I’m often surprised when I hear how other people live. Conversation at work will go like:
Employee A: “Youtube ads are getting ridiculous.”
Me: “You still see Youtube ads?”
Employee B: “Yeah, just get Youtube Premium. Such a smart investment.”
Me: “Wait, what?!”
Several of my millennial friends have cable TV and Tivo or something just because they are creatures of habit and are too tired from raising kids to consider changing their process. Weirdly, my boomer parents are the most tech savvy media consumers I know. They just have terrible taste.
I definitely buy YouTube premium, have had it for a few years. But I also use it a ton instead of Netflix or Amazon or anything else. I figure at a minimum of 50 hours a week on YouTube I should probably pay for it, even at the like $20 AUD a month or whatever it’s climbed to at this point, and creators get a % of my premium money so that supports people.
This is one of those things that I go against the Lemmy hivemind on. I cut out pretty much every streaming service and sail the high seas for most of my media.But I consider YouTube Premium worth the cost.
I got grandfathered into it when Google Music shut down and I really haven’t felt the need to change anything. YouTube music is better than Spotify. I don’t have to constantly play the whack-a-mole game of ad blockers that will inevitably break during a YouTube update. I don’t have to rely on finicky software to get videos to play in the background with my phone screen off.
Look, I get it. All these features used to be offered for free without ads. I think that more than anything is why people are so rabidly against premium, because they feel like they had that stuff stolen from them. But YouTube is a service, not a right. You were never guaranteed those features permanently. The cost of Premium is miniscule compared to the benefits I get from it. I use YouTube a LOT. Weather for how to videos, or ASMR, or background music, or documentaries, or podcasts. I like knowing that no matter where I use it, from my computer to my phone to the random smart TV in a hotel that I cast to, I’m not going to see any ads.
All this is based on the current services offered at the current price. If and when they start making those services shittier or increase the cost, then I will seek alternatives; but not before.
EDIT: I love all the many replies going “Yea but you could just use this program combined with this plugin on your locally hosted server. Just use these 3 different pieces of software. Have you tried Squootle? Just use Squootle and SEvR, bro. If you use Squootle you can download the video, recompress it, and play it from any desktop running Windows 7.”
I’m not fundamentally opposed to YT Premium, I just think it’s hilariously overpriced.
I’d need a family plan. That would cost me £20 a month, just so I can watch YT videos. I baulked at paying Netflix whatever the fuck they started charging a few years ago, but at least they’re producing multi-million pound shows.
I used to have Premium from Ukraine via VPN. It was great. I spent a year or so paying them five quid a month. Then they closed that loophole and now I pay them nothing, and download all the videos I want with yt-dlp into my Jellyfin server.
Its basically all of youtube music, accessed via proxies, but works roughly like spotify, i think it actually pulls playlist album and artist data from there.
Oh and you can just hit a button and download any song.
And you don’t need any kind of networked account. You can have a local account though.
… downside is it is slightly slower than Spotify.
… why does anyone give any money or ad time to any corporation?
You don’t have to.
EDIT:
Just set up WayDroid on my linux OS, purely to just use this currently APK only app.
Total elapsed time: Under 10 minutes, and thats so high because it took me 8 of those 10 minutes to download WayDroid, at the blazing speeds of nearly 10 MiB/s!
Uh yeah anyway now I have no advertisement Spotify, basically, on my desktop as well.
Aren’t you confusing YouTube music premium and youtube premium ?
Only the first is required for music streaming. The second is just a huge waste of money if you only watch YouTube videos on a computer (the first is too in the sens that you don’t need it)
It’s not so much that they’re blocked, they just don’t work because ios Firefox is actually safari. It’s the same with all browsers on iphones, they’re all safari.
Apple only allows different browser engines in the European Union, but even there they came up with enough requirements that they aren’t allowed in practice:
I’m not the person you asked, and I don’t care if you buy YT premium, but Firefox mobile can play background videos, the only finicky thing is it pauses when you turn your screen off, but you can press play on your lockscreen to start it again.
I use smarttube next on my television.
For music, I personally do Qobuz because they pay marginally better than Spotify (albeit still not a ton.)
New pipe, smart tube, vanced, etc etc. there are about 15 options before I would pay even 1 extra dollar to Google. Every TV manufacturer seems to still have a working option.
If none of those work, I can honestly just do without.
It is, however, the music publishing industry. Mostly Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music.
Those 3 behemoths of avarice hoard the rights to 80%+ of the popular music of the entire world, so they’re arguably just as undeserving of your money as Google is 🤷
Use smart tube apk on your tv if you have an android device doing video, or if your tv supports apk installation from usb. Nvidea shield or similar works amazing.
To be honest I just don’t want google to get more money. They suck.
Also your use case is very specific. The people I was referencing have more basic needs that would be easily bypassed with ublock. It’s fine if the way you like to listen to music is best served by youtube with a subscription.
I’m with you there, but Google is quote rapidly falling off for me. thinking about moving away from all of Google, rolling my own solution and self-hosting (really the only free open path available currently where you’re in control) seems like it would be worse than quitting hard opiates or something. I know all the benefits of switching and even the tech part of what I would do at a high level, I’m just lazy.
I pay for Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon prime, but never in life will I pay for YouTube premium. I have Google one and I pay enough for it. There are plenty of apps that still deliver an ad free, promotion free, bullshit free experience and the fact that Google works so hard to fuck with it makes me even less likely to ever pay.
Paying for YouTube would be like paying for tiktok or whatever dumb shit video service people watch now. It just isn’t going to happen. I will use the service for free, find the content for free, or else it will get cut from the lineup.
Pay for YouTube / watch YouTube ads… Lol no way to either one.
I’m often surprised when I hear how other people live. Conversation at work will go like:
Employee A: “Youtube ads are getting ridiculous.”
Me: “You still see Youtube ads?”
Employee B: “Yeah, just get Youtube Premium. Such a smart investment.”
Me: “Wait, what?!”
Several of my millennial friends have cable TV and Tivo or something just because they are creatures of habit and are too tired from raising kids to consider changing their process. Weirdly, my boomer parents are the most tech savvy media consumers I know. They just have terrible taste.
I definitely buy YouTube premium, have had it for a few years. But I also use it a ton instead of Netflix or Amazon or anything else. I figure at a minimum of 50 hours a week on YouTube I should probably pay for it, even at the like $20 AUD a month or whatever it’s climbed to at this point, and creators get a % of my premium money so that supports people.
Just use ublock and revanced?
This is one of those things that I go against the Lemmy hivemind on. I cut out pretty much every streaming service and sail the high seas for most of my media.But I consider YouTube Premium worth the cost.
I got grandfathered into it when Google Music shut down and I really haven’t felt the need to change anything. YouTube music is better than Spotify. I don’t have to constantly play the whack-a-mole game of ad blockers that will inevitably break during a YouTube update. I don’t have to rely on finicky software to get videos to play in the background with my phone screen off.
Look, I get it. All these features used to be offered for free without ads. I think that more than anything is why people are so rabidly against premium, because they feel like they had that stuff stolen from them. But YouTube is a service, not a right. You were never guaranteed those features permanently. The cost of Premium is miniscule compared to the benefits I get from it. I use YouTube a LOT. Weather for how to videos, or ASMR, or background music, or documentaries, or podcasts. I like knowing that no matter where I use it, from my computer to my phone to the random smart TV in a hotel that I cast to, I’m not going to see any ads.
All this is based on the current services offered at the current price. If and when they start making those services shittier or increase the cost, then I will seek alternatives; but not before.
EDIT: I love all the many replies going “Yea but you could just use this program combined with this plugin on your locally hosted server. Just use these 3 different pieces of software. Have you tried Squootle? Just use Squootle and SEvR, bro. If you use Squootle you can download the video, recompress it, and play it from any desktop running Windows 7.”
I’m not fundamentally opposed to YT Premium, I just think it’s hilariously overpriced.
I’d need a family plan. That would cost me £20 a month, just so I can watch YT videos. I baulked at paying Netflix whatever the fuck they started charging a few years ago, but at least they’re producing multi-million pound shows.
I used to have Premium from Ukraine via VPN. It was great. I spent a year or so paying them five quid a month. Then they closed that loophole and now I pay them nothing, and download all the videos I want with yt-dlp into my Jellyfin server.
Uh, OpenTune.
Its basically all of youtube music, accessed via proxies, but works roughly like spotify, i think it actually pulls playlist album and artist data from there.
Oh and you can just hit a button and download any song.
And you don’t need any kind of networked account. You can have a local account though.
… downside is it is slightly slower than Spotify.
… why does anyone give any money or ad time to any corporation?
You don’t have to.
EDIT:
Just set up WayDroid on my linux OS, purely to just use this currently APK only app.
Total elapsed time: Under 10 minutes, and thats so high because it took me 8 of those 10 minutes to download WayDroid, at the blazing speeds of nearly 10 MiB/s!
Uh yeah anyway now I have no advertisement Spotify, basically, on my desktop as well.
Also I was wrong:
Its not slower than Spotify.
My phone is just a piece of crap.
Aren’t you confusing YouTube music premium and youtube premium ?
Only the first is required for music streaming. The second is just a huge waste of money if you only watch YouTube videos on a computer (the first is too in the sens that you don’t need it)
Music is free with premium, and I watch videos everywhere
Can you even get them separately?
Man I just use ublock on Firefox, it works on all my devices including my phone, and I’ve never once had to play with it
Not iPhone unfortunately. Firefox plugins are blocked.
And there’s the worm in your Apple.
It’s not so much that they’re blocked, they just don’t work because ios Firefox is actually safari. It’s the same with all browsers on iphones, they’re all safari.
Apple only allows different browser engines in the European Union, but even there they came up with enough requirements that they aren’t allowed in practice:
https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-browser-engines/
Try Brave; they’re a shit company but the iPhone version gives you back some of the YouTube perks.
Video Lite works fine for me on iPhone. It even gives me youtube audio with locked screen.
And can you play videos on your phone with the screen off?
How about when you cast to a smart TV? Does your browser based ad-block work then too?
What do you use for music? If it’s Spotify, why? YT premium costs just about as much.
Firefox, Video Background Play Fix addon, works like a charm.
I’m not the person you asked, and I don’t care if you buy YT premium, but Firefox mobile can play background videos, the only finicky thing is it pauses when you turn your screen off, but you can press play on your lockscreen to start it again.
I use smarttube next on my television.
For music, I personally do Qobuz because they pay marginally better than Spotify (albeit still not a ton.)
If you haven’t, check out Grayjay for YT on mobile.
Or NewPipe
Chuckles, yeah buddy there was this adVanced app the I had to REinstall it. Paying is for suckers.
New pipe, smart tube, vanced, etc etc. there are about 15 options before I would pay even 1 extra dollar to Google. Every TV manufacturer seems to still have a working option.
If none of those work, I can honestly just do without.
Because it’s not google.
It is, however, the music publishing industry. Mostly Sony Music, Universal Music, and Warner Music.
Those 3 behemoths of avarice hoard the rights to 80%+ of the popular music of the entire world, so they’re arguably just as undeserving of your money as Google is 🤷
I personally think the music industry is worse than Google, but they had a head start on being shitheads
You sound like someone that thinks weed turns you into a murder chicken.
Yep. However, it’s somewhat inconsistent. YT doesn’t want you to be able to but it does work, for now.
Use smart tube apk on your tv if you have an android device doing video, or if your tv supports apk installation from usb. Nvidea shield or similar works amazing.
To be honest I just don’t want google to get more money. They suck.
Also your use case is very specific. The people I was referencing have more basic needs that would be easily bypassed with ublock. It’s fine if the way you like to listen to music is best served by youtube with a subscription.
I’m with you there, but Google is quote rapidly falling off for me. thinking about moving away from all of Google, rolling my own solution and self-hosting (really the only free open path available currently where you’re in control) seems like it would be worse than quitting hard opiates or something. I know all the benefits of switching and even the tech part of what I would do at a high level, I’m just lazy.
Yeah that is definitely against the grain for me.
I pay for Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon prime, but never in life will I pay for YouTube premium. I have Google one and I pay enough for it. There are plenty of apps that still deliver an ad free, promotion free, bullshit free experience and the fact that Google works so hard to fuck with it makes me even less likely to ever pay.
Paying for YouTube would be like paying for tiktok or whatever dumb shit video service people watch now. It just isn’t going to happen. I will use the service for free, find the content for free, or else it will get cut from the lineup.
Pay for YouTube / watch YouTube ads… Lol no way to either one.