YouTube Premium is getting a huge price hike in over a dozen countries, sparking user backlash. Some countries are experiencing hikes between 30% and 50%

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://mas.to/@alternativeto/113192581407194025

YouTube Premium users across the globe are facing significant price hikes as Google increases subscription costs in over a dozen countries. This follows earlier price jumps in various regions, including the United States last summer. The latest increases vary by region, with some countries experiencing hikes between 30% to 50%. For instance, in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy, the Family plan will rise from €18 to €26 starting November, while the individual plan will increase by €2 to €14.

Countries affected by these changes include Ireland, Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, UAE, Switzerland, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, and Denmark. Although most Reddit reports are from European users, the price hikes also impact the Middle East, Colombia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. YouTube had already raised its subscription prices in India by 15–20% in late August.

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elliot_crane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
It is morally correct to adblock youtube.

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- Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Or just not watch.
  
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  - Usernameblankface@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Not watching has a much better moral argument.
    
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  - net00@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Easier said than done when you talk about the global video sharing platform that is used everywhere by everyone…
    
    It’s like telling someone to just ditch their smartphone… not practically doable. Blocking ads is morally correct when you are forced to use it.
    
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  - umbrella@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    i dont like being addicted to their platforms and limit my time using it.
    
    however, the idea of being a luddite and isolating myself from the useful things in them just because their current owners are greedy capitalists sounds even worse.
    
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- kameecoding@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Wouldnt that just cause them to increase prices more? Since now someone else has to pay for the bandwith you use?
  
  Thus what you are doing is using your technological know how to offload your costs onto less technical users who can’t adblock.
  
  The morally correct thing to do is to stop watching youtube and either go to a paid platform like floatplane or nebula and support the creators there, isn’t it? But let’s be honest, we all know you just want adfree youtube videos for free.
  
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  - praise_idleness@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    You think YouTube is some kind of Mom pop shop down the block? They have more than enough money to burn. Least they can do is to serve adfree videos, better, I might add.
    
    Thus what you are doing is using your technological know how to offload your costs onto less technical users who can’t adblock.
    
    Which is the reason why we should help people get adblocks more, which is also recommended by the FBI.
    
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  - elliot_crane@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I’m ok with all of that. It furthers my goal of hitting the platform back in response to their predatory marketing practices and de facto monopoly. Also, I do support creators outside of youtube. In short, I don’t feel bad about any of this.
    
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  - Tja@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Prepare for the downvotes!
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    That might be their response, yes. But they also have some other options:
    
    improve the service to be worth the cost
    
    reduce the cost to increase Premium subs - I have a price in mind, and they’re way above it
    
    add an a la carte alternative to Premium (i.e. pay per video or something)
    
    cut expenses, such as by reducing the amount of useless videos that are uploaded (i.e. small charge to upload videos, recur every year; allow some amount for free)
    
    But no, raising prices is the easier “solution.” I’m willing to pay (I pay for Nebula, after all), I’m just not willing to pay what they’re asking for the service as-is.
    
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- Cock_Inspecting_Asexual@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Use Revanced and forever be free
  
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Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
just cancel all subscriptions. None of them are worth it

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- gregor@gregtech.eu ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Bitwarden is worth it. (Yes, I know, I should self host it. I do, but I still see it as a good deal. Also Hetzner is a good subscription. So yes, some are worth it
  
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  - Engywuck@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Agreed: Bitwarden Storage Share ControlD Real debrid
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I like SimpleFIN ($1.50/mo IIRC) + Actual Budget. I can pull in transaction data from multiple sources into my self-hosted Actual Budget service, which is super nice (or I can DIY if I want).
    
    I used to use Tiller ($80/year I think?), which is basically the same, but it pulls transactions into a spreadsheet (Google Docs or Microsoft Office) and they have some budgeting tools around that. I’m trying to move away from Google and Microsoft, so I ended up cancelling, but I really liked their service.
    
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- Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  i meam the payment for a domain name is kinda worth it. as well as a functional vpn
  
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  - gregor@gregtech.eu ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Agreed. Mullvad is absolutely epic. A question: why do we have to pay for domain names? And why do some providers offer a domain at a lower price than others, while offering the same services? it doesn’t make sense to me, an explaination is welcome
    
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- BananaTrifleViolin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I pay for my email (Proton) password manager (last pass), and VPN (nordvpn).
  
  I’d say subs that maintain your privacy and security are well worth it - there is no such thing as a free lunch and instead the tech giants are dining out at the expense of users.
  
  Googles ad monopoly needs to be torn apart. Because YouTube premium prices may actually represent what it really costs to maintain video sites like Google, but Google have managed to destroy all competition with the free model and now there is no one realistically able to compete on content or price.
  
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  - forgotaboutlaye@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Sorry if you get this a lot, but have you tried Bitwarden? It’s been a while since I compared but last I checked I found it miles better than LastPass.
    
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  - kambusha@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Proton has a password manager and VPN. May be worth bundling over paying for all 3 separately
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    
    email
    
    Same, but Tuta and Bitwarden (don’t currently use a paid VPN, I host my own).
    
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- dmtalon@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  So, steal everything or something else? Content isn’t free. The ad model exists, but only works if people see the ads.
  
  If everyone blocks all ads, and doesn’t pay a subscription, how’s that work for those providing the service?
  
  I’m not defending YouTube here, just curious what your solution is to have a service and not pay for it.
  
  I do pay for YT family Premium in the US. I watch mostly YT, and it is my music streaming service. I definitely liked it more when it was costing me $15/mo for that and was mad when that went to $23. I even tried switching to Spotify and using ad blocking on YT. I didn’t jive with Spotify, and while ad blockers work for YT, it’s a bit of a pain installing them on TV boxes and managing subscriptions across devices, asking with which videos you’ve seen etc.
  
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  - ugo@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Youtube revenue in 2023 (before these price hikes) was 31.5 billion USD.
    
    The revenue for the entirety of alphabet in 2023 was 307 billion USD.
    
    Youtube alone generated 10% of the entire revenue of alphabet’s portfolio in 2023.
    
    Yes, revenue is not profit, but I could not find profit figures for youtube.
    
    Alphabet’s operating income for 2023 was 84.3 billion USD. Assuming a similar proportion of revenue to operating income (I know, hella extrapolating, but again no direct sources for youtube) that would pur youtube’s operating income in the ballpark of 8 billion USD.
    
    It’s not that they aren’t making money because people are “stealing” as you say from poor little indie company youtube. It’s just that they want more more more MORE MORE MONEY.
    
    Because of course they do. It’s never enough.
    
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  - TechAnon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Not op, but I think a solution would be having AI watch the videos and tracking what the people are saying, wearing, using etc and posting links to purchase those things in the description. They get a cut of sales and can also sell links for competing products if companies want more exposure. This could be effective and noninvasive. Give a cut to content creators and it may be even more effective.
    
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umami_wasbi@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Firefox + uBO NewPipe/LibrePipe/GrayJay FreeTube

The all are free, no subscription required

And sorry Apple users, I don’t know what option you have cuz I don’t use Apple.

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- gilarelli@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Freetube doesn’t seem to work anymore (for me at least) as Google went hard on blocking all invidious instances and proxies…
  
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  - _Sprite@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Change your API backend to Local in the settings. It still works that way on Freetube and Libretube
    
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- Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Also Revanced
  
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- Quik@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  iOS user here, uYou++ is quite good, but only a mod for the regular YT app, not a complete alternative.
  
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- ondra5@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  As an iPhone user I like to use YtLitePlus, it’s pretty much the same user experience as using revanced on android, maybe even a bit better. I’d like to have an alternative client such as NewPipe but hey, we can’t have everything.
  
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- narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  iOS/iPadOS: Safari + AdGuard (+ Vinegar (optional)) macOS: Safari + AdGuard or Firefox + uBO or FreeTube
  
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- jBlight@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I use to use tubular, but it stopped working and I’m not computer savy enough to fix it. Can anyone offer some assistance please? It gets the infinite loading icon and then gives me an error
  
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AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Remember: Everything premium offers used to be included for free

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- Petter1@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Except youtube music, I guess
  
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  - bss03@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    The whole reason I got on YT Premium was because it was free with Google Play Music. I have real issues watch non-Premiun now, because I’ve always disliked advertising methods. (Not so much th ads, which can be entertaining, but just being shown content I didn’t request instead of the content I did request.)
    
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  - TachyonTele@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    What does YouTube music have that regular YouTube doesn’t? I have a ton of playlists on YouTube for music. Everything is on there.
    
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  - orl0pl@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    YouTube Music Revanced or Innertune (on fdroid)
    
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  - LordWiggle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Get the RiMusic app. YouTube music without ads.
    
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  - VintageGenious@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    SpMp is the best
    
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NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Funny, I still pay them my same flat fee of nada

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solsangraal@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
lol and they’ll raise prices again next year. and people will complain for a minute, then renew their sub

when is this going to stop being news?

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- shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  This is simply Business 101. Once you have a customer base you want to trade low-payers for high.
  
  Did this with my computer business years ago. Woke up one day and said, “Why am I sweating these cheapskates that constantly bitch?” Fired them and kept the higher-paying, and less bitchy, clients. I was making more money for less effort and less overhead.
  
  I don’t know what amazes me more, that people keep paying when they know the price will keep going up, or that people bitch and moan. Last I checked, YouTube access isn’t a human right. I’ll keep using it until these is no way around their ads, but I’m not paying them a dime.
  
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  - Cypher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    YouTube has a monopoly and it’s no surprise people are frustrated, especially those who aren’t tech aware enough to continue blocking ads.
    
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  - sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Exactly. My brother bought an accounting firm and is planning to do just that. You can probably double-dip as well by selling these customers to a competitor/new startup as referrals.
    
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- Ilandar@aussie.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Exactly. “Sparking backlash” just means these people whined for 2 minutes like they always do, before reaching into their wallet once again.
  
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- Magnolia_@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Hello based department?
  
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Juice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I can’t wait for google to crash and burn. Bring back GeoCities and Netscape navigator.

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- dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Like Reddit dying after the API incident?
  
  Just like Reddit, Google are going nowhere; sadly.
  
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  - Juice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Google is having problems, they can’t make profits anymore. Its different because reddit was never profitable, but googles been profitable for years.
    
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- cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  bring back web 1.0 because web 1.0 was superior.
  
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  - Juice@midwest.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I have been saying this for years
    
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- JackbyDev@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  🤩
  
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Usernameblankface@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Unless the backlash is a huge percentage of users immediately stop using the service, they won’t care. They already calculated how many users they’d lose and how much more profit they get to bring in off of those who decide to stay.

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CosmoNova@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Youtube doing what I told every Premium adversary they would logically do after dumping more and more ad space onto the site. And to make Premium look worth the price, they’ll continue to shove more ads in your face just before, you guessed it, doing another price hike. Rinse and repeat. Premium users are strong drivers of this enshittification so I will continue to call them out on it whenever they tell you to join the scam as well. I’ll stick to my ad blockers.

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OldQWERTYbastard@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Use NewPipe if you’re on Android.

You’re welcome.

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- CluelessDude@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Tubular if you want a newpipe fork that also includes Sponsor skips!
  
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- Fluba@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  FreeTube for desktop.
  
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- Sho@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Just did cause of ur comment actually, thank you so much!
  
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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I really like Grayjay, also on Android. The nice thing is it also supports other sources, so you can watch Odysee, Rumble, Nebula, Peertube and others on it. If the same video is on multiple platforms, it recognizes that and only shows one.
  
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whome@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Yeah they are continuously slowing down Firefox and I see a future where I will simply stop using YouTube.i thank them in advance for when that day comes

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- eronth@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  More and more I try to find my entertainment elsewhere. I am slowly, but surely, migrating away from youtube (and google in general).
  
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  - Psythik@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Do you know of a good free alternative to YouTube? Preferably one with a smarter algorithm that doesn’t just feed me the same boring bullshit over and over again?
    
    Yes I like cars, computers, and video game history, YouTube, but I like other things too, you know. I wish there were a way to view other people’s YT homepages so that I can find something new to watch.
    
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selokichtli@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Can’t wait to see this bubble burst.

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spicystraw@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Been paying for years now, got a 50% price hike. Canceled on the spot. I like the creators,I follow, but recommendations have sacked for me for several months now anyway.

Any advice for streaming add free on Chromecast or Samsung tv?

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- ben_dover@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  smarttube on tv
  
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- Kecessa@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Revanced
  
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  - Marketsupreme@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Does that work for TV?
    
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notsorryforpartying@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I’ve been paying for YouTube premium and have been watching a ton of YouTube for years. But I’ve been finding myself watching less and less YouTube lately and this might be the push to finally cancel and back away some from the platform.

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SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I just checked and ublock origin is still free. What a relief

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- skeezix@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Plop plop fizz fizz.
  
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Teils13@lemmy.eco.br ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
The Peertube protocol developers should develop a central hub webpage space for newcomers, allow accounts there to follow all channels in every instance (and to only follow and block specific instances too), and then develop apps for smart tvs. It’s the only realistic FOSS alternative to Youtube i can think of, and i dont know why the first point is still non existent (having already subscribed to several channels in 3 instances using separate accounts).

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arc@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
People pay YouTube instead of using an adblocker?

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- underthesign@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Please tell me a simple, idiot-proof way to block YT ads on all devices incl. Mobiles, Shield etc. that doesn’t require something complex like piHole, works outside the home (family’s phones etc. ), and doesn’t risk blocking stuff it shouldn’t. That’s my trouble. Premium solves all of that, while bringing other small benefits. Maybe there’s a better way.
  
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  - mechoman444@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Easy peasy. Lemon squeezy.
    
    Firefox-ublock (even better on Linux but not required)
    
    Revanced for mobile.
    
    Pihole doesn’t stop youtube ads anyhow.
    
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  - Mad_Punda@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    I’m in the same boat, but I think this hike still will make me cancel my family plan. Less time on YouTube is probably good anyway.
    
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- TheGalacticVoid@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  Creators get way more money with Premium viewers than ad-based ones, or at least it used to be that way.
  
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- samus12345@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
  I use the PS5 to watch YouTube on the TV, no way around the ads there. But no way in hell I’m paying them!
  
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  - Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
    Thank goodness for mute buttons.
    
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Mandy@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
And this is what happens cause the vast mayority of people don’t give a rats ass as long as they can consume

Welcome to the monopoly

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drdiddlybadger@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I hadn’t realized how high it was until seeing this and canceled mine.

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oakey66@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
You gotta make up for a lack of innovation but just price gouging customers on absolutely everything. I only have Spotify because of the radio function but otherwise all of these services are absolute dog shit. They don’t offer anything new. They’ve just created a new set of moats for features, songs, videos, television and games. Eventually this system has to collapse because treating customers like employees that have no choice but to stay will lead people to innovate on piracy.

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KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I’m slowly using YouTube less and less.

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Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I’ve been paying $25 CAD to support five family accounts and prevent my daughter from seeing ads during her monitored viewing. If that price goes up 30-50%, I’m fucking done. This was an expense I was willing to incur, as YouTube is literally the only media platform my family even uses anymore. Better price than cable and multiple streaming platforms, and (again) I’m paying that for five active accounts.

If anyone knows of a way for me to adblock through my Roku TV so that we can continue watching YouTube on it without a Premium account, I’m all ears. The TV is the only reason I’m not just using uBlock to begin with.

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tias@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Woah. I just cancelled my subscription last week because it’s too expensive, and now they raise the prices. Guess they really don’t want me back.

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Cringe2793@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Absurd to pay so much just to remove ads only for smart TVs. There are easy ways to block ads on phones and computers.

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gwilikers@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Revanced.

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disconnectikacio@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Use Smarttube instead on android tv and stbs Smarttube

For android phones, tablets: Tubular

In browser ublock blocks youtube ads, also invidious instances.

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capital@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
If history is any indication, they will complain and no significant number of them will cancel.

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LordWiggle@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
And that, kids, is why you should pirate. Paying customers are restricted and being ripped off. Piracy gives freedom, it pays off, it makes sure you dont have to agree to stupid user agreements which take away you rights. Make sure to support your favorite creators though, through other platforms like Patreon. Don’t take the money away from them. Just take away the power and control away from the evil mega corps like Google and Meta.

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user1234@lemmynsfw.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
I thought YouTube Premium was like WinRAR. Nobody actually pays for it.

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n3cr0@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago
Only up to 50%? I would much appreciate 100%. That would make users rethink their subscription.

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