I think listening to audio only (no video wasting bandwidth) with the screen off and Youtube Music seem like actually valuable things to have if you do a lot of driving. I don’t listen to Spotify at home, but when I was driving a lot I sure did.
Yeah, I really, really hate ads. Our browsers are ad blocked and we removed commercial tv channels, don’t buy newspapers and don’t listen to commercial radio. It drives me nuts. Premium used to be a lot cheaper so I am sort of grand fathered in though I expect that won’t last. I could ad block but I would have to maintain it not only on my devices but other family members with a variety of apps, platforms, networks etc. It is easier to pay fuck off money. Bonus is that a dribble of the funds goes to creators I watch though realistically the best way to support creators is to fund them more directly if you can afford it.
Honestly… it’s a good deal for nobody. Only if you really want to pay something to be “a good person”, and then only on the customer’s end. It’s a difficult situation. You can watch YouTube for free and without ads already, by simply using a decent browser like Firefox and installing the uBlock Origin addon to block the ads. (Google is fighting adblockers and anything based on Chrome, so 90% of browsers out there will limit their functionality in the future, btw. Use Firefox or something based on it to keep at least a bit of your privacy and freedom of choice.) And you can even automatically skip the sponsorship messages in videos with Sponsorblock.
But if you think you would support the content creators with YouTube Premium, think again. You’re mostly paying Google for their servers / platform. A platform that treats its content creators pretty bad, finds all kinds of ways to not pay them / reasons to demonetize their videos to grab 100% of the ad income and has become more and more privacy invasive and aggressive with ads over the years towards its users.
And in terms of music, YouTube doesn’t license every single song individually from the musician. They just pay a royalty towards huge lables and companies like Sony, which in turn keep the absolutely most part of that for themselves instead of paying the artists.
Yes, by watching videos for free with adblockers, content creators and YouTube aren’t being paid and in a way you are part of a problem.
But consider this: Any subscription based content service like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Premium starts by paying its content creators at least a bit of money, but uses bait & switch tactics to lower that payment per stream more and more over time. Once they have all the creators, music / content and viewers comfortably on board, they start grabbing the money for themselves. It’s a systemic issue with streaming platforms in general and always the short end of the stick for the very people who create the content that makes the platform successful and useful in the first place. And if you feel guilty for cutting off the often self-proclaimed “content creators”… YouTube has mechanisms in place to directly support them (while taking a cut for YouTube), like “super chats” and “super stickers” and most of them these days have a Patreon account for direct monetary support and sponsorships going on. But yes, only those content creators who actually offer quality content will benefit from these things, what about all the others, you may ask. Well, let’s be brutally honest. A whole lot of content offered on YouTube is bullshit. It’s either copying successful people’s video style, low-cost, low effort, low quality beginners stuff, clickbait, disinformation, mentally unhealthy nonsense, copyright infringing stuff, and these days even AI generated crap with no value. If all of that would stop being made because no money is to be made on the platform, we wouldn’t miss out on anything. True quality will always be supported directly by fans and sponsors. And as harsh as it sounds… the rest is obsolete and may fall victim to natural selection. Might even raise the quality of content on the platform overall. Feel free to pay for YouTube Premium, if it makes you feel better. But know that absolutely most of it will only benefit Google. Personally, I don’t have the money to pay like 130 bucks a year just to feel like a good person. And those aggressive ads are bad for mental health and sometimes are a vehicle for malware, aside from the technology behind them absolutely shredding your privacy. I’m having none of that. I’ll watch that stuff with adblockers as long as it works, and if that stops working some day, I’ll spend my time with something better, maybe going outside and touching grass or something.
Wait… people PAY for YouTube?
I can’t stand watching ads. Ads waste my time. My time is valuable. I’ll pay for no ads.
Adblockers, ReVanced, SmartTube, etc. No ads and no fee.
New Pipe is opensource
I don’t see any ads on YouTube and I didn’t have to pay them.
Does this work across platforms? iPad? iPhone? AppleTV?
Apple intentionally locks down their platform, so it’s harder to use any workarounds
I’m on Linux, Windows, and Android. On all 3 I have Firefox with ublock origin addon.
My TV is a small computer plugged into my TV. I use a wireless keyboard that has a laptop mouse touch pad on it. It’s a perfect setup.
So you pay to support a platform that treats the creators of the content you watch like garbage…
I find that…. Weird. But you do you. No judgement intended.
Yes. YT Premium costs me only 1.20€ more than Spotify so I use YT Music and also have no ads and can listen to videos with my screen off on my phone.
But if they’ll increase price here too then I’ll just stick with NewPipe which I also have installed and no music app.
Btw… I pay 7.19€ for YT Premium. Spotify is 5.99€.
I think listening to audio only (no video wasting bandwidth) with the screen off and Youtube Music seem like actually valuable things to have if you do a lot of driving. I don’t listen to Spotify at home, but when I was driving a lot I sure did.
Yeah, I really, really hate ads. Our browsers are ad blocked and we removed commercial tv channels, don’t buy newspapers and don’t listen to commercial radio. It drives me nuts. Premium used to be a lot cheaper so I am sort of grand fathered in though I expect that won’t last. I could ad block but I would have to maintain it not only on my devices but other family members with a variety of apps, platforms, networks etc. It is easier to pay fuck off money. Bonus is that a dribble of the funds goes to creators I watch though realistically the best way to support creators is to fund them more directly if you can afford it.
Yeah it’s a good deal
Honestly… it’s a good deal for nobody. Only if you really want to pay something to be “a good person”, and then only on the customer’s end. It’s a difficult situation. You can watch YouTube for free and without ads already, by simply using a decent browser like Firefox and installing the uBlock Origin addon to block the ads. (Google is fighting adblockers and anything based on Chrome, so 90% of browsers out there will limit their functionality in the future, btw. Use Firefox or something based on it to keep at least a bit of your privacy and freedom of choice.) And you can even automatically skip the sponsorship messages in videos with Sponsorblock. But if you think you would support the content creators with YouTube Premium, think again. You’re mostly paying Google for their servers / platform. A platform that treats its content creators pretty bad, finds all kinds of ways to not pay them / reasons to demonetize their videos to grab 100% of the ad income and has become more and more privacy invasive and aggressive with ads over the years towards its users. And in terms of music, YouTube doesn’t license every single song individually from the musician. They just pay a royalty towards huge lables and companies like Sony, which in turn keep the absolutely most part of that for themselves instead of paying the artists. Yes, by watching videos for free with adblockers, content creators and YouTube aren’t being paid and in a way you are part of a problem. But consider this: Any subscription based content service like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Premium starts by paying its content creators at least a bit of money, but uses bait & switch tactics to lower that payment per stream more and more over time. Once they have all the creators, music / content and viewers comfortably on board, they start grabbing the money for themselves. It’s a systemic issue with streaming platforms in general and always the short end of the stick for the very people who create the content that makes the platform successful and useful in the first place. And if you feel guilty for cutting off the often self-proclaimed “content creators”… YouTube has mechanisms in place to directly support them (while taking a cut for YouTube), like “super chats” and “super stickers” and most of them these days have a Patreon account for direct monetary support and sponsorships going on. But yes, only those content creators who actually offer quality content will benefit from these things, what about all the others, you may ask. Well, let’s be brutally honest. A whole lot of content offered on YouTube is bullshit. It’s either copying successful people’s video style, low-cost, low effort, low quality beginners stuff, clickbait, disinformation, mentally unhealthy nonsense, copyright infringing stuff, and these days even AI generated crap with no value. If all of that would stop being made because no money is to be made on the platform, we wouldn’t miss out on anything. True quality will always be supported directly by fans and sponsors. And as harsh as it sounds… the rest is obsolete and may fall victim to natural selection. Might even raise the quality of content on the platform overall. Feel free to pay for YouTube Premium, if it makes you feel better. But know that absolutely most of it will only benefit Google. Personally, I don’t have the money to pay like 130 bucks a year just to feel like a good person. And those aggressive ads are bad for mental health and sometimes are a vehicle for malware, aside from the technology behind them absolutely shredding your privacy. I’m having none of that. I’ll watch that stuff with adblockers as long as it works, and if that stops working some day, I’ll spend my time with something better, maybe going outside and touching grass or something.
I don’t know if I could ever hate myself enough to do that.
It’s easy, you just have to ingest the entire boot like the above person.