You know what the problem is? it's that Youtube and more broadly speaking Google have completely squandered the benefit of the doubt.
All the shit about demonetizing channels for breaking ever shifting rules they haven't published...no. If Youtube treated content creators well, I might consider it, but they don't so I don't.
Content creators are a dime a dozen to them. And it's easy to see why. They're running an advertising platform, not a nursery for budding filmmakers. We create the value for youtube, they reap the profits.
Yeah the way they treat the creators on their platform, the way they handle copyright claims, the way they handle flase copyright claims, the way their algorithm radicalized a populace, their child feed is unmanaged and feeds children exploited by the worst of content farms, and the fact that they have a monopoly over the online video market.
I understand the web has a problem with monetizing content and its killing things like journalism and a lot of the third party internet, but I will continue to not feel bad about the expenses that the billion dollar company has to spend on server costs.
@balderdash9 YouTube Premium is actually a great value if you're like me and use YouTube Music as your main music app. It's only a few dollars more than Spotify and I get ad free YouTube included.
Your comment just reminded me that I've been paying for the family plan to include my father. The same guy that just kicked me out of the house I'd been paying him rent for.
Yeah, but you get all of the crappy mp3 torrent rips that people uploaded as part of your music list that you pay for. Low quality music stream that costs money? No thanks!
What? YouTube music is professionally sourced music like any other major service. You can upload your own music for personal use, but included music comes from the publishers.
@Anticorp it has all the high quality uploads of other music services plus songs that are uploaded by users that aren't available elsewhere, but go off.
But wait! When searching for your song you also get: 1) some girl in her basement playing a cover on piano, 2) some dude in his bedroom playing a cover on guitar, 3) some lonely divorcee's ripped version where lyrics scroll across static images of sunsets, 4) some crappy handheld video taken from the back row of a shitty venue from 2009. What a bargain!
I know this won't be the most popular opinion, but honestly if they hadn't raised the price and I had the money, I probably would have YouTube premium. This is only because YouTube happens to be my main source of video entertainment, informational content, etc. and I also use YouTube music for all my music (though I highly recommend the app InnerTune to anyone that wants to be able to turn their phone off while listening to music etc.)
Now that the price is so much higher, it's not even close to worth it, but if it was... I don't know, 5 bucks a month? Sure, I'll pay it. Ofc if much rather pay like 50 bucks for a lifetime subscription, but god knows they're never doing that.
Do they have the IP location BS others have to crackdown on geo location?
If my kids want to use it at school or grandma's is different than using it at home?
Or are we all geofenced to my address?
I already had adblock before the whole stupid adblock block.
I support the creators I watch, can listen to videos with the screen off, and I also use YT Music, so its a good deal for me.
I can however understand anyone who doesnt want to pay for YT Premium and doesnt want to be blasted by scam ads.
Ads shouldnt be this annoying.
I totally agree. I feel that the services I get for my membership fee are adequate. It is not problem for me to pay for a decent service. The day they inject ads into a paid account is the day I leave, however.
I pay for premium because I don't have a real PC. Heresy, I know. When I watch YouTube on my PS5 app I can't use an adblocker. There's solutions, sure, but I've gotten rid of almost every other sub service BUT YouTube prem at this point.
I guess I'm saying all of this because I feel guilty about paying for YouTube fucking premium lmao
Don't feel guilty. If it works for you, that's all that matters. I've been a Premium customer for a few years now just because I think the provided services and lack of ads are worth it. Nothing wrong with paying for services you enjoy.
I wouldn't feel guilty. A lot of the content creators make some really great stuff that takes a lot of their own time and resources, why shouldn't they get paid for that?
I don't think you should feel guilty if you use it. I'm at a point where i have more enjoyment in finding youtube adblock loopholes than using youtube itself. I don't have a console but i'd love to find a good adblock/sponsorblock that works on a ps 5
Content creators get 55% of the value of YouTube Premium. That's one of the major reasons I got it. I only wish it could remove sponsored fragments (fuck these) from videos, but I use SponsorBlock for that.
Best deal is YT premium family, I have 5 or 6 people on it with no commercials on YT and YT music which is great for our use cases as well. Yes it's like $25 a month, but everyone that uses it loves it!
I consume a lot of YT, for "How it's made" and project shows there really isn't anything remotely comparable. No ads and FF through sponsored content is awesome.
Literally entire youtube, free without ads, no account to do tracking, easy download button and best of all straightforward home page that can list uploads from subscriptions.
Honestly if this suits your family keep it. But youtube exploiting its creators for admoney cannot be the best deal.
I believe someone else mentioned 55% of premium revenue goes to creators. That is a fairly significant share, plus the cost of hosting content and maintaining the appliances etc etc. It seems reasonable to me for less than $5 per person per month.
I would have been a begrudging subscriber if they hadn't removed the dislike count and forced ads on unmonetized creators and took all the money from those ads. But because they did that, I got a subscription to Nebula instead.
Do you realise how ridiculously expensive it is for Google to store all these videos? To be honest I'm surprised how long they've survived, without charging.
You essentially get unlimited free video storage using YouTube, yes I suspect 90% of it is crap. But it's amazing that Google still offer that. Running YouTube must be significantly more expensive than any other similar services like Netflix, YouTube, Instagram etc.
They've been profitable since 2015. I'm fine with some ads on the videos, they need to make money somehow, and I really like how they do give YouTubers a majority of the revenue.
However, many of their recent-ish decisions are incredibly greedy and disgusting, like what I mentioned previously, and the retroactive taking away your revenue if the system flags your video as demonetized after it already made some revenue.
Plus, instead of adding useful features for viewers and creators, they spend that money on fEaTuReD cOnTeNt and oH lOoK wE cHaNgEd ThE uI (read: We pointlessly moved stuff around, removed features, and made the experience take 1.5x as much resources as before)
I'm too weak for that, but you could perhaps try Grayjay out. According to the boomers it's kinda like AOL. It works pretty alright, it gives me vids from yt, odysee, rumble, twitch, peertube etc. Pretty pog to say the least.
Ublock origin to skip ads that pay creators 0.000001 cents per view, spotify for $9.99 a month for all of the music/podcasts you can listen to on the go, and donate to patreon for your favorite creators. If you have 5 creators you truly love and want to support, $1 a month is generally the entry level patreon tier. And it's more money for your creator than they would have earned if you watched their videos hundreds of times.
That's $15 per month to get everything that youtube premium offers for $25 a month, plus you don't make Google richer in the process.
I'm not going to pay for Spotify either. Music should be a federated platform where you can purchase music directly from the artist and not pay massive corporations like Spotify, Google, or Apple for the luxury of doing nothing.
I mean if GPM or Spotify weren't garbage I'd pay a reasonable amount a month for one, supporting the artists is nice and all but it's not why I don't pay for these services.
A federated plattform without capital would never get as big, because they dont have the resources to attract more customers via offline ads, apps and better product development.
Just being the best or fairest platform is not enough to be successful.
Well, I'd pay, if the service was worth it. What do you get in return? Your data is still collected, youtubers are still being shat on with arbitrary rules and almost instant demonetization, unlawful DMCA strikes that can doxx you, and dumb features like removing dislikes.
If they improve the customer service and start working WITH creators instead of against them, then I will gladly pay.
That's basically my take. If they decided to make a genuine effort to make the platform better for creators and viewers, I'll reward those efforts with my money. However, their decisions over the past few years are incredibly out of touch with creators and viewers, so I'll continue to partially adblock them and subscribe to small business competitors.