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Youtube Premium Family increasing prices by 39% from $17.99/mo to $22.99/mo
Thank you for the heads-up on this. $18/month was already far too expensive for the value it provided, so I just canceled.
That's a hefty increase! I wish there was a benefit to the users given the extra cost.
Canceled the second I saw this email. Just like Netflix. Fuck every company trying to turn the screws during already high inflation.
Was the on demand video model online broken? Or where do these prices come from?
I don’t understand the price of YouTube premium at all, it’s way too expensive for what it offers compared to other streaming services:

- YouTube does not produce its own content, nor does it pay licensing fees.

- a premium account is for a single user only, no ‘who is watching’ profiles, meaning you need a subscription for each individual.

- there is still an insane amount of ads in videos.

- you get a bundled music subscription, or can choose to pay less but then it has arbitrary playback restrictions.

- even the lite tier is at least or more expensive than other mainstream streaming services (besides Netflix), which don’t have the same drawbacks.

YouTube is the only mainstream service where you can watch Disney+, Netflix and legacy media content in one place so long as you know how to search for it ("Full Episode", "Part 1 of", "Sh0w N@me" instead of "Show Name"). Probably the best deal in entertainment if you use it right.
Sure but If I’m gonna watch mortally questionable content I might as well spin up a Jellyfin server and have a better viewing experience, or simply use an ad blocker instead of paying for premium.
YouTube Premium is the only video service for which I have consistently keep a running subscription over the last couple years. Reasons:

- I vastly prefer an ad-free experience, and I'm willing to pay for it.

- I don't care for popular TV shows or movies. The content I want is only available on YouTube.

- I use the Premium-only ability to run the app in background on my phone every day.

- 55% of the monthly fee is shared with the content creators whose monetized videos I watch, so this helps support creators that I enjoy (not as much as direct donations, but it's not nothing either).

I fully agree with you. I pay for the family plan which will be going up nearly 40%! The content is all user produced, other than the random 'free' movies that have started popping up. I don't like yt music that comes along with the subscription. I just don't see how they can charge this much.
Google Q2: 70B, ads: 57B, cloud 6B. Net profit: $16B

But money > more money so hey

Long time family premium subscriber. Of course not stoked about this, but I'm not going to force adds on my kids.
Kind of okay with this if content creators really get 55%.
Obviously because of the great pixel shortage of 2022.

There are entire superfreighters anchored off the Port of Los Angeles and in the Strait of Malacca, loaded to the max with containers of pixels that should be on your screen. Factories have suspended shifts and laid off workers because there's nowhere for new pixels to go.