YouTube is axing its ad-free Premium Lite subscription plan
YouTube’s Premium Lite subscription is going away.
This plan was available in NZ and was the right price point for me to watch YT on the Smart TV with no ads. Now it's $18/mo bundled with YT Music.
Not for me, thanks.
That's too bad. I pay for premium, it's the main thing I watch, and I actually regularly download and background play, so it's worth it, but.... man, they've really been cranking up the price and it's getting ridiculous.
I wish they'd at least offer a marginally cheaper option without YouTube Music. Was a much better value with Google Play Music, YT Music is such a terrible service that I literally went out and started paying for Apple Music to get off it.
This seems like a pretty good indicator that they intend to stick with all or nothing though, which is very disappointing.
I use YouTube music because it’s bundled with premium but man that app is so janky, and it often seems to fail with downloaded music for me when out of cellphone / wireless service which defeats the purpose of having downloaded music.
I've noticed it chucks a shit fit when you lose coverage, even when playing downloaded music. It's not so bad when you didn't have coverage in the first place.
What? I thought it was either YouTube Music on its own, or YouTube Music + ad free. I never saw a lite version.
Just install Ublock origin and you won't have ads without having to worry about subscriptions.
I used to have Spotify. Figured I'm using YouTube more, so I switched to premium and cancelled Spotify instead. Was a good decision for me, but not everyone watches as much. It's basically my main source of entertainment.
If you use both YouTube and YouTube music, it's good value, but not so much otherwise.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
After YouTube spent two years piloting Premium Lite, a lower-cost subscription plan for ad-free video viewing in select countries, the platform is pulling the plug on the tier.
In an email to customers, YouTube announced it will no longer offer Premium Lite after October 25th, 2023.
At €6.99 per month, YouTube’s Premium Lite plan first launched in select European countries in 2021, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
“While we understand that this may be disappointing news, we continue to work on different versions of Premium Lite as we incorporate feedback from our users, creators and partners.”
The Verge has received several emails from Premium Lite subscribers to our tipline, informing us of their disappointment, while a ResetEra forum discussion is currently growing with other European users lamenting the loss of their service.
Premium Lite may have been a relatively unknown service to many of us living in the US and other regions that never had access, but based on initial reactions to its discontinuation, it seems to be the Goldilocks “just right” level for those who want to skip ads but don’t have any interest in paying more for YouTube Music or downloading videos for offline viewing.
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