this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023

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145

Google raising price of YouTube Premium to $13.99 per month (9to5google.com)

submitted 1 year ago by Mustafaalbazy@programming.dev to c/technology@beehaw.org

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The price of an individual YouTube Premium subscription is increasing by $2 to $13.99 per month in the US for new and current customers.

This price increase is live for new subscribers as seen on youtube.com/premium. Instead of $11.99, YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month. Meanwhile, it’s $18.99 if you’re subscribing from the iOS YouTube app.

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[–] BrotherCod@kbin.social 44 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's just like the old adage that history repeats itself. All the streaming companies are starting to do the exact same damn thing cable did. They're starting to bloat their own products and expense them completely out of normal working schmoes price bracket.

The early 2000s was Paradise for cord cutters. The whole purpose of moving away from cable was the smaller individualized payments. Now if I want to watch all my shows legally I'm approaching cable tv package prices again. I'll be damned if I ever get trapped into that cycle again. Now the streaming networks are bombarding us with advertisements that compare the cable was when I cut cord 20 years ago. And they're slowly getting worse.

[–] Goronmon@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Still better than cable ever was. No long term contracts, extra fees on bills, tons of useless channels and tons of ads.

I think people forget how bad cable TV actually is if they haven't used it for a while.

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[–] Zorque@kbin.social 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The early 2000s was before streaming was ever a thing. Netflix was still sending DVDs in the mail en masse.

[–] pbjamm@beehaw.org 7 points 1 year ago

I just canceled the Netflix account I have had since 2002.
They were great once...

[–] sparkl_motion@beehaw.org 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I need to have a serious talk about this with my girlfriend. I didn’t realize she was paying so much for our YT Premium plan.

These prices are getting ridiculous.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

What are you guys getting for that money? I honestly don't know. I just use either an ad blocker or the newpipe app.

[–] gk99@beehaw.org 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a global solution, not just localized to specific areas. No ads on my account on my Xbox, PS5, Switch, Google Home speakers (YouTube Music), Fire TV Stick, Android TV, Roku, my roommate's Roku, or anyone else's devices anywhere else, in addition to places like my phone and PC where I just use uBlock Origin.

In addition, I'm actually just splitting the family plan across three people, so it's like $7.64/mo, which isn't bad.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

Yeah with that many devices that's worth the ease of use for the price. I'm surprised they don't block more than one device.

[–] fuzzywolf23@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

While ad blockers are definitely a thing, I'd also like my favorite channels to get paid. And, honestly, it has to make money somehow -- it might as well be off my relatively stable back

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[–] sparkl_motion@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The big part for us is the multiple users, and not under a single home location.

My girlfriend, myself, her kid, adult daughter. That ends up being a fairly decent value proposition considering we’re pretty invested in Apple devices. There aren’t a lot of solutions to remove ads, and we take advantage of both the music and video sides of things.

[–] WarmSoda@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I never even considered using for a family account. That's smart.

[–] CodeBlooded@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Does your ad blocker block ads for YouTube and YouTube Music apps on iOS?

[–] DuckGuy@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 year ago

For YouTube, uYou+ blocks ads and sponsors.

For YouTube Music, YouTubeMusicUltimate blocks ads and sponsors, too.

Anyone can sideload those relatively easily. Still, if you don't want to bother with this, you can find apps on the AppStore that do pretty much the same thing, like Yattee or Video Lite (there's a paid subscription for this one but if you block ads at the DNS level you won't see anything.)

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[–] MeowyNinhaj@lemmy.blahaj.zone 16 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Is there really anything you would benefit from with premium? Its sooo easy to find other content for free elsewhere and use YT ad free is basically one-click on a normal computer.

[–] sunflower_scribe@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

It helps support creators more than ads, at least on an individual level; a portion of your subscription goes to the creators that you actually watch, or at least that's what I've heard. Other than that, just YouTube Music and higher bitrate playback.

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[–] kelvinjps@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago

Watching YouTube on the TV without ads and at higher resolution

[–] MooMix@beehaw.org 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You probably can, but I'm lazy ;) I like it. Got the family one so everybody in my house can use it. We listen to a LOT of music on youtube music in my house, and a few of the others like watching cooking shows and silly junk on youtube. There's some pretty decent content. You can get by with ad blockers and stuff, but since I use the music app in my car and at work I prefer not to deal with all that.

For most people, there's probably not much reason to pay for it.

Edit: Not happy with the constant price hikes though. It seems like the bump the price by a little every year or two.

[–] BluePhoenix01@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah. Similar over here. If it was just me, I would be fine to find alternatives and/or blockers, but me, spouse, and kids… on different devices the ad time adds up.

This price increase sucks though.

[–] MooMix@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

This price increase sucks though.

Yes it does :\ Lucky for us it doesn't seem to affect the family package. They raised the price on that last year.

Here's hoping they don't raise the price of that plan too.

[–] Osayidan@social.vmdk.ca 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've yet to be made aware of any benefits at all. None of what you get from premium is either interesting or relevant.

[–] tlf@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Depends on how much you pay for data. For my german mobile contract it is very nice to have content available offline. And the play in the background thing is very nice depending on the kind of video you wanna watch. I can see how those features aren't the new sliced bread but they have their use cases

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 16 points 1 year ago (5 children)

People tell me oh youtube prem is reasonable but I know that yt is just going to raise the price bit by bit and everyone will accept it because they have no other option.

[–] noodlejetski@geddit.social 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

because they have no other option.

I dunno, Piped has been a very good other option for me.

[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Front ends aren't really an alternative option. You are still using youtube. Youtube will continue to try and stop ad blockers and shutdown these Frontends. Eventually they will be successful. The more inconvenient they make it to use these technologies the more people will pay for yt prem. The only option is to start making the very painful switch to alternative platforms.

[–] zxo@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Don't forget NewPipe for Android, Yattee for Apple devices, SmartTube for most Android TV boxes, Playlet for Roku, and Invidious for PC (if you don't like Piped).

The only (usable) platform I can think of without a ad-free YouTube client is maybe webOS for LG TVs.

(some of these clients are also missing some features because they are new, but they should all be better for watching than the official app)

[–] BrotherCod@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also don't forget https://github.com/revanced it even has a manager for updates.

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[–] redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I just tried installing SmartTube on my Chromecast Ultra today and found out it can pair with YouTube revanced. This fixed my number one issue with revanced where the cast button is not working.

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[–] ulkesh@beehaw.org 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course they are. Because literally everyone and everything is screwing all of us who aren't super rich.

[–] upstream@beehaw.org 4 points 1 year ago

“We need to be inflation winners”

Actual line from the C-level strategy meeting at my company.

I’m fairly certain we’re not alone.

Next; let’s talk about how recessions are made….

[–] drifty@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

ReVanced, ReVanced Extended and uBlock Origin will always be free :)

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[–] jmanes@beehaw.org 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’ll continue to pay for it… it’s the only streaming service that I consider essential to pay for. I’ll dump everything else before I dump this.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

I am very selective with what I watch but even so the amount of good content on youtube exceeds my available time while other services have a couple of shows a year to binge and then they can be dropped. With writers and actors striking conventional content is only going to get thinner for the other streaming services. There is a limit to what I will pay for a painless ad free experience for the whole family on all their devices and Youtube is rapidly approaching it.

[–] orcawolfe@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago

The funny thing is that I used to have YouTube premium bundled with Google play music, but I had to cancel after they killed it. YouTube music was just a terrible experience coming after GPM (lost a lot of songs in transfer, unable to play only liked songs by certain artists, uploaded music locked in jail and unable to be mixed into playlists, etc...). I felt like I had to voice my complaint by canceling YouTube music, which I could only do by getting rid of YouTube premium as well. How else do you protest a product that got bundled onto something else you already used? Anyway, I would buy a cheaper premium tier if it didn't include useless YouTube music.

[–] neko@fishfry.cheese.beer 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh no they remembered that us grandfathered in google music subscribers exist, so we're getting a $4/mo price increase

[–] irasponsible@beehaw.org 6 points 1 year ago

damn, i've been coasting on that for ages

[–] ohokthatsgood@beehaw.org 10 points 1 year ago

I use YouTube all the time and was legitimately thinking of subscribing to premium. Guess I'm sticking to ReVanced lol

[–] glennglog22@kbin.social 9 points 1 year ago

Worst thing to do if they're also trying to block adblockers.

[–] Nachorella@lemmy.sdf.org 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's weird that it costs so much when some streaming services are cheaper and they can afford to create content and youtube just pays its content creators a tiny bit of ad revenue.

[–] jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

Probably because it helps a bit to offset their high losses for infrastructure (servers, bandwidth, storage, compute for compression, search, indexing and backups, electricity, networking, employee wages)

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[–] davehtaylor@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Um, I've been paying $15.99. When was it $11?

[–] wim@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 1 year ago

Did you buy it through the iOS app? Because they are 30% more.

[–] sunaurus@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Damn, even $11.99 sounds like a lot - I only pay 12.99€ for a family plan in Europe.

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[–] misguidedfunk@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very thankful I was grandfathered in with my the original promo price for google play music.

[–] CmdrS@kbin.social 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Existing subscribers will start to see the new pricing with their next billing cycle. An upcoming email will explain the changes. Those who were grandfathered in five years ago (with Google Play Music and/or YouTube Red) will get three additional months at their current rate.

[–] LossLeader@lemmy.studio 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wow that's a huge bummer.

[–] misguidedfunk@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago

9 to 5 google is the only publication with this information. I mean I use it, but I can live without YouTube.

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[–] workinkindofhard@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Between rising prices and music disappearing from various services I canceled all my music streaming services and use Plexamp. Rip your own music and stream for free, all you need is a computer that stays on at home

[–] marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I just checked my subscriptions and my YouTube Premium is still grandfathered in at $9.99/mo from my Google Play Music subscription that included Google Red.

Myself and family listen to music all the time, and YouTube without ads has paid for itself with dev tutorials, DIY videos and other educational stuff; I can't run aBO on my TV. As soon as they find a way to kick me off my current rate, I'll bail, but until then I can't find a cheaper fit for my needs.

[–] olpappy@mander.xyz 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Hate to break it to you, but grandfathered accounts are all getting hit with the price increase emails now as well. I just got mine an hour ago. Thought I was safe since they promised back in the day to honor the 9.99 price... nope, they expect 13.99 soon, but are giving grandfathered accounts a 3 month extension as a "thank you" for their loyalty.

[–] marduk@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

Whelp, here's a toast to the future where the creators we enjoy can be supported through a more federated system.

I don't think there's any way to beat YouTube's infrastructure right now, and you can't even replicate it without a steady supply of blank checks.

Any geniuses out there know how to think of a system design that's FOSS, competes with YT's pay structure, and who knows what's the best supply for that pay? I hate advertisements.

How do we take the money that we already spend for subscription services and funnel that into some kind of pool to be equitably distributed to content creators?

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