I've used most available services, but discontinued one after another along with promises that a better user experience will be provided with reduced content and removed functionality with the slight price hike.
YouTube was my first and last video service I paid for, only Spotify remains on the borderline.
Based on the screenshot I assume that you used youtube premium lite (what ever this was...) on your smartphone. Therefore, here the obligatory recommendation for NewPipe. Quasi Youtube Premium as apk.
It has all the features you need:
no ads
you can close the app and your videos keep running in the background
you can turn off the screen and your videos will continue to run in the background
There is also the fork NewPipe x SponsorBlock (link to repository) which integrates SponsorBlock into the app. (duh...) This will also skip the creator's ad blocks in the video.
I'd also like to plug ReVanced. You do have to provide your own copy of the YouTube APK (easily downloadable from APKMirror), but it allows you to install multiple patches into the app, including Return YouTube Dislike, SponsorBlock, and other stuff. It allows background play and blocks ads, too. (You can see the list of available patches here.)
The problem I have with ReVanced is that it sometimes doesn't register videos as watched or doesn't save the watch progress. It happens pretty randomly too, one week everything works correctly then the other week nothing I watch gets saved
Problem with that is that I want to use my subscriptions but using that app might get my user potentially banned and I do not want my google account banned.
And for iOS I can recommend uYouPlus (https://github.com/qnblackcat/uYouPlus). The cheapest way to sideload it is using AltStore. But there are other services which offer sideloading on device, these don’t require a computer.
You get downloads and subs with NewPipe, too.
But it boils down to preference. And I prefere a open source app to begin with instead of patching something.
Well I was not a high paying costumer, I just went for the lunch and didn't give any tip.
Assumed that it was good enough to pay for the basic service.
Yes it's a joke but I have the option to just leave, worse would be if you are dependent on the platform in some way.
I don't see why companies should show you any appreciation except what you pay for or what you are given in return for your services, it would be nice but I do not demand it.
If you don't like it, leave it, or make a plan you can ditch it.
You don't want YouTube + YouTube music but you want Spotify + YouTube? I abandoned Spotify the second YouTube Premium was introduced in my country. I loved Spotify. I started using it back when it was invite only. YouTube Music is worse for sure, but it's good enough and a lot cheaper.
I have held a vendetta against YouTube Premium for nearly a decade. I will never use it. I don’t give a shit how cheap it is or how many features they take away. I will stop watching YouTube entirely before I pay a single cent for Premium.
You used to be able to lock your phone on iOS and continue listening to YouTube. I always had audio playing, but I was still connected to my environment. They took that away just so they could add it back in as a feature in Premium. Maybe it seems overly petty to be this upset about it 9 years later, but I don’t care. I’m a treat addict and they fucked with the product. I let go of most things when it comes to enshitification because the alternative is to drive yourself mad. But this is a hill I will die on every time forever.
Yep. Same reason I will never pay for it and I point this out to anyone who has it. They simply created a problem only to sell the solution. Scummy to the end.
As someone who has worked on free Internet services, it used to be easier to make money from ads. A video ad view was worth nearly a dollar US. Audio ads were maybe 7 or 8 cents a listen. Now, a video ad view makes a few cents and audio ads are worthless. They likely did the math about how many audio ads they'd have to play on the phone in your pocket to break even and decided you'd hate it more than they would. Since content owners get just over half of what YouTube makes, they'd probably be pissed about seeing the drop in income too.
Feel free to hate YT. This was an economic decision at around the time when ad revenue had just fallen off of a cliff.
I think you are correct. I didn’t know the exact numbers but I was aware of general reasoning. The economic forces that push unethical design decisions range from mildly annoying to horrifying depending on which decision you’re talking about. Facebook using A/B testing with neural imaging tech to minimize users’ opportunities to disengage from the platform is probably on the more extreme end. Regardless, I don’t think the decisions being objectively correct when optimizing for the continuation of capitalist firms makes them any less morally onerous.
I do not understand the position where companies first provide a good service and and than later reduces the experience and functionality. YouTube especially, when they are providing a platform but not the content.
Their AI would easily see that I more or less gave them free money since I wasn't a high consumer putting any load on their data centers. I paid to remove the worst ads around to just see a few trailers and videos for the kids.
I do not understand the position where companies first provide a good service and and than later reduces the experience and functionality.
Twitter has taught us that the vast majority, once committed to a platform, will tolerate endless abuse and never leave. So companies treat you real nice to get you in the door so they can piss all over you later.
Do a search for "embrace extend extinguish" to learn more.
I don't have numbers to offer but the initial pricing may have been losing them money. Some big companies will offer a service at a loss to get more customers to bite, then when the price hikes hit many of the customers will be used to the service and just sign up for the hike.
I believe one should pay for services/content to promote costumer needs, put your money where your mouth is. But people need to stop being obsessed to always see the latest and greatest movie, sports event, concert etc.
The business model would fall and it would force change but that will not happen on this 3rd planet.
In this case I just wanted to remove ads the few times I opened the app without the hustle. Conviniance easily beats piracy, even quality will take a hit.
I pay for mullvad and Proton since I like the service they provide and I encourage people to do the same.
I know what you mean, but I refuse to throw money at Alphabet, when we're basically the tradegoods to them. They siphon and sell off all of our information. I'm not paying for that. If I like a creator, I'd rather pay for their Patreon and get some more benefits with that.
Plus, Revanced is way more convenient than the official YT app. You can customize the shit out of it.
I pay for 3 different streaming services because it's (still) more convenient than piracy. I pay for games because Steam and GoG are super convenient and they constantly have good deals. But fuck YT.
Well, you see my parents and grandparents don't understand the concept of ads fully, especially in case of YouTube Shorts. After a few instances of them sharing the ads, thinking they were regular content, i just got the family plan.
They offer 1 month free to show their appreciation? Dont they offer 1 month free to literally everyone? You just open youtube and you are bombarded by "try youtubr premium free 1 month".
I agree that it's bullshit. He should be stepped up automatically to the next highest plan and billed the old amount. However, their offer would technically be a 2nd free month since he presumably got that first free month that everyone gets (as you pointed out) when he first got the service.
Hi, not sure if this will work on roku, but it does fine on my nvidia, /u/Metigoth mentioned STN (SmartTubeNext) - it's on github. You could download the apk and try side loading it.
Edit: gotta get used to linking better.
good riddance. I ended mine when I realized how aggravated I was at paying for a service where I couldn’t specify a global resolution of 480p for mobile, and the auto-choices they provided always set me at 240p or 1080p, which either looked like shit or wrecked my data cap. If I have to micromanage the res per video, I’m just using uBO to block ads for free, and don’t watch YT on any device that doesn’t let me use it.
I bought premium lite because I often watch youtube on my TV which just has a better bitrate compared to using my web browser. Is there any way to get that better bitrate without paying for the full premium?
As i see this post is getting downvoted, don't think i like paying for it. There just wasn't a feasible alternative for what i wanted. Downvoting questions like these isn't helping, it's just bullying.
If you have an Android TV, just download an app called "SmartTube". I used to be subscribed to YT Premium but then I found that app and cancelled my membership. It automatically blocks all ads and also has SponsorBlock implemented which auto-skips sponsored segments, etc. It's super useful. Then on my phone I use YT Revanced which is essentially a modded version of the YT app which does practically the same thing as SmartTube.
I love Newpipe on my Android TV and phone. Added benefit of not sending any user data to YouTube I just imports my subscriptions from my phone to the TV every month or so