3 ms·

YouTube Premium price increased by nearly 30%

41 points by low_tech_punk 4y ago

beauzero 4y ago
Yep. Just got the email. Still worth it not to see ads on youtube at work. You never know what will pop in there.
- stokehacker 4y ago
  Have to admit, ad-free is worth it but I also hate the feeling of being locked in.
- tartoran 4y ago
  Ad blockers work for me on youtube, though with hiccups. I figure that when that stops working I’ll use youtube less, it’s already a time sink. And will also dust off torrent clients.
  - radicalriddler 4y ago
    I definitely stopped watching Twitch when the adblockers stopped working, not sure I can do it for youtube, but I hope I'd quit.
    - sib301 4y ago
      There are adblockers that work for twitch without issue.
- janef0421 4y ago
  I created a separate work YouTube account, and now all of the ads are just pitches for various kinds of enterprise SaaS products.
low_tech_punk 4y ago
I'm kicking myself for declining the 7.99/month lifetime price when Google Music initially launched (sometime in 2010-2014).
- coldtea 4y ago
  don't kick yourself. Many such "lifetime" prices just get shut down... so much for the "lifetime" promise, it's all about the small print
- berkeleyjunk 4y ago
  Don't kick yourself. I had a locked in family price of $14.99 and it is going up to $22.99 (more than a 50% hike). My consolation mail started with "Thank you for being a loyal member throughout our journey. "
- sphars 4y ago
  Thankfully this new price hike seems to be only for family plans, and I can still keep my $7.99 grandfathered individual plan. Though the day that gets increased I'm jumping ship to something else.
tiernano 4y ago
seems to be for Family plans only... Still waiting for the plan without Youtube Music... I have Spotify already, so dont want Youtube Music...
slipheen 4y ago
If you were ethically inclined toward such things, I've read posts online of people using VPNs to sign up for Youtube Premium from Argentina to pay a reduced rate. I can't vouch for the effectiveness, but googling does show some people report having tried it successfully.
- digianarchist 4y ago
  I use a Thai account. It works but the Google account needs to have the country set to the same one used for billing.
- scarface74 4y ago
  So I’m going to slow down my gigabit symmetric internet and route my traffic through a third party to hypothetically save $5.00/month? Wouldn’t the VPN be more expensive?
  - Linkd 4y ago
    I assume this would need to happen just once during signup?
    - hombre_fatal 4y ago
      For a normal subscription, I think so, though their entitlement seems very random. But for a family plan you may have issues adding people to the plan. I couldn’t add my girlfriend to my US family plan in Mexico for example, and it eventually booted her because it didn’t think we live together.
  - digianarchist 4y ago
    You don't need a VPN. The account will work without one.
    - vntok 4y ago
      This is a TOS breach for sure. One day you'll find yourself banned from all Google properties. Is it worth a few monies per month?
r3a1d33p 4y ago
May be related to not being able to monetize 4k (https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/youtube-premium-4k-test/ https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/youtube-premium-4k-test/), so they just charge more.
ViceCitySage 4y ago
YouTube is a constant strain for Google and its been that way for the past few years. YouTube itself is very expensive to maintain (https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-alphabet-earnings-revenue-first-time-reveal-q4-2019 https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-al...) and has had times when they operated at a loss. Alphabet has blamed YouTube repeatedly for years when they make losses in revenue. Feels like someone crunched up some numbers recently and got angry at what they saw. Almost like this time around someone set a strict revenue goal and are determined to find more ways to profit off YouTube.
thot_experiment 4y ago
Don't worry, this is fortunately a solved problem. [0][1][2][3] [0] https://ublockorigin.com/ https://ublockorigin.com/ [1] https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/ [2] https://newpipe.net/ https://newpipe.net/ [3] https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp
- sphars 4y ago
  Is there any way to download the highest quality audio track (format 141) in yt-dlp without using my cookies from my YT premium account? If that's possible then I'll consider dropping my subscription
  - thot_experiment 4y ago
    Not sure sorry, curious as to why you're looking for that format? I'd be very surprised if you could tell the difference in a double blind in a "normal" listening situation between 141 and 251. I may be judging you a little bit if you're using youtube as the source for your fancy music listening setup. That difference is the sort of thing where I'll notice on some nice cans in a song that's not particularly compressible, but even then probably only when ABXing or actively listening for artifacts. It's definitely not going to impact my vibe. I'm genuinely curious about your usecase.
nano9 4y ago
I will never pay for YouTube until I'm guaranteed a way to opt out of the recommendation algorithm. It's not so much a recommendation algorithm as much as it is an adversarial search on my behavior to see what cheap content I'll actually engage. Every so often I'll notice a video from a clickbait-ey channel in my sidebar about a topic I care little for, like expensive luxury items or epic pop star moments. So, I can't trust YouTube to be objective in its recommendations. It's very likely attempting to train me to seek deeper pools within their content graph so that I use YouTube more. Which is fine if it were a free model ("freemium", really), as I would implicitly agree to be mined in exchange for a hosted service with plenty of content. That I would PAY for that, however, is not something I would feel happy about. It would feel like paying for the privilege of receiving a slap in the face.
togs 4y ago
So that's a 15% raise for content creators?
- jsnell 4y ago
  No? It should be a 30% raise for them (for the YT Premium family plan slice of viewers). As long as the revenue split percentage stays constant, an x% increase in the total cost will obviously translate to the same x% increase for each split.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - togs 4y ago
    You're right; percentages trip me up. Assuming 50% split. Revenue is $10, Youtube gets $5, Creator get $5. Revenue increases 30% (not what happened but for simplicity). Revenue is $13, Creator gets $6.50. Increase is ($6.50 - $5.00) = $1.50. $1.50 is what % of $5.00? => 10% of $5.00 = $0.50, therefore 30% of $5.00 = $1.50. Thus Creators receive an increase of 30%.

41 points by low_tech_punk 4y ago

beauzero 4y ago

Yep. Just got the email. Still worth it not to see ads on youtube at work. You never know what will pop in there.

stokehacker 4y ago
Have to admit, ad-free is worth it but I also hate the feeling of being locked in.
tartoran 4y ago
Ad blockers work for me on youtube, though with hiccups. I figure that when that stops working I’ll use youtube less, it’s already a time sink. And will also dust off torrent clients.
- radicalriddler 4y ago
  I definitely stopped watching Twitch when the adblockers stopped working, not sure I can do it for youtube, but I hope I'd quit.
  - sib301 4y ago
    There are adblockers that work for twitch without issue.
janef0421 4y ago
I created a separate work YouTube account, and now all of the ads are just pitches for various kinds of enterprise SaaS products.

low_tech_punk 4y ago

I'm kicking myself for declining the 7.99/month lifetime price when Google Music initially launched (sometime in 2010-2014).

coldtea 4y ago
don't kick yourself. Many such "lifetime" prices just get shut down... so much for the "lifetime" promise, it's all about the small print
berkeleyjunk 4y ago
Don't kick yourself. I had a locked in family price of $14.99 and it is going up to $22.99 (more than a 50% hike). My consolation mail started with "Thank you for being a loyal member throughout our journey. "
sphars 4y ago
Thankfully this new price hike seems to be only for family plans, and I can still keep my $7.99 grandfathered individual plan. Though the day that gets increased I'm jumping ship to something else.

tiernano 4y ago

seems to be for Family plans only... Still waiting for the plan without Youtube Music... I have Spotify already, so dont want Youtube Music...

slipheen 4y ago

If you were ethically inclined toward such things, I've read posts online of people using VPNs to sign up for Youtube Premium from Argentina to pay a reduced rate. I can't vouch for the effectiveness, but googling does show some people report having tried it successfully.

digianarchist 4y ago
I use a Thai account. It works but the Google account needs to have the country set to the same one used for billing.
scarface74 4y ago
So I’m going to slow down my gigabit symmetric internet and route my traffic through a third party to hypothetically save $5.00/month? Wouldn’t the VPN be more expensive?
- Linkd 4y ago
  I assume this would need to happen just once during signup?
  - hombre_fatal 4y ago
    For a normal subscription, I think so, though their entitlement seems very random. But for a family plan you may have issues adding people to the plan. I couldn’t add my girlfriend to my US family plan in Mexico for example, and it eventually booted her because it didn’t think we live together.
- digianarchist 4y ago
  You don't need a VPN. The account will work without one.
  - vntok 4y ago
    This is a TOS breach for sure. One day you'll find yourself banned from all Google properties. Is it worth a few monies per month?

r3a1d33p 4y ago

May be related to not being able to monetize 4k (https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/youtube-premium-4k-test/ https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/youtube-premium-4k-test/), so they just charge more.

ViceCitySage 4y ago

YouTube is a constant strain for Google and its been that way for the past few years. YouTube itself is very expensive to maintain (https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-alphabet-earnings-revenue-first-time-reveal-q4-2019 https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/3/21121207/youtube-google-al...) and has had times when they operated at a loss. Alphabet has blamed YouTube repeatedly for years when they make losses in revenue. Feels like someone crunched up some numbers recently and got angry at what they saw. Almost like this time around someone set a strict revenue goal and are determined to find more ways to profit off YouTube.

thot_experiment 4y ago

Don't worry, this is fortunately a solved problem. [0][1][2][3] [0] https://ublockorigin.com/ https://ublockorigin.com/ [1] https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/ [2] https://newpipe.net/ https://newpipe.net/ [3] https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

sphars 4y ago
Is there any way to download the highest quality audio track (format 141) in yt-dlp without using my cookies from my YT premium account? If that's possible then I'll consider dropping my subscription
- thot_experiment 4y ago
  Not sure sorry, curious as to why you're looking for that format? I'd be very surprised if you could tell the difference in a double blind in a "normal" listening situation between 141 and 251. I may be judging you a little bit if you're using youtube as the source for your fancy music listening setup. That difference is the sort of thing where I'll notice on some nice cans in a song that's not particularly compressible, but even then probably only when ABXing or actively listening for artifacts. It's definitely not going to impact my vibe. I'm genuinely curious about your usecase.

nano9 4y ago

I will never pay for YouTube until I'm guaranteed a way to opt out of the recommendation algorithm. It's not so much a recommendation algorithm as much as it is an adversarial search on my behavior to see what cheap content I'll actually engage. Every so often I'll notice a video from a clickbait-ey channel in my sidebar about a topic I care little for, like expensive luxury items or epic pop star moments. So, I can't trust YouTube to be objective in its recommendations. It's very likely attempting to train me to seek deeper pools within their content graph so that I use YouTube more. Which is fine if it were a free model ("freemium", really), as I would implicitly agree to be mined in exchange for a hosted service with plenty of content. That I would PAY for that, however, is not something I would feel happy about. It would feel like paying for the privilege of receiving a slap in the face.

togs 4y ago

So that's a 15% raise for content creators?

jsnell 4y ago
No? It should be a 30% raise for them (for the YT Premium family plan slice of viewers). As long as the revenue split percentage stays constant, an x% increase in the total cost will obviously translate to the same x% increase for each split.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- togs 4y ago
  You're right; percentages trip me up. Assuming 50% split. Revenue is $10, Youtube gets $5, Creator get $5. Revenue increases 30% (not what happened but for simplicity). Revenue is $13, Creator gets $6.50. Increase is ($6.50 - $5.00) = $1.50. $1.50 is what % of $5.00? => 10% of $5.00 = $0.50, therefore 30% of $5.00 = $1.50. Thus Creators receive an increase of 30%.