YouTube Premium quietly goes up in price to $14 per month | That's a significant $2 increase with no official announcement. - eviltoast

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…

  • deweydecibel@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • JDPoZ@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Sightline@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        It’s unreal how many people don’t know that. It’s always fun to think about on my way to work at 5am.

    • Stegget@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The venture capital free money train is gone and they’re realizing their revenue models make zero sense.

  • aqua@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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).

    • Creamatine@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • Trapping5341@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • aqua@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • zxo@sopuli.xyz
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      1 year ago

      NewPipe for the win! Probably one of the best apps I have ever downloaded.

  • zxo@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • neal@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I must be grandfathered in. I have YouTube Music for $9.99 a month that also includes YouTube Premium

        • EternalWarBear@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          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.

      • Void_Reader@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I was in the same position until a few weeks ago; mainly used YT for podcasts, downloading videos to watch while travelling etc.

        If you have an Android phone, get the NewPipe app from F-Droid. It has pretty much everything that YT Premium offers, but free. It’s been working really well for me.

    • al4s@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago
      • No ads
      • Creators get more money than from ads
      • YouTube is less dependent on advertisers
      • You can get it in a bundle with YouTube music It’s not that bad of a deal. Music and YouTube are the two pieces of media I consume most, so it makes sense for me.
      • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

          • pazukaza@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            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.

      • Sightline@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • Fubber Nuckin'@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

    • Chickerino@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      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

    • dunestorm@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

      • notatoad@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        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.

    • BitingChaos@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • sgtgig@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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.

    • TechnoBabble@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      All Google domains are transferring to SquareSpace, and you get 1 renewal at the old rate before SquareSpace can charge you whatever they want.

    • atomic peach@pawb.social
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      1 year ago

      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?

  • draoda@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    With the way YouTube treats creators with their demonetization policies, there’s no way I am going to pay for that.

  • Metal Zealot @lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    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?

    • Marcy_Stella@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      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.

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    i guess they’ve done the least [that i’m noticeably aware of] to destroy the site recently