this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2026
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Do people really pay for this?
Yes. But mostly because I know that my view pays the creators I watch orders of magnitude more that an ad based view
Being ad free is just a bonus I don't really notice because I have ad blockers anyway
I'd rather give to creators directly than give Google a cut.
I just do both
Fair point, never considered the creator revenue. My regular channels I'm part of their Patreon, but they are channels I learn from, makers.
That's just an additional thing for me. I spend around 100 bucks a month on patreon, but it's just not possible to do that with all channels I watch
Oh, and nebula of course
apparently yes, so they dont see ADS.
I make a list of things to learn. Get a 30 day trial and download every single video related, then cancel.
I am on email #8 doing this.
Only an email address? I have have no shit maybe 50 email addy's for reddit for all my bans. I collect bans like its my job on that shit site.
They are getting crafty, I figured out the latest tracking and a lazy work around. Next will be a VM, I know that will make it easier.
i love you for doing this
I have to ask, how are you getting around Google's identity verification system? The last couple times I tried to make a fake Google account, it's wanted an actual phone number. Not a virtual number, an actual phone number. So I'm curious what you are doing.
I am not creating new accounts, just reusing ones I have had for years created before all these phone verification bullshit.
darn, okay, well thanks for the response lol
Wait until you hear about Libretube, pipepipe, newpipe or any other Youtube OS alternatives out there
Better yet with LibreTube you can remove shorts and download 1080p or higher
I have kids and parents who watch a lot of YouTube and I don’t want them watching ads, nor do I want to deal with helping them avoid ads in more creative ways. And the (per-person) price of a family plan isn’t as bad as an individual plan.
paying to not watch ads, means you pay more and more to watch ads. the problem with ads, is people are paying to not watch them which enforced charging more.
it's a cycle of abuse and you have Stockholm syndrome as a result. break free..
in theory: that’s correct
in practice: I’m not picking this battle (for now, at least)
I understand the whole thing. just be happy
I rarely use YouTube. Maybe twice a year using a separate android app so no ads or other shit. So for me this total obsession with YT is beyond me. What on earth do you watch everyday?
I used to have YouTube Premium.
The main reason for paying for it was that I don't like having to sit through ads. A nice benefit of Premium over ad-blockers was that a part of the revenue from YouTube premium goes to creators in lieu of advertising revenue. YouTube gets money for running the service, the creators get money for making videos, and I don't have to watch ads.
I stopped my Premium subscription not because it was getting too expensive, but because YouTube is an American company. Ever since Trump got elected for a second time I have been progressively working on cutting out products and services by American tech giants from my life, and YouTube Premium was a very easy one to cut out.
These days I just use an ad-blocker. If the creators want revenue from my view, they can upload to a platform that isn't YouTube.
I do. The benefits are worth it to me. It is my main source of video consumption.
Ads removed on iOS without having to do work around is great. Not throttling me for using an ad blocker on desktop is also nice. Contributions to content creators I watch. Access to YouTube music which I use in my car.
For me it’s worth.
Check out "Unwatched for YouTube" on iOS. It's a bit janky, but it works. Certainly better than paying for premium.
uBlock Lite is now available as an extension for Safari. I’m not sure what the Lite is about and saw other people complain about it, but for the past month Youtube on iOS has been a lovely experience for me.
That requires using YouTube through the browser. I use the YouTube app. It’s a different dynamic.
Plenty. I don't imagine ads cover the huge cost of hosting video in this day and age, especially with all the adblockers running around ( saw an ad revenue number in a study a while ago, google supposedly makes between 100s-10000s dollars per person, depending on their "value" ).
I for one am grateful to all the paying subscribers - it means google will more readily tolerate my shiny freeloading adblocking ass.
I pay for YouTube Music and premium gets thrown in for free. Why? It's mostly momentum.
I used Groove back when that was a thing, and when it folded I could migrate my playlists to YouTube so it was easy and than $10 a month. Now it's $30 but it's still like buying a cd a month. I am slowly de-googling and some month will stop using the service. It just hasn't been a top priority.
If you did this, you'd have like 20 CD's by the end of the year (way more id you can find used ones) that you completely own and no one can pull the license for later.
Ripping them is easy and allows you to play them anywhere, even without internet.
20 cds that don't exist that I can't buy and the artists don't make. Would require me to lug around a cd binder again and jury rig a CD player in my car. Install a CD player in my pc. Etc.
CDs are a fucking dog shir medium anyways prone to getting fucked up and broke and scratched.
The correct fix it actual fucking digital files with no drm. If you have to go back to physical media as your argument then get a fucking idiot. The only reason to get physical media is because you personally enjoy it. But objectively it's a fucking absolute fucking nightmare to deal with and a pain in the ass to use.
I can stream more than 20cds worth from a catalog far more expansive than anything I could dream to store. It's simply worth the money for my usage. Moreover, I don't want to store anything locally, physically or otherwise. I'm ok with the risk of them pulling licensing, because after over a decade and a half of usage it's been an issue thats come up fewer than 5 times, and each time there was an alternative track/release available (i.e. part of a newer album or rerecorded).
I don't disagree with you. But I have a lot of CDs already :) The rationale for me is that it's all available. I watched a Billy Joel documentary recently (I know 🙄) but it made do a listen through his discography. I'm glad I didn't buy those. It turns out I already knew the songs I liked and discovered 0 enjoyable deep cuts. But even at $15 a disc that would have been a $200 play through. And yes I'm aware of the high seas and the library.
Ah so they bundle it in if you want it/use it that jives as they can bolster the "numbers" for a service no one is seeking out.
it's about twice as much as a mainstream cd at a brick-and-mortar or a random sampling of physical disc offerings at bandcamp.
But I don't want random bandcamp samplings. I mean I like new music and go to a lot of Indy shows, but I want the ability to hear a song I like and then do a deep listen to the artist without committing to CDs or a trip to the library if it's available.
If you're going to be paying for a music streaming service, you may as well go for YT premium as you get other things for barely any extra cost. Otherwise I don't see the value.
I'm in the process of going local and replacing YT music though.
I stopped paying however many years ago it was that they killed Play Music. YouTube Premium was just a benefit to a music service I felt was worth the money. Once they sucked all the humanity and soul out of Play Music and pushed YouTube Music on everyone, I bounced. Been using NewPipe on mobile, TubeArchivist and Jellyfin at home for videos I want to retain and watch on my TV or whatever.
Lots. That's why the price is going up.
HAHA great point!
I do. Years ago it was just google family stuff. I share it with my parents and wife and sisters. We have a decent library of shared movies(we don't buy those anymore) and we all use YouTube music. Ad free YouTube is a perk to it. If we cancel, we all lose it and I'm sure Google would not let us be a family scattered around the country.
Splitting the cost makes it worthwhile, we watch a good amount of YouTube and we enjoy our kids can also watch stuff on the tv ad free.
I pay 24 bucks a month for the family plan, as it's my most used platform.
I get youtube music and no ads on YouTube, while sharing the benefits with 5 other family members. so, about 4 bucks I'm paying a month per person. I'm okay with the price
I accept that if I block adverts in add supported content that's a problem. The creators get a cut of the money (way more than ads get them!) and accept most goes to Google because Youtube is hella expensive to run.
... if it gets ridiculously expensive then I will find somewhere else. I keep meaning to try Nebula....
I use YouTube Music, and get Premium with it. Other people pay for Spotify, and don't. Plus they also have to actually use Spotify instead, which is like a double negative.
YT has made the non subscriber experience for music so bad I wouldn't consider it. Minimize the browser to check msgs and music stops, so dang annoying.
this... it's a horrid experience without paying so why the hell would I ever pay.. that and I know the price goes up with features being removed.
I'll continue to subscribe to nothing
Yes. I’m lazy and watch a lot of YouTube. I cannot deal with ads.
That said, I have prime video through Amazon prime and it asks for, like, $4 per month to skip ads. I stopped watching prime video because of this.
i just use ublock origin for youtube ads, they havnt done anything to stop the adblockers yet.
I don’t watch in browser mostly. Else I would do this too.
And they wonder why torrents just won't go away...
IPTV too.