This ad just popped up and it should be more infuriating than just mildly, But it’s more of Google being Google. How many different tiers of YouTube are there now so Alphabet can skim off slightly higher margins from each user possible? Premium LITE? Really? And I am just tickled by the fact that the main perk is not that it removes ads but that there will be slightly less of them. “Pay us to watch ads” Is the new corporate standard.
It does remove ads in most videos, just not in Shorts, or on music videos. The whole deal is they’re essentially un-bundling a music subscription from YT Premium, which makes it cheaper, and is then better if you, say, watch YouTube, but already use Spotify for your music.
Essentially, you don’t see any ads when you watch videos, AKA no midrolls, but you might see a small banner ad above the list of next suggested videos to the right of the video player, and if you constantly scroll shorts they might toss some ads in there as well.
Personally, as someone who doesn’t use YouTube for music, and doesn’t like scrolling shorts, I see this as perfectly reasonable as a way to reduce the cost, especially when you can click the Theater mode button on any video to block out the majority of the suggested videos area by default before any sidebar ad would even make it on your screen.
Great news then, if you get the AI Pro plan they include it free of charge!
Who wouldn’t want to be a “pro” at having a machine think for them? Sign me up!!! /s