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I just pay for YT Premium. I’m genuinely curious why that option is so controversial? Happy to get people’s thoughts. So I never see any ads and I feel like I

I just pay for YT Premium. I’m genuinely curious why that option is so controversial? Happy to get people’s thoughts. So I never see any ads and I feel like I get enough value for what I pay. It even helps me skip in-content ads with a single click.

legitronics 7mo ago
I also pay for yt premium. Most people do not seem to like pay to play, pay to “win”, etc and this falls either very close or in that category. The long term economics seem questionable to me. Google can always turn up the heat a bit more with ads, charge more for the ads, play more of them, etc when they need to be more profitable. The only way they make more from premium subscribers is charging more and they will lose people each time they do. I guess technically they could make more if premium watchers viewed less content but there’s a pretty hard floor and I suspect the economics of it are much like soda fountains. I’m afraid ultimately if premium becomes too large of a user base Google would need to turn it into an “ad-lite” experience to increase profits. Then we’re in an even worse place.
- steve_adams_86 7mo ago
  > I’m afraid ultimately if premium becomes too large of a user base Google would need to turn it into an “ad-lite” experience I wouldn't hesitate to cancel my subscription and stop using the platform at that point. Life can go on without YouTube.
  - karmakurtisaani 7mo ago
    Or you could move on to the premium+ package, which costs more, but has no ads (yet).
YCpedohaven 7mo ago
I pay for YT premium, but it’s less because of the ads, and more because of the stupid restriction of not being allowed background play if my phone is locked.
- ryankrage77 7mo ago
  This used to work for free, they went out of their way to disable it so they could charge for it.
- rkagerer 7mo ago
  Once upon a time we paid for features, instead of paying to remove inbuilt annoyances. (In a sense, this is getting too close to paying a bully to stop harassing you).
pirates 7mo ago
> So I never see any ads > helps me skip in-content ads So you get ads still! Whether or not they are from YouTube or the video creator is irrelevant. I thought paying was supposed to supplant needing to advertise to me during the actual video.
- vizzier 7mo ago
  Alas, tubers feel the need to add sponsorships these days through either greed or reduced google revenue. Premiums "skip frequently skipped section" is about as easy as it can be to skip over them without blocking them entirely, short of using sponsorblock. I'm not sure where the legality lies with them being able to skip it automatically if you're a premium user, I'd imagine their uploaders wouldn't be happy though.
Havoc 7mo ago
Not controversial per se but it’ll go the same way as Netflix - once it’s got adoption they’ll crank enshitification up to 11
yifanl 7mo ago
You think explicitly highlighting that you're in the market segment that's happy to pay for online services will mean you will never see paid ads for online services again?
- SirFatty 7mo ago
  YouTube specifically? Yes.
MrWiffles 7mo ago
Privacy rights. Google’s ad surveillance eventually feeds ICE and its ilk, so I’ll not willingly reward this behavior.
- Ferret7446 7mo ago
  Seems like the opposite? You can choose to either have ads or a paid subscription service. If you don't choose premium then you are implicitly supporting the "ad surveillance"
- flykespice 7mo ago
  How much do you use Google services on your daily life (Google search, Gmail, Google pay..)? You might have unaware handed more your personal info them than you know
  - MrWiffles 7mo ago
    Zero. Email & calendars replaced with totally separate paid provider that doesn’t run ads at all. Search through Kagi. No domains or hosting. No docs/presentations, and only use meet when forced to.
- gruez 7mo ago
  >Google’s ad surveillance eventually feeds ICE and its ilk Is this a prediction about what might happen or a claim about what's happening right now? Also, there's plenty of reasons to object to government/adtech surveillance, but "youtube ads are going to help ICE deport people" is probably the worse examples that I can think of.
  - JohnFen 7mo ago
    DHS has been very upfront about the fact that they purchase pretty much all the data they can get, including from ad networks, in order to keeps records on and track people.
mrguyorama 7mo ago
Because Google does not build a platform that is beneficial to the creators who make actually good and productive and positive content. I don't want give Google money for building a Mr Beast platform. I want the stuff Nebula does. So I pay for Nebula. Paying an advertising company to not show you ads doesn't make that company not an advertising company, and the problem is being an advertising company. It's corrosive to society and people.
- gonzalohm 7mo ago
  I also pay for Nebula. I wish more content creators moved to that platform. It's so annoying to deal with YouTube's homepage to find the videos of the creators that are not in Nebula
downboots 7mo ago
It's a ransom.
clpm4j 7mo ago
YT Premium is my favorite monthly subscription - probably the highest value software that I pay for.
- Nevermark 7mo ago
  It is very high value. I would be happy to pay even more for an experience without AI slop masquerading as something else, and obviously fake or misleading news sources. If Youtube or Meta spent a fraction of the effort identifying credibility as they do predicting user likes, they could do a passable job. I would especially like credible sources that express coherent viewpoints less correlated with mine. Perhaps even a quality setting or settings so i could set my own thresholds of credible information and non-trivial entertainment. Premium Quality Tier. Ad and Shit Free. Like a beautiful statue in a simple block of marble, it is in there.
  - 01jonny01 7mo ago
    Try skipvids.com it removes most of the ai slop bs
- antegamisou 7mo ago
  Least delusional HN user/bot.
kevinfiol 7mo ago
Where did you get the impression that it's controversial to pay for YT Premium? Most threads I've seen on this topic are composed of roughly half of the comments endorsing YT Premium, while the other half endorse adblocking from a privacy/autonomy perspective similar to the opening paragraph of the uBlock Origin manifesto [1]. What minor controversy I have seen is a small minority that argue either 1. You shouldn't pay for YT Premium because it enables user-hostile business practices or 2. You shouldn't use ad-block because it's effectively "stealing." [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/blob/master/MANIFESTO.md https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/blob/master/MANIFESTO.md
- manwe150 7mo ago
  Many people I know are not technical enough to know about ad blockers, and refuse to admit to themselves how much YT they watch—eg that they would get value from either blocking ads or paying—when I mention the options
- tzs 7mo ago
  Quite a few of those threads have a sizable contingent of people who say they would pay for YT Premium if it removed all ads but since it only removes ads that YouTube puts in the videos they will still see any endorsements or promotions of sponsor's products that were put in by the content creator it doesn't really work.
wolttam 7mo ago
I'd pay for YT premium in a heartbeat if they let me tune the platform to my needs: disable all recommends, disable all comments, allow only a whitelisted set of channels. That would be a "take my money" moment.
antegamisou 7mo ago
Ragebait comment for sure, but not everyone lives in some bubble where $14/months is spare change and anyway the fact that even a philosophical wall of text on why paying for something so fundamental like not getting spammed with retarded unksippable ads on a 20 second video, (or even worse getting one in the middle of a concerto movement) would not convince, makes further engagement unworthy. It's pretty appalling to note that not a single comment so far brought up the affordability issue.
bl4kers 7mo ago
YouTube does not respect its users, their preferences, or improving their platform. If it did, their website would function a lot like SmartTube, made by a solo dev. Instead, they're on a slow march of enshittification with shorts in every nook and cranny. Even just recently they made changes to the subscriptions page so it wasn't chronological for some users.
beAbU 7mo ago
I happily pay for YTP, but the monthly cost is actually getting a tad rich for me, and I'm honestly considering just not using yt any more. The terrible UX, the constant pushing of shorts, the baked in shilling, even from my favourite creators, the absolute abortion that is yt music and their attempt to merge my music listening profile and my video watching profile (I don't want fucking music videos in my video feed ffs). There are some creators that I really like, but I won't die without their content. Maybe I need to go to something like Floatplane or whatever, pay for the content I actually consume and start pirating music again.

legitronics 7mo ago

I also pay for yt premium. Most people do not seem to like pay to play, pay to “win”, etc and this falls either very close or in that category. The long term economics seem questionable to me. Google can always turn up the heat a bit more with ads, charge more for the ads, play more of them, etc when they need to be more profitable. The only way they make more from premium subscribers is charging more and they will lose people each time they do. I guess technically they could make more if premium watchers viewed less content but there’s a pretty hard floor and I suspect the economics of it are much like soda fountains. I’m afraid ultimately if premium becomes too large of a user base Google would need to turn it into an “ad-lite” experience to increase profits. Then we’re in an even worse place.

steve_adams_86 7mo ago
> I’m afraid ultimately if premium becomes too large of a user base Google would need to turn it into an “ad-lite” experience I wouldn't hesitate to cancel my subscription and stop using the platform at that point. Life can go on without YouTube.
- karmakurtisaani 7mo ago
  Or you could move on to the premium+ package, which costs more, but has no ads (yet).

YCpedohaven 7mo ago

I pay for YT premium, but it’s less because of the ads, and more because of the stupid restriction of not being allowed background play if my phone is locked.

ryankrage77 7mo ago
This used to work for free, they went out of their way to disable it so they could charge for it.
rkagerer 7mo ago
Once upon a time we paid for features, instead of paying to remove inbuilt annoyances. (In a sense, this is getting too close to paying a bully to stop harassing you).

pirates 7mo ago

> So I never see any ads > helps me skip in-content ads So you get ads still! Whether or not they are from YouTube or the video creator is irrelevant. I thought paying was supposed to supplant needing to advertise to me during the actual video.

vizzier 7mo ago
Alas, tubers feel the need to add sponsorships these days through either greed or reduced google revenue. Premiums "skip frequently skipped section" is about as easy as it can be to skip over them without blocking them entirely, short of using sponsorblock. I'm not sure where the legality lies with them being able to skip it automatically if you're a premium user, I'd imagine their uploaders wouldn't be happy though.

Havoc 7mo ago

Not controversial per se but it’ll go the same way as Netflix - once it’s got adoption they’ll crank enshitification up to 11

yifanl 7mo ago

You think explicitly highlighting that you're in the market segment that's happy to pay for online services will mean you will never see paid ads for online services again?

SirFatty 7mo ago
YouTube specifically? Yes.

MrWiffles 7mo ago

Privacy rights. Google’s ad surveillance eventually feeds ICE and its ilk, so I’ll not willingly reward this behavior.

Ferret7446 7mo ago
Seems like the opposite? You can choose to either have ads or a paid subscription service. If you don't choose premium then you are implicitly supporting the "ad surveillance"
flykespice 7mo ago
How much do you use Google services on your daily life (Google search, Gmail, Google pay..)? You might have unaware handed more your personal info them than you know
- MrWiffles 7mo ago
  Zero. Email & calendars replaced with totally separate paid provider that doesn’t run ads at all. Search through Kagi. No domains or hosting. No docs/presentations, and only use meet when forced to.
gruez 7mo ago
>Google’s ad surveillance eventually feeds ICE and its ilk Is this a prediction about what might happen or a claim about what's happening right now? Also, there's plenty of reasons to object to government/adtech surveillance, but "youtube ads are going to help ICE deport people" is probably the worse examples that I can think of.
- JohnFen 7mo ago
  DHS has been very upfront about the fact that they purchase pretty much all the data they can get, including from ad networks, in order to keeps records on and track people.

mrguyorama 7mo ago

Because Google does not build a platform that is beneficial to the creators who make actually good and productive and positive content. I don't want give Google money for building a Mr Beast platform. I want the stuff Nebula does. So I pay for Nebula. Paying an advertising company to not show you ads doesn't make that company not an advertising company, and the problem is being an advertising company. It's corrosive to society and people.

gonzalohm 7mo ago
I also pay for Nebula. I wish more content creators moved to that platform. It's so annoying to deal with YouTube's homepage to find the videos of the creators that are not in Nebula

downboots 7mo ago

It's a ransom.

clpm4j 7mo ago

YT Premium is my favorite monthly subscription - probably the highest value software that I pay for.

Nevermark 7mo ago
It is very high value. I would be happy to pay even more for an experience without AI slop masquerading as something else, and obviously fake or misleading news sources. If Youtube or Meta spent a fraction of the effort identifying credibility as they do predicting user likes, they could do a passable job. I would especially like credible sources that express coherent viewpoints less correlated with mine. Perhaps even a quality setting or settings so i could set my own thresholds of credible information and non-trivial entertainment. Premium Quality Tier. Ad and Shit Free. Like a beautiful statue in a simple block of marble, it is in there.
- 01jonny01 7mo ago
  Try skipvids.com it removes most of the ai slop bs
antegamisou 7mo ago
Least delusional HN user/bot.

kevinfiol 7mo ago

Where did you get the impression that it's controversial to pay for YT Premium? Most threads I've seen on this topic are composed of roughly half of the comments endorsing YT Premium, while the other half endorse adblocking from a privacy/autonomy perspective similar to the opening paragraph of the uBlock Origin manifesto [1]. What minor controversy I have seen is a small minority that argue either 1. You shouldn't pay for YT Premium because it enables user-hostile business practices or 2. You shouldn't use ad-block because it's effectively "stealing." [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/blob/master/MANIFESTO.md https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/blob/master/MANIFESTO.md

manwe150 7mo ago
Many people I know are not technical enough to know about ad blockers, and refuse to admit to themselves how much YT they watch—eg that they would get value from either blocking ads or paying—when I mention the options
tzs 7mo ago
Quite a few of those threads have a sizable contingent of people who say they would pay for YT Premium if it removed all ads but since it only removes ads that YouTube puts in the videos they will still see any endorsements or promotions of sponsor's products that were put in by the content creator it doesn't really work.

wolttam 7mo ago

I'd pay for YT premium in a heartbeat if they let me tune the platform to my needs: disable all recommends, disable all comments, allow only a whitelisted set of channels. That would be a "take my money" moment.

antegamisou 7mo ago

Ragebait comment for sure, but not everyone lives in some bubble where $14/months is spare change and anyway the fact that even a philosophical wall of text on why paying for something so fundamental like not getting spammed with retarded unksippable ads on a 20 second video, (or even worse getting one in the middle of a concerto movement) would not convince, makes further engagement unworthy. It's pretty appalling to note that not a single comment so far brought up the affordability issue.

bl4kers 7mo ago

YouTube does not respect its users, their preferences, or improving their platform. If it did, their website would function a lot like SmartTube, made by a solo dev. Instead, they're on a slow march of enshittification with shorts in every nook and cranny. Even just recently they made changes to the subscriptions page so it wasn't chronological for some users.

beAbU 7mo ago

I happily pay for YTP, but the monthly cost is actually getting a tad rich for me, and I'm honestly considering just not using yt any more. The terrible UX, the constant pushing of shorts, the baked in shilling, even from my favourite creators, the absolute abortion that is yt music and their attempt to merge my music listening profile and my video watching profile (I don't want fucking music videos in my video feed ffs). There are some creators that I really like, but I won't die without their content. Maybe I need to go to something like Floatplane or whatever, pay for the content I actually consume and start pirating music again.