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YouTube launches a $7.99 per month, ad-free Premium Lite subscription

⁨119⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨return2ozma@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨technology@lemmy.world⁩

https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/05/youtube-launches-a-7-99-per-month-ad-free-premium-lite-subscription/

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Comments

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  • Xanza@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    blocks most ads

    Super important and makes this completely useless.

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    • residentmarchant@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Somebody didn’t read the article! It’s only Music videos that will have ads. It seems the cost savings here are all from cutting out record label contracts

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      • Xanza@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I did read the article. Music videos on YouTube are YouTube videos. Adding ads to them doesn’t magically make them something else.

        What they’re really saying is “oh, well, we want you to get used to the subscription model having ads on some things, because we plan to expand it massively in the future.”

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      • toynbee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I don’t want ads in any of my videos, but if I have to have intrusive and distracting profit generating clips interrupt what I actually want to watch … I think music videos are among the ones I’d prefer disrupted the least.

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      • Pika@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        That’s also appear on the main screen, as you’re browsing and on shorts

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  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    uBlock Origin and SponsorBlock are still free.

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    • stardust@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Freetube (desktop) and newpipe (android) is great for those who would like a subscription feed without an account, local Playlist, download videos, and save view history while remaining account free.

      I use pipepipe on mobile with it being a fork of newpipe with sponsor block, and lets you use a throw away YouTube account it uses only to access age restricted videos.

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      • fieryhamster@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        They really need an iOSapp too.

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      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        FreeTube is great, but I wish there was a non-Chromium based alternative.

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    • EveryLemon@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Unfortunately Chrome just rendered uBlock Origin useless, and borderline demands you remove it from your browser. I can confirm that mine stopped working yesterday :(

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      • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        uBlock works fine in Firefox and its forks.

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      • RiQuY@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Don’t worry, there are plenty of alternatives to Chrome with built-in ad-blocking.

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      • tyler@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        And now you switch to Firefox. The better browser for years at this point.

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  • imnapr@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Eight dollars a month for fucking “premium-lite” is insane.

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    • dmtalon@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      The only problem I have with the premium subscription is the lack of ad control from the content creator. They should have to put them into some kind of wrapper that I, as a premium member can decide to enable or not. As a paying subscriber I should be able to watch it 100% ad free without going through sponsorblock, which is a big pita to do on set-top boxes.

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      • ch00f@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Check out Nebula. Lots of YouTubers host there. Subscriptions go straight to the creators, and they cut the sponsor blocks out of the versions they post there.

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      • Evotech@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Sponsorblock built in would be nice.

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    • kobra@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Yeah especially without full feature parity with YouTube premium. This $7.99 price should omit music but everything else from premium should be included, and even that feels a little expensive.

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    • HeyJoe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Considering i get premium Peacock for like $6 a month after discounts I agree. I get the live channel plus a ton of other stuff and other pre-made channels to watch. Some sports as well plus the Olympics when they are relevant. Asking $8 just to remove some ads sounds awful. I will stick to using Firefox on mobile and pc with ublock origin which removes all ads.

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      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I feel the same. I pay $5/month for my Nebula subscription, and I think that’s a bit high for my usage.

        Could I get an ala carte option where my first X hours are ad free? I don’t watch a ton of YouTube, but I’m willing to pay a little to support the platform.

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  • Fiivemacs@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Good for them. Still won’t give them money ever

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  • electric@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I don’t get the people shitting on this. It’s a very fair plan. Something I’ve been wishing existed for the past month, even. Like the article states, it’s for people who use YT to watch TV (me).

    I just hope there’s a yearly plan to get a little bit more of a discount. Student plan is the same price but no yearly plan, so it comes to ~$90 per year.

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    • EngineerGaming@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t like that a paid plan gives worse experience than free tools. For example, the downloads not being files you can store indefinitely and play by anything. Or not all ads being guaranteed to be blocked.

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    • beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I can only speak for myself, but I refuse to give Google a dime because they’re unfriendly to consumers.

      I pay way more in Patreon subscriptions than I would pay for YouTube. I don’t see ads, and the creators make more money from me. And, importantly, Google sees none of it.

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    • GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Smart tube

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      • runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yep. Smart tube on the TV, Firefox + ubo on phone and laptop.

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  • LWD@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    With YouTube Lite, customers will be able to watch videos across verticals like gaming, fashion, beauty, cooking, news, and more, ad-free

    Oh wow. They’ll remove some, but not all, ads!

    [T]he new tier won’t offer several benefits in the full YouTube Premium ($13.99 per month) subscription, like downloads, background play, or the ability to watch music videos ad-free.

    Price-gating downloads seems pretty evil. The feature doesn’t cost Google any extra money. It could even save them a little server strain if a user wants to watch the same video repeatedly. But clearly, this is where Google’s surveillance pays off: they know what people want, and they know to demand an extra $6/month for it.

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    • toynbee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Is “verticals” marketing speak for “categories” or “genres” or does it mean something else?

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      • slumberlust@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        It varies by org but yes verticals are usually product silos that serve certain types of customers or needs.

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  • ColdWater@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    I heard people still get ads even on full price

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    • dtrain@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Have it . Never seen an ad besides what the creator makes in his video.

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      • ColdWater@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        What about homepage?

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    • ovalofsand@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Nope. Unless you’re talking about sponsors that content creators hock.

      The app allows you to skip to commonly skipped-to-areas, which often makes skipping that kind of content very quick and simple. I’m not sure if that’s a a feature of the free version though

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    • Duckabush@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Had it for years no ads ever anywhere on YouTube.

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  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    As an entry-level subscription, the new tier won’t offer several benefits in the full YouTube Premium ($13.99 per month) subscription, like downloads, background play, or the ability to watch music videos ad-free.

    I wonder how much electricity is wasted on this alone. Probably so many people leaving their screens powered on just to continue listening to something without it stopping.

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    • Probius@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It literally costs them money to make YouTube worse so that you can pay them to make it better again. NewPipe go brrrrrr

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  • Nightwish76@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Thanks, but I prefer Revanced.

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  • Comtief@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Too little too late, I wish there was a non-US alternative to YouTube.

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    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Nebula is US based, but it’s quite different and has some overlap with some popular YouTube channels. $6/month or $60/year, and you can find discounts through various YouTube channel referral codes

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  • huquad@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Tempting, but I’ll stick with free sponsorblock. I could be convinced to switch if they started paying me though

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  • scytale@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If they bundled youtube music with it, maybe I’ll consider it. But this lite version will have ads on music and music videos.

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    • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Wait… Isn’t that what premium is?

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    • kobra@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      lol wait, that’s just YouTube premium isn’t it?? and that’s existed for a long time already

      Every previous YouTube premium post used to be inundated with people asking for a YouTube premium that didn’t include music because everyone already has music from Apple or Spotify. This is YouTube’s offering for that.

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    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s YouTube premium, that product already exists.

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    • dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Honestly a music video is basically one long commercial anyway I’m surprised they would have ads.

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