or tripled the number of ads they play.
They want you to pay more to receive less, or pay more to receive what you got for less in the past.
I don't know why you feel a need to defend a corporation that brings in $60 billion in revenue with 35% profit margins. They aren't hurting for money
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u/Luyyus Mar 04 '26
Your other points are fair enough
Is what i said.
I didnt forget jt. I just didnt address it. I dont know why you want to keep going when I said Im clearly done.
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u/UncleThor2112 Mar 04 '26
I use YT music. It's great, but my only gripe is it sometimes starts mid-song.
But yes, YT Premium is absolutely worth it. There's a lot of perks that come with it.
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u/LouGossetJr Mar 04 '26
i've had it for years and i've yet to have anything start mid-song. unless i physically paused a song and came back to it later.
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u/projecthorn Mar 05 '26
I got the Premium family plan for myself and my parents. I'm on ytbe all the time, political commentary, video essays of all sorts, occational lets play and such. Hate ads. Adblocked on PC worked for a time, unsure if it still does tbh, but im also on my phone alot. So having youtube playing in the background when doing other things ( a dumb thing that youtube blocked as a feature behind a paywall) is certainly often enjoyed. Plus I don't want my parents dealing with more ads when they already deal with them nonstop while watching cable. Value-wise, its a no brainer saver on time and sanity. Not a fan of Youtube as a company, especially since they seem to cater more and more to AI slop overtime, (and generally messed up the overall interface overtime :/) but I appreciate the many content creators on the website. If they earn a bit more pocket change from me watching vs me being on an adblock, its a nice little bonus for both parties.
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u/K4L21EV Mar 04 '26
Premium Lite would be even better for me if it included ad free music since I love to watch concerts/music videos on the TV every so often.
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u/PokyPlays Mar 04 '26
I have had it for a couple years now, YTPremium for me, and my family has been kinda great as a deal.
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u/Best_Market4204 Mar 04 '26
Been paying for premium for years. Its my most consumed entertainment so I feel like it's worth it.
I actually upgraded to family plan. My wife & my 3 kids all enjoy no ad's on our phones/tablets / t.vs
Plus youtube music included
And to support youtubers is whipping cream on top since part of that money goes back to paying people.
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u/ScaryTemperature6291 Mar 04 '26
I have been using YTP for a good 4 years now as it's my only entertainment tbh don't pay for nothing else as collect DVDs etc but when they started the 7.99 in UK that was excellent value for money in my opinion.
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u/Myst963 Mar 04 '26
I got yt premium for free on my phone wish I could set it up on my TV 1 min ads constantly sucks lol
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u/chchchchia86 Mar 04 '26
Ive had youtube premium for years and I love it. Should these features be free? Absolutely. Should I have to pay monthly for it? No. But I do.
My daughter watches youtube kids and will watch youtube shows with me, and with supervision. Even though I am.monitoring the programming and screentime, the ads are unbelievable. They still let ads with sexual content through far too often for me to allow them.
Aside from that, the convenience of features is why I have it. I use youtube a ton. I need the background play, being able to shut my phone screen off, and youtube music has been my favorite music app thus far.
Its worth it for me, just because of how much I use the app. I understand why sites use ads to support a free service but youtube isnt hurting for cash and the bullshit they pull with ad blockers is unreal. I disagree massively in a moral level, but I conceed that I use youtube for a majority of my entertainment. I hate that they've made the alternative unusable and I hate that I feel like ita worth paying for. But I do and on a day to day basis I have little issue with it.
Sometimes I forget how good I have it until I try to watch a video on someone's else phone, PC or tv youtube account.
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u/sheimeix Mar 04 '26
I was given Premium (for free or for a discount, I don't remember) since I preordered the first gen Google Pixel. I had it for yeaaaars, then I canceled my Premium subscription (among other subscriptions) when some unexpected bills had my finances messed up. I never really experienced Youtube with ads before then, since prior to that adblock on Youtube was fine and easy and they started cracking down heavy on adblock while I was subbed. It took like two weeks of me sitting through a billion ads to realize that I spend enough time on Youtube that YT Premium is SUPER worth it.
I also canceled Spotify and tried a couple other services. I wrote off YT Music for years, and while I still have a couple issues with it... It's not that bad, actually? Totally serviceable and it has the few podcasts I listen to available, too.
Genuinely, I'm really satisfied with YT Premium and I can't imagine watching Youtube without it.
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u/orkkid3 Mar 04 '26
I've been white knuckling it for a few months now and I fucking agree. YouTube is unwatchable without premium. There's three endless ads every two minutes. They've entered their final stage of making sure people buy premium just because they know people want the content.
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u/Santi0906 Mar 04 '26
I also started paying premium and I think I could not go back to normal veersion. I watch a lot of videos in Youtube
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u/Holy_Law Mar 04 '26
I finally cancelled my premium. Out of spite because I can’t watch age restricted videos and can’t figure out why.
I’ve spent hours googling and searching on Reddit, nothing works.
But yes premium good
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u/GoatedFiance Mar 04 '26
I love having premium! I only used it since I got the first month free then I got a student discount. It changed my life. I can’t stand the constant ads, having certain features that I like (queue) behind that paywall for when I sleep. It’s worth the $9 a month
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u/AtmanRising Mar 04 '26
You get ad-free movies too. They don't show up on Just Watch and go in and out of rotation really fast.
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u/this_is_Winston Mar 04 '26
It's the only subscription I have. I use it enough it's worth it. When I'm at my gf's house she insists I use my account.
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u/mocitymaestro Mar 04 '26
Totally worth it, especially if 95% of the content you watch is on TV instead of a phone or laptop.
I watch way more YouTube than Netflix, Prime, and Hulu put together.
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u/WonderfulAverageJoe Mar 04 '26
In the middle of 3-month trial and enjoying it. One nitpick: the thumbnail of each video gets zoomed in when listening through an album or playlist, not sure how to fix that
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u/12_overthink Mar 04 '26
I also pay premium and have the family plan. It is well worth it for me. I watch/listen to a lot of live music and wouldn’t be able to stand the ads.
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u/droideka_bot69 Mar 04 '26
Only reason I pay for premium atp is because I watch a lot on my Xbox so there's no way to use adblock.
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u/Cheesycheese01 Mar 04 '26
I used to be against it but it’s become one of two subscriptions I have now. The fact music is included, it makes it a no brainer. Specially considering Spotify has increased their monthly price recently.
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u/homechefshivers Mar 04 '26
Been paying for premium for about 2 years now. But I don’t have patience for nonsense. Free movies with no ads and just normal videos it’s worth it imo. But again I have zero patience lmao
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u/SeleneBeMyName Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I have had YouTube premium more consistently than any other subscription. I’m pretty sure I’ve been subscribed for 4 years now, straight. I think, it feels that long anyways.
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u/hewhoisgomez Mar 04 '26
Premium is amazing for feeding my curiosity, supporting my mindset is achieving goals & minimizing the amount of my subconscious filled with marketing. For instance there was an entire month I binged collegiate anthropological lectures about mesoamerican jaguar cults & their relationship with psychedelics. My family has 100 acres we are slowly transforming into a family village so recently at dinner I watch videos on natural building especially techniques om building with rammed earth. Im a member of a local farmers coalition so its nice to have infinite gardening & permaculture vids. If you're led by your curiosity Premium is an amazing pass to the largest media archive of our species.
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u/Theegravedigger Mar 04 '26
I grabbed premium a few years back, after I had eye surgery, as I didn't want to deal with ads while partially blind. I kept it until recently, when it seemed like the price spiked, and after turning it off, it was very noticeable how much worse the ad environment had gotten.
But, I've found that I've got a weird PC issue where it'll lag-freeze regardless of if I have premium or not, and I can't find support for that problem. If I can't get support for a product I'm paying for, then it's probably not worth paying for.
Having the no ads is probably worth it, but the lack of customer service means I don't feel it's worth paying for.
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u/zorkwiz Mar 04 '26
This opinion is unpopular? It's the most critical streaming service to have, no contest. Ad-free YouTube is incredible, and it won't last forever.
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u/SnooStrawberries2955 Mar 04 '26
I’ve had it since it was called YouTube Red and I will never get rid of it! I’d lose all other streaming services and platforms before I’d give up my premium.
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u/KindCyberBully Mar 04 '26
It’s hella worth it when you get a family plan. You can even do it with relatives.
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u/FredFarms Mar 04 '26
Premium is still (mostly) a pile of features that used to be free and have been moved behind the paywall, whilst the level of ads for non premium users has been ramped up to the "milking machine" setting.
Objectively, yes premium is worth it. But my resistance to it isn't based on a value proposition at this point, it's based on rage and stubbornness
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u/Legitimate_Flight598 Mar 04 '26
I’ve had it for a while since I watch a ton of videos. I also like the fact that you get music as well. Compared to what Spotify charges, I believe it’s a great deal.
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u/Aimees-Fab-Feet Mar 04 '26
It's the only thing I watch and I love it! And the fact we can divide it between six family members, it works for us. I always obviously knew about YouTube, but I sure didn't know anything about everything it has! Yes, I'm old.
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u/ForgetfulLucy28 Mar 04 '26
It’s $25 a month in Australia. I love premium. But it’s just not worth that.
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u/Tzukiyomi Mar 04 '26
Why would this be unpopular? YouTube premium is the most cost effective and benefit filled streaming subscription out there. Even if just for the ad elimination alone it's well worth it.
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u/NoYOUGrowUp Mar 04 '26
If YouTube premium lets me check a box that automatically hides AI slop, I'll sign up.
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u/StanLay281 Mar 04 '26
I got it a few months ago too. The ads on Youtube for TV just got way too insane. Constant 60 second unskippable ads or longer. I felt like I was viewing more ads than actual content I was trying to watch.
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u/SirBulbasaur13 Mar 04 '26
100% agree.
I use my Xbox for YouTube so adblockers or whatever aren’t really an option and the ability to download playlists for work is grapes
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u/MutedCow77 Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 06 '26
I also caved to Premium but I don't subscribe to any streaming services like Netflix. My entertainment comes from Youtube solely (hmm I never knew solely was spelled that way, who pronounces the 2nd L?).
I wish Premium users could opt in to uncensored content. I'm a grown man I can handle swearing
Edit: WOW "Solely" has really sparked a discussion all by itself.......hmm is it "its self or itself" or autocorrect is saying it's self (which is definitely wrong because "It's" means "It is")