5 ms·

If you can afford it, YouTube Premium is well worth it. It's high up on my list of time and annoyance saved vs $ spent.

by tikkun 3y ago

whalesalad 3y ago
It’s well worth it. Unfortunately it’s also increased my binge YouTube consumption but I haven’t seen an ad in years and it’s so refreshing.
kldavis4 3y ago
I totally agree. Over time it has became one of our family's most consistently used streaming services. Seeing this actually reminded me that we were using premium (I had forgotten about the free option). The subscription also includes Youtube Music (which is a passable replacement for Spotify).
mkl 3y ago
But you have to be logged in. I often pop into an incognito window to watch a video that I don't want YouTube to recommend things related to, which seems to work. YouTube Premium prevents that, right?
- ZeroCool2u 3y ago
  I've found that just removing the video from my watch history after I watch it side steps this issue entirely. Frankly, seems a bit easier than opening a whole incognito window and being forced to watch ads anyways.
  - mkl 3y ago
    It's hardly an ordeal to press ctrl-shift-n, or right-click and "Open link in incognito window". There are no ads with uBlock Origin allowed in incognito windows. There is no need to worry about manually maintaining watch history either.
    - ZeroCool2u 3y ago
      Fair point, but I'm already paying for YT Premium and on mobile switching to an Incognito tab would be a lot more work. I tend to watch a lot more YT content on mobile like during my commute on the ferry. On desktop definitely agree though!
- Pet_Ant 3y ago
  Turn off YouTube history tracking. Then subscribe a lot to content you like. Then ignore the front page, and just scroll your subscriptions. The algorithm is really just candy, you are much better just curating your subscription list. You will get recommendations from end the end of videos.
  - joseda-hg 3y ago
    I beg to differ, in my particular case, YouTube has by far the best calibrated algorithm I've been exposed to I've been consistently exposed to great creators even if they have low viewcounts, and they know which creators I'm subscribed I don't watch at upload time vs which ones I do I do keep an eye on what do I signal engagement to, so I guess It's not a perfect sample, but still
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
RhodesianHunter 3y ago
That just feels like rewarding bad behavior to me.
- nickthegreek 3y ago
  How? TV has Ads, and then you pay for Cable and you still get ads. This removes all youtube provided ads.
  - rblatz 3y ago
    Who is paying for cable???
    - nickthegreek 3y ago
      in 2021, 56% of Americans.
  - TeMPOraL 3y ago
    > TV has Ads, and then you pay for Cable and you still get ads. Yup, and Cable was the YouTube Premium of TV back in the day. Advertising is cancer - it slowly consumes every communication medium it touches. Remember: by paying to remove ads, you self-identify as someone who has disposable income and is willing to spend it, making you the prime target for advertisers. This money isn't going to be left on the table to waste forever.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    You pay for cable to get cable channels. It was never offered as an ad-free option.
- adictator 3y ago
  You got to pay somewhere - either for the premium or for the ads. Nothing is really free in this world.
  - fortyseven 3y ago
    On land, at least.
glitcher 3y ago
And it seems they're making every effort to drive you crazy if you don't subscribe to premium. Hulu is doing something similar using crazy loud ads on their non-premium subscription. Searching their support forums for "ads too loud" brings up threads going back multiple years. I thought this practice was illegal, but perhaps there is a loophole when it comes to streaming content?
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  Even if it is (I’m not sure), good luck getting regulators to do anything.
- rchaud 3y ago
  Spotify mastered this a decade ago. They could detect when your PC volume was muted during an ad. They'd pause the ad and resume it once the mute was turned off.
  - genocidicbunny 3y ago
    One of many good reasons to get an external dac with volume control on it. Ain't nothing Spotify can do if I just turn the volume down like that.
tourmalinetaco 3y ago
And if you can’t/don’t want to give YT anything but scraps, a VPN set to Turkey does wonders.
- debian3 3y ago
  How so? I never heard about that one.
throwaway675309 3y ago
I like to have Long plays of old retro video games playing on my TV in the background while I work, almost like a fancier screensaver, so YouTube premium has been a godsend. There's a hell of a lot of money it takes to maintain a content hosting infrastructure as massive as YouTube, so I always shake my head when people naively expect they should get something like that for completely free.
phpisthebest 3y ago
I wish youtube would have a "watch profile" feature disconnected or as a subset of the account so I can have recommended feeds based on watch history of my "watch profile" as well as a subscriptions For example I have mutiple YT accounts, that I use for topical things, like one for Technology, one for current events / news, one for live streams, and one for political. I would need 2 or 3 Premium subscriptions, when all I really want is to have different subscription feeds that are contextual
clnq 3y ago
It probably won't be easy to convince people to pay for something that was previously free. Then again, I could have said the same about many YouTube changes in recent years - that it will be difficult to convince people to like the changes. They were all unpopular and the platform keeps going strong.

If you can afford it, YouTube Premium is well worth it. It's high up on my list of time and annoyance saved vs $ spent.

by tikkun 3y ago

If you can afford it, YouTube Premium is well worth it. It's high up on my list of time and annoyance saved vs $ spent.

It’s well worth it. Unfortunately it’s also increased my binge YouTube consumption but I haven’t seen an ad in years and it’s so refreshing.

kldavis4 3y ago

I totally agree. Over time it has became one of our family's most consistently used streaming services. Seeing this actually reminded me that we were using premium (I had forgotten about the free option). The subscription also includes Youtube Music (which is a passable replacement for Spotify).

mkl 3y ago

But you have to be logged in. I often pop into an incognito window to watch a video that I don't want YouTube to recommend things related to, which seems to work. YouTube Premium prevents that, right?

ZeroCool2u 3y ago
I've found that just removing the video from my watch history after I watch it side steps this issue entirely. Frankly, seems a bit easier than opening a whole incognito window and being forced to watch ads anyways.
- mkl 3y ago
  It's hardly an ordeal to press ctrl-shift-n, or right-click and "Open link in incognito window". There are no ads with uBlock Origin allowed in incognito windows. There is no need to worry about manually maintaining watch history either.
  - ZeroCool2u 3y ago
    Fair point, but I'm already paying for YT Premium and on mobile switching to an Incognito tab would be a lot more work. I tend to watch a lot more YT content on mobile like during my commute on the ferry. On desktop definitely agree though!
Pet_Ant 3y ago
Turn off YouTube history tracking. Then subscribe a lot to content you like. Then ignore the front page, and just scroll your subscriptions. The algorithm is really just candy, you are much better just curating your subscription list. You will get recommendations from end the end of videos.
- joseda-hg 3y ago
  I beg to differ, in my particular case, YouTube has by far the best calibrated algorithm I've been exposed to I've been consistently exposed to great creators even if they have low viewcounts, and they know which creators I'm subscribed I don't watch at upload time vs which ones I do I do keep an eye on what do I signal engagement to, so I guess It's not a perfect sample, but still
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

RhodesianHunter 3y ago

That just feels like rewarding bad behavior to me.

nickthegreek 3y ago
How? TV has Ads, and then you pay for Cable and you still get ads. This removes all youtube provided ads.
- rblatz 3y ago
  Who is paying for cable???
  - nickthegreek 3y ago
    in 2021, 56% of Americans.
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > TV has Ads, and then you pay for Cable and you still get ads. Yup, and Cable was the YouTube Premium of TV back in the day. Advertising is cancer - it slowly consumes every communication medium it touches. Remember: by paying to remove ads, you self-identify as someone who has disposable income and is willing to spend it, making you the prime target for advertisers. This money isn't going to be left on the table to waste forever.
- rchaud 3y ago
  You pay for cable to get cable channels. It was never offered as an ad-free option.
adictator 3y ago
You got to pay somewhere - either for the premium or for the ads. Nothing is really free in this world.
- fortyseven 3y ago
  On land, at least.

glitcher 3y ago

And it seems they're making every effort to drive you crazy if you don't subscribe to premium. Hulu is doing something similar using crazy loud ads on their non-premium subscription. Searching their support forums for "ads too loud" brings up threads going back multiple years. I thought this practice was illegal, but perhaps there is a loophole when it comes to streaming content?

tourmalinetaco 3y ago
Even if it is (I’m not sure), good luck getting regulators to do anything.
rchaud 3y ago
Spotify mastered this a decade ago. They could detect when your PC volume was muted during an ad. They'd pause the ad and resume it once the mute was turned off.
- genocidicbunny 3y ago
  One of many good reasons to get an external dac with volume control on it. Ain't nothing Spotify can do if I just turn the volume down like that.

tourmalinetaco 3y ago

And if you can’t/don’t want to give YT anything but scraps, a VPN set to Turkey does wonders.

debian3 3y ago
How so? I never heard about that one.

throwaway675309 3y ago

I like to have Long plays of old retro video games playing on my TV in the background while I work, almost like a fancier screensaver, so YouTube premium has been a godsend. There's a hell of a lot of money it takes to maintain a content hosting infrastructure as massive as YouTube, so I always shake my head when people naively expect they should get something like that for completely free.

phpisthebest 3y ago

I wish youtube would have a "watch profile" feature disconnected or as a subset of the account so I can have recommended feeds based on watch history of my "watch profile" as well as a subscriptions For example I have mutiple YT accounts, that I use for topical things, like one for Technology, one for current events / news, one for live streams, and one for political. I would need 2 or 3 Premium subscriptions, when all I really want is to have different subscription feeds that are contextual

clnq 3y ago

It probably won't be easy to convince people to pay for something that was previously free. Then again, I could have said the same about many YouTube changes in recent years - that it will be difficult to convince people to like the changes. They were all unpopular and the platform keeps going strong.