I actually pay for YouTube premium. I know, I’m the literal devil according to some people on here.
It’s just that I like to watch a lot of cooking shows, infotainment, and long form visual essays on a couple of niche topics pertaining to my profession and YouTube happens to have a great cross section of that kind of content. And, if we’re being honest, I’ve gotten old enough where it’s just a huge waste of my time trying to get to the experience I want via hacks or workarounds. Specifically, an ad free one.
YouTube, Curiosity Stream and a usenet provider are the only subscriptions I pay for and I’m quite happy with what I get for ~$20 a month. To each their own though.
I originally got YT music which came with YT Red. I don’t like the price increases, but I have a family plan and 4 of the 6 spots are friends that pay me for access. It costs my wife and I about $6 a month for unlimited music streaming and ad free YT. I don’t have any problem paying for content as long as it’s accessible and not overly priced. YT isn’t free to run so Google has to make money somehow and that’s either ads or premium memberships. Some of that goes to content creators that I spend hours watching weekly.
I’ve read about how some of the ad content is displayed on videos it shouldn’t be, and some ads are overly intrusive, and that’s not good. Also, I don’t agree with many of Google’s practices as of late. That sucks, but until there’s a better option with the content I want to watch at a price I’m willing to pay around, I’ll happily pay my dues.
Way back when, when speciality cable became a thing, the big appeal to all these cable packages was “no ads, unlike regular television channels”.
Everybody started buying cable packages. And it was glorious! You could watch a show or a movie WITHOUT getting interrupted by stupid bullshit ads.
Then they started putting ads in between episodes or shows. People grumbled, but hey, it was between not during so … nobody pulled out (statistically speaking).
Then they’d put an ad in the middle. Just a short one. People grumbled, but hey, it was short. So nobody (statistically speaking) pulled out.
Over time, using salami tactics (one thin slice after another), ads got injected into all these speciality packages. In the end you got exactly the same as what you’d fled from. Only you paid ten times as much for it.
And nobody (statistically speaking) pulled out.
So guess what Youtube Premium is going to be doing? (Hint: history doesn’t repeat, but it sure as fuck rhymes!)
The moment I hear my first ad, I will be immediately dropping the service. My consumption you YT content will drop almost to nothing. I absolutely refuse to pay for a service that has ads. You don’t get it both ways.
I believe that the existence of ad blockers do change the situation quite a lot.
I also pay for youtube premium. Before doing so I was using an adblocker and didn’t see a single ad before subscribing.
The reason I did so was that multiple creators I was following mentioning that a view from a premium subscriber was worth more to them financially than from a regular one.
It’s the easiest way for me to support multiple creators at once.
The moment my experience decreases, Youtube looses my support and I go Patreon instead. As ublock exists I don’t have to live through ads at all.
I don’t see a point in them. Why would I want to talk with a chat bot about the video I’m watching? Why would I care about YouTube comment summaries when YouTube comments are some of the lowest quality I’ve come across? These aren’t ‘features’ that I’d pay for specifically.
I actually pay for YouTube premium. I know, I’m the literal devil according to some people on here.
It’s just that I like to watch a lot of cooking shows, infotainment, and long form visual essays on a couple of niche topics pertaining to my profession and YouTube happens to have a great cross section of that kind of content. And, if we’re being honest, I’ve gotten old enough where it’s just a huge waste of my time trying to get to the experience I want via hacks or workarounds. Specifically, an ad free one.
YouTube, Curiosity Stream and a usenet provider are the only subscriptions I pay for and I’m quite happy with what I get for ~$20 a month. To each their own though.
I originally got YT music which came with YT Red. I don’t like the price increases, but I have a family plan and 4 of the 6 spots are friends that pay me for access. It costs my wife and I about $6 a month for unlimited music streaming and ad free YT. I don’t have any problem paying for content as long as it’s accessible and not overly priced. YT isn’t free to run so Google has to make money somehow and that’s either ads or premium memberships. Some of that goes to content creators that I spend hours watching weekly.
I’ve read about how some of the ad content is displayed on videos it shouldn’t be, and some ads are overly intrusive, and that’s not good. Also, I don’t agree with many of Google’s practices as of late. That sucks, but until there’s a better option with the content I want to watch at a price I’m willing to pay around, I’ll happily pay my dues.
Wait till they spill ads in premium as well
If they do, I will not be a premium subscriber anymore.
Way back when, when speciality cable became a thing, the big appeal to all these cable packages was “no ads, unlike regular television channels”.
Everybody started buying cable packages. And it was glorious! You could watch a show or a movie WITHOUT getting interrupted by stupid bullshit ads.
Then they started putting ads in between episodes or shows. People grumbled, but hey, it was between not during so … nobody pulled out (statistically speaking).
Then they’d put an ad in the middle. Just a short one. People grumbled, but hey, it was short. So nobody (statistically speaking) pulled out.
Over time, using salami tactics (one thin slice after another), ads got injected into all these speciality packages. In the end you got exactly the same as what you’d fled from. Only you paid ten times as much for it.
And nobody (statistically speaking) pulled out.
So guess what Youtube Premium is going to be doing? (Hint: history doesn’t repeat, but it sure as fuck rhymes!)
The moment I hear my first ad, I will be immediately dropping the service. My consumption you YT content will drop almost to nothing. I absolutely refuse to pay for a service that has ads. You don’t get it both ways.
Very few people follow through on this. I hope enough do to kill Youtube, though.
I believe that the existence of ad blockers do change the situation quite a lot.
I also pay for youtube premium. Before doing so I was using an adblocker and didn’t see a single ad before subscribing.
The reason I did so was that multiple creators I was following mentioning that a view from a premium subscriber was worth more to them financially than from a regular one.
It’s the easiest way for me to support multiple creators at once.
The moment my experience decreases, Youtube looses my support and I go Patreon instead. As ublock exists I don’t have to live through ads at all.
Look at Mr. Einstein here with his reasonable logic
This fear mongering from OP above (and many others) is really ridiculous, obvious problems will have obvious solutions.
How are those “experimental” Ai features?
I don’t see a point in them. Why would I want to talk with a chat bot about the video I’m watching? Why would I care about YouTube comment summaries when YouTube comments are some of the lowest quality I’ve come across? These aren’t ‘features’ that I’d pay for specifically.