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I find it very funny that everybody bemoans the ad supported ecosystem of the internet, then Google gives an ad free alternative with a monthly cost, and everyb

I find it very funny that everybody bemoans the ad supported ecosystem of the internet, then Google gives an ad free alternative with a monthly cost, and everybody complains that the cost is too high. I pay for YouTube premium, I see no ads and the content creators are supported. I’m glad Google is going to war with ad blockers in this context where there is a paid alternative.

jfghi 3y ago
Will you maintain the perspective in the midst of eternal incremental price increases and eventual ad placement?
- endisneigh 3y ago
  What is the alternative?
- HDThoreaun 3y ago
  I dont understand this perspective. "Will you still like the product if all its functionality is removed?" Obviously not, but so what? When that day comes you can easily get rid of it.
  - turkeypedal 3y ago
    The point is that paying YouTube now is encouraging them to do that in the future. The whole thing is enshitification. YouTube is now making their product worse in order to push people to pay them more for it. Those who go along with this are likely to keep on paying as they gradually increase prices while reducing functionality. Those who choose refuse to pay more to avoid having hour long unskippable ads and other nonsense are telling YouTube that this whole process will not be better for them in the long run. That they are fighting an unwinnable battle. I get it when people were willing to pay before. Maybe they actually care about having YouTube Music, and they liked it as a convenient way to pay creators, and also chip in a bit for YouTube. What I don't get are those who choose to pay now that YouTube has started deliberately making their service worse by adding a ton more ads and now trying to keep you from blocking them. And I very much do not understand anyone who is okay with any company going after adblock users, as you're just encouraging the Internet to get worse--either showing more ads or having to pay to access.
- jeffbee 3y ago
  When YouTube first launched without ads it was $9.99/mo. Today, I pay $11.67/mo for my whole family. In real dollars, that's a decline in price.
MaxikCZ 3y ago
We heard this tale many times already. Funny thing: if they started showing ads even to YouTube premium subscribers, they wouldn't even be first. Ridiculous.
- peter422 3y ago
  If they start showing ads to YouTube premium then I’ll cancel my subscription and watch a lot less content on the platform. But I’m not going to complain about something they haven’t done yet. There is some price I wouldn’t pay but I probably watch 10-20 hours of great content a month on YouTube and that is worth $15 to me.
bradgessler 3y ago
My issue with premium is they bundle Music and force me to buy it when I don’t need or want it.
- SpaghettiCthulu 3y ago
  I really don't think you pay anything more as a result of that. They're different frontends to the same service with virtually identical feature sets.
w0z_ 3y ago
It's a slippery slope. I pay $80/mo for Hulu Live TV and you still get 4 minutes of ads (every 10~ minutes) from the Hulu backend. At this point I may as well go back to regular cable and... Tivo. Yes I said it, Tivo.
- kurthr 3y ago
  Exactly, just like cable TV, the next step is paid with ads! Once an advertiser, always an advertiser. There was a great 20 retrospective on CNN (24 years ago in June and no doubt put together by a thoughtful intern) that showed the CNN anchor talking about how being a paid cable news program meant they could be trusted not to be influenced by advertisers... then they cut to advertising!

jfghi 3y ago

Will you maintain the perspective in the midst of eternal incremental price increases and eventual ad placement?

endisneigh 3y ago
What is the alternative?
HDThoreaun 3y ago
I dont understand this perspective. "Will you still like the product if all its functionality is removed?" Obviously not, but so what? When that day comes you can easily get rid of it.
- turkeypedal 3y ago
  The point is that paying YouTube now is encouraging them to do that in the future. The whole thing is enshitification. YouTube is now making their product worse in order to push people to pay them more for it. Those who go along with this are likely to keep on paying as they gradually increase prices while reducing functionality. Those who choose refuse to pay more to avoid having hour long unskippable ads and other nonsense are telling YouTube that this whole process will not be better for them in the long run. That they are fighting an unwinnable battle. I get it when people were willing to pay before. Maybe they actually care about having YouTube Music, and they liked it as a convenient way to pay creators, and also chip in a bit for YouTube. What I don't get are those who choose to pay now that YouTube has started deliberately making their service worse by adding a ton more ads and now trying to keep you from blocking them. And I very much do not understand anyone who is okay with any company going after adblock users, as you're just encouraging the Internet to get worse--either showing more ads or having to pay to access.
jeffbee 3y ago
When YouTube first launched without ads it was $9.99/mo. Today, I pay $11.67/mo for my whole family. In real dollars, that's a decline in price.

MaxikCZ 3y ago

We heard this tale many times already. Funny thing: if they started showing ads even to YouTube premium subscribers, they wouldn't even be first. Ridiculous.

peter422 3y ago
If they start showing ads to YouTube premium then I’ll cancel my subscription and watch a lot less content on the platform. But I’m not going to complain about something they haven’t done yet. There is some price I wouldn’t pay but I probably watch 10-20 hours of great content a month on YouTube and that is worth $15 to me.

bradgessler 3y ago

My issue with premium is they bundle Music and force me to buy it when I don’t need or want it.

SpaghettiCthulu 3y ago
I really don't think you pay anything more as a result of that. They're different frontends to the same service with virtually identical feature sets.

w0z_ 3y ago

It's a slippery slope. I pay $80/mo for Hulu Live TV and you still get 4 minutes of ads (every 10~ minutes) from the Hulu backend. At this point I may as well go back to regular cable and... Tivo. Yes I said it, Tivo.

kurthr 3y ago
Exactly, just like cable TV, the next step is paid with ads! Once an advertiser, always an advertiser. There was a great 20 retrospective on CNN (24 years ago in June and no doubt put together by a thoughtful intern) that showed the CNN anchor talking about how being a paid cable news program meant they could be trusted not to be influenced by advertisers... then they cut to advertising!