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You May Soon Need to Be a YouTube Premium Subscriber to Watch 4K Videos

I love how people here ride their high horses when Apple is discussed but as soon as they face a simple choice:
- deal with ads
- pay if you don't want them
- just stop using the service if ads hurt you or you don't want to pay or you just don't want to be tracked anyway

... they choose to adblock the **** out of a service they happily keep using 🤦‍♂️ 👏 👏 👏

I mean I get that you can't get around embedded videos (and pretty much everyone is using YT for this) but to keep browsing and consuming on the site/app?
 
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Lwii2boo said:
What we really need is a solid competitor to YouTube to make their product more appealing and less greedy.
The thing is Google knows they have no viable competitor for Youtube (except for some very specific geographies) so they just leverage their product success by pushing harder their monetisation. Seems kind of logic from an economic point of view but stupid greed at the same time.
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There are some viable competitors but Google being able to prioritize YT videos in search keeps them from reaching the mainstream
 
I guess they're AB testing this new "feature" :)

Honestly don't care that much about 4k. But the constant ads are really annoying... still holding up without premium service so far.
 
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As much as I hate this, its not surprising. The vast majority of users are probably either not on a PC or don't even know that their video is defaulting to 480p.
 
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randian said:
I don't want YT Music, that's why. It would be like going to a gas station and them saying "you can't buy gas without a car wash". Would you patronize that station? I sure wouldn't.
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Neither do I. I use a different music streaming service (Apple Music)… but I’m only acknowledging YT Premium is a good value. I would like Google to have a separate version of YT Premium w/o YT Music as well… Heck, I wish Apple had an 1TB iCloud tier (maybe start the 2nd pricing tier at 500GB) instead of bumping it from 200gb to 2TB. However, we all don’t get what we want.

If this becomes a reality it adds another element to distinguish itself from the free version which helps YT Premium become more valuable.
 
MacRumors said:


YouTube may make watching videos in 4K quality on the platform exclusive to only YouTube Premium subscribers, according to screenshots posted by users on Twitter and Reddit.

General-YouTube-Feature-1.jpg

On Reddit (1,2) and Twitter, some users have started to recently notice that on iOS, and presumably across other platforms also, YouTube is now saying that in order to watch videos in 4K, the user must be a paying YouTube Premium subscriber. Not all users are seeing the 4K quality option blocked behind YouTube's paywall, and it's unclear if YouTube plans to move forward with this.

A standard YouTube Premium plan costs $11.99 in the United States and includes ad-free videos, background playback, and the ability to download videos for offline viewing. We've reached out to YouTube for comment on 4K video quality possibly becoming a YouTube Premium feature and we'll update this article if we hear back.

Article Link: You May Soon Need to Be a YouTube Premium Subscriber to Watch 4K Videos
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Oh darn I'll never know what Bananarama's videos look like in 4K.
 
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kerr said:
I’d maybe pay $5 per month
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That's the thing. Stuff being made by companies headquartered in California US makes them think it's ok to charge as much as a coffee costs in San Francisco :)

This will not last. Even for rich Silicon Valley techies those coffees will eventually add up. And for the rest of the world i doubt YT premium is worth 11.99 already.

Incidentally, what content on youtube is worth watching in 4k? Maybe some nature documentaries, but little else?
 
macintologist said:
I'm a Youtube premium subscriber so I don't have to watch ads since there is so much classical music on Youtube. I really don't care since I don't have a 4K TV anyway and people should be grateful that they can watch Youtube for free in the first place.
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YouTube isn’t free they make a lot of money from ad revue as well as user data
 
I'm not opposed to paying for it because it blocks ads - but what I DO wish they would do, is bundle it in with YouTubeTV 4K Plus. I already have YouTubeTV and would love to have 4K - so if I pay for that it should come with YouTube Premium.
 
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I don't have even close to high enough internet speed to watch anything in 4k so they can charge whatever they like. I'll continue to struggle along with 1080p until it starts buffering then drop down to 720p or 480p. That'll show 'em.
 
haydn! said:
Folks are too accustom to things on the internet being free. But I daren’t imagine what YouTubes infrastructure costs must be, and how they’re likely to increase giving as more and more folks are starting to stream 4k as standard.
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YouTube isn’t free though they make money off advertising and horde our personal data
 
I don't know how anyone uses YouTube without premium. They made the ads so annoying that it became unusable. On top of that you still have to deal with every video having a sponsored section that plugs something.
 
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They are doing everything they can to push people to pay to watch YouTube. The ads are getting more numerous, longer and many you can't skip. *old man voice* I remember when YouTube didn't have ads in the videos, that was before Google got their greedy hands on it.
 
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I'm considering it just to block all the political ads here in Wisconsin. I wish they'd have some sort of bundle if you were already a YouTube TV subscriber though.
 
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So many of us want:
  • privacy (with no targeted ads which Youtube get paid less for)
  • no ads (we install ad blockers in our browsers, which blocks Youtube's ability to support their business for the FREE users)
  • high resolution (which costs Youtube more to stream)
  • quality content (from people that make their living as content creators and incentivizes them to continue their work)
Given all those "wants" from a user base that wants it FREE, something has to give. Would you rather they insert even more ads into our streams? I don't. Or go the route of moving 4k to a paid package? I would support this.

With so many angry about this change, that 1) are probably free users and 2) probably use Youtube a lot for so many different uses, figure out what you value and find a way to support it or eventually you will lose it. Just my two cents.
 
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grouch said:
Obnoxious since we've gone our whole lives getting videos from youtube for free, but it's uderstandable that they'd want to charge to watch the few 4k videos that are out there since it is a business and all.
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They data mine every system we use to watch YouTube. They sell that data. We’re already paying for it to use it. So no thanks. Google and it’s investors can eat a ****.
 
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Squuiid said:
Just leaving this here...
apps.apple.com

‎Vinegar - Tube Cleaner

‎Vinegar is a Safari extension that replaces the YouTube player with a minimal HTML video tag. It removes ads, restores picture-in-picture, and keeps videos playing in the background. Note: The "can read information from webpages" text in the permission section is just unfortunate wording...
apps.apple.com apps.apple.com

daringfireball.net

Vinegar — Safari Extension That Replaces YouTube Embeds With Simple HTML 5 Video Tags

Link to: https://andadinosaur.com/launch-vinegar
daringfireball.net daringfireball.net

9to5mac.com

This Safari extension replaces YouTube's video player with one that supports PiP and more [U] - 9to5Mac

It’s no secret that using YouTube in the browser on your iPhone or iPad is a rather unpleasant experience. And...
9to5mac.com 9to5mac.com
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Except doesn’t that not do 4K or 60fps?
 
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