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I realize it’s anathema to a lot of people, but you could just... pay for stuff. YouTube has an ad-free premium option.

noja 2y ago
It's not that simple. It's common enough now to classify some ads as.... not adverts. So even if you pay for no ads, you get ads.
- kittoes 2y ago
  Completely untrue in the case of YouTube Premium. I literally haven't seen an ad for over a decade now.
fzeroracer 2y ago
I think most people don't have a problem paying for something that gives proper added value. But what's happening is that companies are degrading the basic experience and expecting people to either be OK with it (like Roku's increasingly intrusive ad experience) or to pay up to avoid it (like with YouTube).
- x187463 2y ago
  Perhaps on review of specific ad presentation practices, you could argue for a degradation of experience, but showing adds more or less within YouTube to free users seems like an acceptable method of generating revenue. As an aside, the fact that people pay for cable and still have 4-7 minute ad-breaks every 15 minutes make anything YouTube does pale in comparison.
  - godshatter 2y ago
    Except for the tracking that ads use and the possibility of getting malware because they aren't curated as well as they should be. I also don't like companies aggressively trying to get me to buy stuff I don't want. Show a static image on the right somewhere with a link. Hell, show a dozen of them. Still less intrusive than an ad that shows up while you're in the middle of a video. But the poor ad companies are apparently on the brink of bankruptcy based on how hard they are pushing things. Just a little bit of composure or any respect for the people that they are pushing these on and I'd have a different viewpoint. But they are always all-in on this.
dsco 2y ago
I wish I could do this for Spotify. Paid plans still include ads. They cram ads into podcast episodes which themselves also have ads, so you'll get the read ads + Spotify's local ads + Spotify laughs all the way to the bank. I believe over time not having ads will be a thing of the past, and you'll instead pay for fewer ads. Like where else are people going to go for exclusive content?
- timcobb 2y ago
  > Spotify laughs all the way to the bank FWIW, I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money lol
  - nicholassmith 2y ago
    Net profit was €1.14bn for 2024, which feels like a reasonable amount of money.
    - mrweasel 2y ago
      Sadly I think we're in need of the AriZona Iced Tea of streaming. A company that sells a streaming service, at a fixed price, makes a small profit and is happy with that profit. The issue is that the current streaming services have cost billions to develop and companies and investors want that money back, times a 100. The money hasn't gone into a long term product that people will be happy with for decades, it has gone into a product that needs to return large chunk of money in a short time frame (and cover up other failed ventures).
      - JoshTriplett 2y ago
        The issue is that such a company either needs to make their own first-party content, or pay licensing fees for third-party content, and the companies those license fees are paid to are always looking to either cut out the middle service in favor of their own or increase what they're charging.
  - deleted 2y ago
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deleted 2y ago
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ZaoLahma 2y ago
While I do agree with you, I am a bit concerned about the recent developments with "paid, but still has ads" subscriptions and how Youtube might slip towards such practices as well as soon as they have a large enough number of paying customers. Their premium might suddenly not be so... premium.
- chgs 2y ago
  And then you cancel. I did that with Amazon, will do it with others when I start seeing ads.
- kittoes 2y ago
  I totally get it. That said, YouTube premium is worth every single penny and has only gained features over time; no other subscription I have comes close in terms of value.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  With respect to that, YouTube premium has been around for over ten years, the majority of which I've been a subscriber because adblocking on Apple TV (my primary YouTube experience) is far too much of a fuckabout for me to willingly engage in it, and they haven't yet done it. I think Google is well aware of the fact that Premium with ads is an utter non-starter as a product. What would you even be paying for then? This isn't like TV+ or Prime where you have exclusives, almost everyone who posts to YouTube would happily jump that ship given enough reason to. And while there are still ads (sponsored segments) I personally have less problem with those since those are substantial money for the creators I enjoy, and a lot of the ones I watch actually manage to make them pretty funny. And hell, a couple I've even used their codes for shit over the years for. Like, an ad is an ad and some people hate all of them, but I can personally say I've engaged with ads from creators I like at an exceptional rate compared to... virtually every other type of advertising I've ever encountered.
  - wat10000 2y ago
    Sponsored segments are also trivially skippable.
Etheryte 2y ago
Netflix shows ads to paying customers. We've seen the same playbook across a wide variety of products and services, it's only a matter of time until paying users get milked too.
- wat10000 2y ago
  When that happens, I’ll stop saying “just pay for it.” But until it does, I’ll continue paying for YouTube and being befuddled by people who get upset at their ads.
saintfire 2y ago
Increasingly the "basic" paid plan has ads and you now have to pay even more to not have ads. Doesn't seem like playing the game is doing anyone any favours. Having the ability to tell a company enough is a enough serves as a ceiling for bullshit.
- kittoes 2y ago
  Where are you finding this "basic" plan? YouTube Premium has only a single tier that is completely ad-free. I hate Google as much as anyone, but shouldn't truth matter?
onion2k 2y ago
Or you can opt out. Both options are equally valid. I won't pay for YouTube because the consistency of YouTube is massively variable. Sometimes channels I watch skip 6 months between videos. When I do watch stuff its usually in the background or when I just have a few minutes spare. Spending money to fill that time is unjustifiable unless it's a really low amount, and YouTube Premium isn't low enough yet. Oddly though, if I could buy 100 'skip this ad' tokens for $10 that I could use when I'm pushed for time, but just suffer the ads when I'm not, I'd seriously consider it.
- wat10000 2y ago
  You can, but the complaint rings hollow when we’re talking about a service with enormous amounts of actual good content, and a straightforward non-abusive paid plan. If you don’t think it’s worth it, that makes complete sense. If somebody decides there isn’t anything worth paying or watching ads and just bails out, totally sensible. But this “ads are so terrible we should just abandon the service” thing is weird here. YouTube is an example of doing it right. They use ads to support a free tier, and have a paid plan that removes them. They don’t do nonsense where they take your money and still show you ads. They don’t serve unvetted ads that infect your computer with malware or mine cryptocurrency. If people won’t even consider paying for this (not merely deciding it’s not worth it, but refusing to even consider it as a possibility) then I have to conclude that they just think they’re entitled to get stuff for free.
carlosjobim 2y ago
> but you could just... pay for stuff. Careful... In the Kingdom of the Netherlands your comment will be considered by a court of law as aggravated assault.

noja 2y ago

It's not that simple. It's common enough now to classify some ads as.... not adverts. So even if you pay for no ads, you get ads.

kittoes 2y ago
Completely untrue in the case of YouTube Premium. I literally haven't seen an ad for over a decade now.

fzeroracer 2y ago

I think most people don't have a problem paying for something that gives proper added value. But what's happening is that companies are degrading the basic experience and expecting people to either be OK with it (like Roku's increasingly intrusive ad experience) or to pay up to avoid it (like with YouTube).

x187463 2y ago
Perhaps on review of specific ad presentation practices, you could argue for a degradation of experience, but showing adds more or less within YouTube to free users seems like an acceptable method of generating revenue. As an aside, the fact that people pay for cable and still have 4-7 minute ad-breaks every 15 minutes make anything YouTube does pale in comparison.
- godshatter 2y ago
  Except for the tracking that ads use and the possibility of getting malware because they aren't curated as well as they should be. I also don't like companies aggressively trying to get me to buy stuff I don't want. Show a static image on the right somewhere with a link. Hell, show a dozen of them. Still less intrusive than an ad that shows up while you're in the middle of a video. But the poor ad companies are apparently on the brink of bankruptcy based on how hard they are pushing things. Just a little bit of composure or any respect for the people that they are pushing these on and I'd have a different viewpoint. But they are always all-in on this.

dsco 2y ago

I wish I could do this for Spotify. Paid plans still include ads. They cram ads into podcast episodes which themselves also have ads, so you'll get the read ads + Spotify's local ads + Spotify laughs all the way to the bank. I believe over time not having ads will be a thing of the past, and you'll instead pay for fewer ads. Like where else are people going to go for exclusive content?

timcobb 2y ago
> Spotify laughs all the way to the bank FWIW, I don't think Spotify makes much, if any, money lol
- nicholassmith 2y ago
  Net profit was €1.14bn for 2024, which feels like a reasonable amount of money.
  - mrweasel 2y ago
    Sadly I think we're in need of the AriZona Iced Tea of streaming. A company that sells a streaming service, at a fixed price, makes a small profit and is happy with that profit. The issue is that the current streaming services have cost billions to develop and companies and investors want that money back, times a 100. The money hasn't gone into a long term product that people will be happy with for decades, it has gone into a product that needs to return large chunk of money in a short time frame (and cover up other failed ventures).
    - JoshTriplett 2y ago
      The issue is that such a company either needs to make their own first-party content, or pay licensing fees for third-party content, and the companies those license fees are paid to are always looking to either cut out the middle service in favor of their own or increase what they're charging.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

ZaoLahma 2y ago

While I do agree with you, I am a bit concerned about the recent developments with "paid, but still has ads" subscriptions and how Youtube might slip towards such practices as well as soon as they have a large enough number of paying customers. Their premium might suddenly not be so... premium.

chgs 2y ago
And then you cancel. I did that with Amazon, will do it with others when I start seeing ads.
kittoes 2y ago
I totally get it. That said, YouTube premium is worth every single penny and has only gained features over time; no other subscription I have comes close in terms of value.
ToucanLoucan 2y ago
With respect to that, YouTube premium has been around for over ten years, the majority of which I've been a subscriber because adblocking on Apple TV (my primary YouTube experience) is far too much of a fuckabout for me to willingly engage in it, and they haven't yet done it. I think Google is well aware of the fact that Premium with ads is an utter non-starter as a product. What would you even be paying for then? This isn't like TV+ or Prime where you have exclusives, almost everyone who posts to YouTube would happily jump that ship given enough reason to. And while there are still ads (sponsored segments) I personally have less problem with those since those are substantial money for the creators I enjoy, and a lot of the ones I watch actually manage to make them pretty funny. And hell, a couple I've even used their codes for shit over the years for. Like, an ad is an ad and some people hate all of them, but I can personally say I've engaged with ads from creators I like at an exceptional rate compared to... virtually every other type of advertising I've ever encountered.
- wat10000 2y ago
  Sponsored segments are also trivially skippable.

Etheryte 2y ago

Netflix shows ads to paying customers. We've seen the same playbook across a wide variety of products and services, it's only a matter of time until paying users get milked too.

wat10000 2y ago
When that happens, I’ll stop saying “just pay for it.” But until it does, I’ll continue paying for YouTube and being befuddled by people who get upset at their ads.

saintfire 2y ago

Increasingly the "basic" paid plan has ads and you now have to pay even more to not have ads. Doesn't seem like playing the game is doing anyone any favours. Having the ability to tell a company enough is a enough serves as a ceiling for bullshit.

kittoes 2y ago
Where are you finding this "basic" plan? YouTube Premium has only a single tier that is completely ad-free. I hate Google as much as anyone, but shouldn't truth matter?

onion2k 2y ago

Or you can opt out. Both options are equally valid. I won't pay for YouTube because the consistency of YouTube is massively variable. Sometimes channels I watch skip 6 months between videos. When I do watch stuff its usually in the background or when I just have a few minutes spare. Spending money to fill that time is unjustifiable unless it's a really low amount, and YouTube Premium isn't low enough yet. Oddly though, if I could buy 100 'skip this ad' tokens for $10 that I could use when I'm pushed for time, but just suffer the ads when I'm not, I'd seriously consider it.

wat10000 2y ago
You can, but the complaint rings hollow when we’re talking about a service with enormous amounts of actual good content, and a straightforward non-abusive paid plan. If you don’t think it’s worth it, that makes complete sense. If somebody decides there isn’t anything worth paying or watching ads and just bails out, totally sensible. But this “ads are so terrible we should just abandon the service” thing is weird here. YouTube is an example of doing it right. They use ads to support a free tier, and have a paid plan that removes them. They don’t do nonsense where they take your money and still show you ads. They don’t serve unvetted ads that infect your computer with malware or mine cryptocurrency. If people won’t even consider paying for this (not merely deciding it’s not worth it, but refusing to even consider it as a possibility) then I have to conclude that they just think they’re entitled to get stuff for free.

carlosjobim 2y ago

> but you could just... pay for stuff. Careful... In the Kingdom of the Netherlands your comment will be considered by a court of law as aggravated assault.