YouTube Premium?

[Webcat86]

I've noticed lately that YouTube has massively increased the amount of ads it shows - it's so bad for me that skipping ahead in a video to find the spot I need will often trigger ads, and they'll also appear within just a couple of minutes of a video. And it shows me so many of the same ads as well, which really irritates me.

The cynic in me assumes this is deliberate, to annoy people enough to make them upgrade to Premium.

And, well, they've just about succeeded with me.

But here are my problems:

1. I dislike a lot about Google, including its mind-bogglingly-bad UX, lack of customer service, and pernicious business practices, and try to avoid giving them money where possible. Exception: Google Domains and G Suite.
2. I don't watch heaps of YouTube. I don't watch it every day, and certainly not hours a day.
3. I have very little interest in downloading videos
4. I have zero interest in Music, as I already subscribe to Apple Music

Does anyone here use it and have thoughts on it?

£12 a month on the one hand isn't a large sum of money, but on the other hand, it's more than I pay for either Netflix or Apple Music

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Are you opposed to using AdGuard, uBlock Origin, or a similar extension? They are free regardless of the browser, only uBlock doesn't work on Safari but AdGuard does.

 

[Webcat86]

Are you opposed to using AdGuard, uBlock Origin, or a similar extension? They are free regardless of the browser, only uBlock doesn't work on Safari but AdGuard does.

Not at all. I have AdBlock Plus and Ghostery but I still see so many ads around these days. AdGuard sounds like it actually works effectively then?

 

[gigatoaster]

Use uBlock Origin instead. I watch rarely YT but it’s always with no ads. What devices you use? Also don’t use the app but the browser if it’s an iPhone or iPad.

 

[Webcat86]

Use uBlock Origin instead. I watch rarely YT but it’s always with no ads. What devices you use? Also don’t use the app but the browser if it’s an iPhone or iPad.

Mainly my MBP. I just updated my AdBlock Plus for the first time in a while and went to YT to test it, and it played a video with no ads - fingers crossed I just needed that update!

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Not at all. I have AdBlock Plus and Ghostery but I still see so many ads around these days. AdGuard sounds like it actually works effectively then?

Yeah I don't like AdBlock Plus, very limited and unless you disable the "ethical" ad blocking or whatever they call it then it's useless and will still show ads which is probably what is happening to you. If you use Safari go into the app store (MacOS) and download AdGuard (don't download AdGuard from the internet) then you should be good with it's default settings but has plenty to customize. uBlock Origin is popular but less user friendly and not available for Safari.

You can also download AdGuard for iOS/iPadOS which works great as well and is free. I do a weird amount privacy testing using various browsers, web tools, extensions, and as far as extensions those are two of the best.

 

[Webcat86]

Yeah I don't like AdBlock Plus, very limited and unless you disable the "ethical" ad blocking or whatever they call it then it's useless and will still show ads which is probably what is happening to you. If you use Safari go into the app store (MacOS) and download AdGuard (don't download AdGuard from the internet) then you should be good with it's default settings but has plenty to customize. uBlock Origin is popular but less user friendly and not available for Safari.

You can also download AdGuard for iOS/iPadOS which works great as well and is free. I do a weird amount privacy testing using various browsers, web tools, extensions, and as far as extensions those are two of the best.

Awesome, thanks. I actually just updated ABP and disabled that ethical thing, and it seems to have worked on YouTube which is nice

I've not done much on iOS with blockers, I did install Purify when it first came out but haven't touched it since. Do you have any recommendations for privacy and blocking there - will AdGuard do it all?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Awesome, thanks. I actually just updated ABP and disabled that ethical thing, and it seems to have worked on YouTube which is nice

I've not done much on iOS with blockers, I did install Purify when it first came out but haven't touched it since. Do you have any recommendations for privacy and blocking there - will AdGuard do it all?

Yes AdGuard does it all. Just make sure to enable the extensions in Safari but AdGuard should walk you through that.

 

[Webcat86]

Yes AdGuard does it all. Just make sure to enable the extensions in Safari but AdGuard should walk you through that.

Awesome, I'll check it out - so once it's installed, I can remove Ghostery and ABP?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Awesome, I'll check it out - so once it's installed, I can remove Ghostery and ABP?

Yes and you should. Too many active ad blocker programs/filters and it slows down your web experience.

 

[Webcat86]

Yes and you should. Too many active ad blocker programs/filters and it slows down your web experience.

Wonderful. I’ve been clearing up some space today, updating apps, in a spring clean mode so a faster web experience with fewer extensions is perfect. I’m taking delivery of an iMac in the next month or so (whenever Apple delivers it) so I’m keen to have it all nice and fresh and remove any clutter

 

[peros550]

Any solution for Apple TV ? It’s crazy how much they have increased Ads these days

 

[BigMcGuire]

I've been a YouTube Premium user since YouTube Red days. I cannot stand ads. I use an adblocker but I wouldn't feel good using Youtube blocking content providers means of making $. Just me. Been pretty happy with YouTube premium. With Google Family you can share it with 4 others too.

 

[MisterSavage]

I resisted for so long because it felt like instead of paying for premium content I would be paying for them not to torture me. They finally broke me and I subscribed. It turns out I watch a lot of YouTube content when there's no ads. I'm watching videos about WWDC right now.

 

[Webcat86]

I resisted for so long because it felt like instead of paying for premium content I would be paying for them not to torture me. They finally broke me and I subscribed. It turns out I watch a lot of YouTube content when there's no ads. I'm watching videos about WWDC right now.

This is EXACTLY what my thought process was - "I'm not paying to get something, I'm paying to avoid a negative." I don't like monetisation strategy

 

[Webcat86]

Any solution for Apple TV ? It’s crazy how much they have increased Ads these days

On what, the YT app?

I've been a YouTube Premium user since YouTube Red days. I cannot stand ads. I use an adblocker but I wouldn't feel good using Youtube blocking content providers means of making $. Just me. Been pretty happy with YouTube premium. With Google Family you can share it with 4 others too.

Yeah, I do feel you on this. But then I blame Google for making the platform so unpleasant as a way to force the subscription - I've been watching ads for a long time, and the inconvenience is quite minor when it's 5 seconds and you can skip it, twice in a long video. Now that they're doubling-up adverts so you have to watch 2, then a few minutes later there's another break, then another one later, and again if you skip to another part of the video, it's just too much.

If there was an option to donate to the creator, I'd use that. I also pay certain creators through their main platforms - one I've bought multiple programs from, another I'm on their Patreon, and another I'm about to buy a course from. I think a single one of these purchases more than pays them the combined amount they'd ever get from Google as a result of my ad watching

 

[robotica]

I use smart tv on my fire tv cube and don’t have any adverts. I don’t watch youtube on my phone unless I have too. I really hate adverts.

 

[Webcat86]

I use smart tv on my fire tv cube and don’t have any adverts. I don’t watch youtube on my phone unless I have too. I really hate adverts.

I used to have a Fire stick but it was awful. It would be really slow, and get incredibly hot. Ditching that was the reason I got Apple TV

 

[robotica]

I used to have a Fire stick but it was awful. It would be really slow, and get incredibly hot. Ditching that was the reason I got Apple TV

Well you can’t install an ad less YouTube client on an Apple TV. Main reason I returned mine. Fire cube is very fast.

 

[JW5566]

YouTube has become mindbogglingly bad lately with adverts. Some are playing in less than 2 minutes after a video starts.

Like others above I use uBlock on my Macbook and this works well, but I can't seem to get rid of the adverts on my iPad. I have adGuard installed but it doesn't seem to do much (am I missing some setting?).

YouTube Premium is too expensive. I'd love to see a cheaper option simply to remove ads without any of the other "perks" I don't need.

 

[Webcat86]

YouTube has become mindbogglingly bad lately with adverts. Some are playing in less than 2 minutes after a video starts.

Like others above I use uBlock on my Macbook and this works well, but I can't seem to get rid of the adverts on my iPad. I have adGuard installed but it doesn't seem to do much (am I missing some setting?).

YouTube Premium is too expensive. I'd love to see a cheaper option simply to remove ads without any of the other "perks" I don't need.

Yep same! If it was £5 a month I’d not hesitate

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

YouTube has become mindbogglingly bad lately with adverts. Some are playing in less than 2 minutes after a video starts.

Like others above I use uBlock on my Macbook and this works well, but I can't seem to get rid of the adverts on my iPad. I have adGuard installed but it doesn't seem to do much (am I missing some setting?).

YouTube Premium is too expensive. I'd love to see a cheaper option simply to remove ads without any of the other "perks" I don't need.

AdGuard and others can only block within Safari not within separate apps. You would have to watch YouTube in Safari but even with YouTubes mobile website it limits quality to like 360p or something terrible so you need to use the desktop version

Edit: you might be able to download the paid version of AdGuard for iOS and use it on separate apps such as YT but I’m not 100%.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

I've been a YouTube Premium user since YouTube Red days. I cannot stand ads. I use an adblocker but I wouldn't feel good using Youtube blocking content providers means of making $. Just me. Been pretty happy with YouTube premium. With Google Family you can share it with 4 others too.

I can guarantee that the money you are paying for premium is absolutely NOT going to the creators. It would be a huge headache for YouTube to determine what paid users watch which channels then divide that to those creators. All you’re doing is feeding the beast because they’ve paywalled you with an unnecessary amount of ads and since creators don’t have a recourse such as subscription based similar to Twitch it’s a balance between getting or annoying your fan base.

 

[44267547]

I've been a YouTube Premium user since YouTube Red days. I cannot stand ads. I use an adblocker but I wouldn't feel good using Youtube blocking content providers means of making $. Just me. Been pretty happy with YouTube premium. With Google Family you can share it with 4 others too.

What I want out of YouTube ‘Premium’, is just able to turn the display off when I’m blastin’ muh eardrums in the gym lifting.

Otherwise, I completely block ads entirely without having any issues or interruptions through an Adblock. (There’s a workaround through iOS, but probably not something I should really advocate here for a myriad of reasons.)

The biggest problem I’m seeing with YouTube, is there ads are now becoming to the point where it’s no longer just a single 6 second ad, now it’s 7 seconds. Before it used to be (2) 6 second ads consecutively, now it’s turning into (2) 7 second ads, and then of course the dire 15 second ad. The more powerful Y.T. has become, [especially over the last four years], you can see how they are tweaking the algorithm, ads are more frequent and longer, ‘hidden ads’ are more common, ect.

And I don’t care about content creators not receiving ad revenue or where the money is going, this is about my convenience, and I’m going to shortcut it anyway I can.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I can guarantee that the money you are paying for premium is absolutely NOT going to the creators. It would be a huge headache for YouTube to determine what paid users watch which channels then divide that to those creators. All you’re doing is feeding the beast because they’ve paywalled you with an unnecessary amount of ads and since creators don’t have a recourse such as subscription based similar to Twitch it’s a balance between getting or annoying your fan base.

Youtube Premium - I wouldn't be surprised.

Now, I was a beta tester for some Google products back in the day so I remember Youtube Red having a page where I could see how much of my subscription actually went to content creators that I watched on a per-month basis. Not sure if all YouTube Red users had this (as I was a beta tester).

https://www.quora.com/Does-YouTube-Premium-support-or-reduce-the-profits-of-content-creators - I realize not everything here is "true" but anyway... interesting comments nonetheless from both sides.

I did talk to a Google Employee years ago who said Google actually lost $ on Red Subscribers. And with my "Google Family" (5 people including myself) - I do hope I am not feeding the beast as much as some. I am not pro Google like I once was.