Coincides suspiciously with the removal of uBlock on Chrome.
The timing makes this the most obvious alternative when you find yourself getting ads again - they're hoping to capture the portion of adblock users that are unwilling or unaware that they can switch off of Chrome (or continue using uBlock on chrome for the time being if you ignore their warnings). To add insult to injury, it only stops "most ads".
I say this as a long time subscriber to YouTube Music + Premium. I want to support the people, services, or content I value - and doing so directly with money is much more appealing to me than doing so through ads. But when you ask for money and still show ads, I get a particularly bad taste in my mouth. (See Netflix and Hulu's half-ad-supported tiers)
>Coincides suspiciously with the removal of uBlock on Chrome.
When was it removed? It's still on the chrome web store, and google's docs suggests they were removing manifest v2 extensions as early as October last year, so if they launched premium lite any time in the past 4 months, you could have plausibly claimed "Coincides suspiciously with the removal of uBlock on Chrome".
They recently started disabling MV3 extensions automatically but you can still enable them back in Developer Mode (probably for a few more months until the code is fully dropped). On my machine they were disabled about 3-4 days ago.
uBlock Origin Lite doesn't support fetching filter lists from the internet (all lists are hard-coded in the extension itself) so every time YouTube tweaks their ads, you need to wait (potentially, multiple days) for Google to review and approve an updated extension. Very clear incentive mismatch.
In the comparison matrix Premium says Music and Music Videos Ad Free, while Lite doesn't have that checkbox so it looks like it's just music videos that'll have ads.
Having ads in your music videos is hilarious when you consider that the music video itself is basically an advertisement for the band, the band's album, the single, or the label.
I know I'm cynical, but any time there is anything vague in a plan, I just assume it will be as asymmetric as possible. I assume this will allow for a ratchet that can adjust for more ads during lean times, and maybe reduce them during the good times.
Do I think it's a good idea? Sure, but if I don't know exactly what I'm getting, I'm probably not buying.
Launched right after Chrome disables ublock Origin! Perfect timing! what are the odds!
Also Notice how it says "Most videos" are ad-free. Some will still have ads? Do they mention which ones?
In the comparison matrix between Premium and Lite it says Music and Music Videos Ad Free for premium, while Lite doesn't have that checkbox so it looks like it's just music videos that'll have ads.
Despite being a YouTube Premium user almost none of the YouTube content I watch is "ad free" since I am constantly bombarded with embedded ads for Displate, AG1, Hello Fresh, Oodoo etc.
I wish there was a Premium tier that let me auto-skip these too.
Exactly, it's sort of reasonably priced. $6.50 would be better, but it's fine.
I primarily watch YouTube on my TV and it would be great to be able to unbundle YouTube Music. They've already tried this in Denmark, but failed to advertise it, like at all. There also was no option to downgrade, you had to cancel and then sign up again.
I’d gladly pay 60% the price for Premium without Music (as I have Spotify already), and no background play is an acceptable tradeoff (as I ~never watch on my phone, and I don’t need YouTube’s permission for background play on my computer, and I don’t need background play at all on my TV).
I've never even considered Spotify because I already have YT. Modulo the social bandwagon, seems like it's the same offering and one also gives you ad-free YT, so it's been a no-brainer for me.
Makes me wonder how many people would use YTM if they only had the full premium option, but will split subscriptions across YT and Spotify with this new offering.
YouTube ensures that this option remains as annoying as possible though, requiring constant (~weekly) updates to the NewPipe app - I assume they keep introducing tiny incompatible changes to the way video downloads work just so that NewPipe will have to keep adapting and pushing out new updates.
It's impressive the amount of work the NewPipe folks put in, both to keep up with this and to make the app more feature complete over time.
I'm pretty sure this is a re-launch of the lite tier they already had in lower income countries at a higher price, instead of making a tier for people that don't like ads and also don't use Youtube as their primary music platform.
The fact that background play is locked behind a paywall was always absurd in the first place. There's no technical explanation for why it's paywalled, Google can't play the bandwidth card because they're Google.
Ironically, YouTube is one of services where I find it's worth the money I pay for. I mean, I'd rather not pay for it sure. But when I compare it to Netflix, which charges almost $20 and I barely watch (pretty much use every 2nd or 3rd day), and then paying like $15 for YouTube premium which I consume at least 5 hours a day then it is totally worth it.
I can't find it right now, but the Financial Times ran an article a few months ago about how YouTube is the world's most useful website, period, because it has everything imaginable: Not just entertainment, but also educational content. In a real sense, YouTube is the planet's #1 teacher.
It's also the #1 bad teacher, a lot of outdated or plain wrong information abounds. And of course its major role in getting people hooked into psychologically damaging vices, "toddler surprise gift unwrapping" videos for children among many many others.
Price difference between regions are unbelievable. Kudos to Google for trying to make their premium plans obtainable for people in low income regions. For instance, I pay $4/month for the premium family plan. Youtube premium is a godsend feature. Once you have it there is no going back. Cancelled my Spotify subscription because YT Music is a decent replacement.
Nice. Def switching over to this, as I've been paying for YouTube Premium but don't use YouTube Music at all (have Apple One Sub and find Apple Music to be way better).
There's the clear greed there in keeping background and offline play in the highest tier. But the two people I know who actually pay for YouTube Premium because they can't stand the ads would probably benefit from this cheaper tier, since they tend to be watching it from their home WiFi 99% of the time.
I'd love to see someone calculate the ecological damage that has resulted from the business decision to prevent users from turning their screen off while listening to content on the official youtube app.
What percent of battery life loss in phones that can't easily have their batteries replaced is attributable to this business decision and how many millions of phones has this resulted in being sent to the landfill years before they otherwise would end up there?
Readit News
The timing makes this the most obvious alternative when you find yourself getting ads again - they're hoping to capture the portion of adblock users that are unwilling or unaware that they can switch off of Chrome (or continue using uBlock on chrome for the time being if you ignore their warnings). To add insult to injury, it only stops "most ads".
I say this as a long time subscriber to YouTube Music + Premium. I want to support the people, services, or content I value - and doing so directly with money is much more appealing to me than doing so through ads. But when you ask for money and still show ads, I get a particularly bad taste in my mouth. (See Netflix and Hulu's half-ad-supported tiers)
When was it removed? It's still on the chrome web store, and google's docs suggests they were removing manifest v2 extensions as early as October last year, so if they launched premium lite any time in the past 4 months, you could have plausibly claimed "Coincides suspiciously with the removal of uBlock on Chrome".
https://developer.chrome.com/docs/extensions/develop/migrate...
Swapped to firefox not looking back.
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Because uBlock Origin Lite works on Chrome, and seems to currently block YouTube ads just fine...
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Seems like when your pitch is 8$/month for no ads they could have spared a paragraph to explain what "most videos" encompasses.
"For Premium Lite, ads may appear on music content, Shorts, and when you search or browse"
(although I'm wondering if it means the ads between video thumbnails...)
> to watch trivially profitable videos ad-free
I know I'm cynical, but any time there is anything vague in a plan, I just assume it will be as asymmetric as possible. I assume this will allow for a ratchet that can adjust for more ads during lean times, and maybe reduce them during the good times.
Do I think it's a good idea? Sure, but if I don't know exactly what I'm getting, I'm probably not buying.
I wish there was a Premium tier that let me auto-skip these too.
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I don't use YouTube music and they likely have millions of users who are in the same boat, don't use YTM but uses background play.
I'm not sure who this is for.
I primarily watch YouTube on my TV and it would be great to be able to unbundle YouTube Music. They've already tried this in Denmark, but failed to advertise it, like at all. There also was no option to downgrade, you had to cancel and then sign up again.
Makes me wonder how many people would use YTM if they only had the full premium option, but will split subscriptions across YT and Spotify with this new offering.
It's impressive the amount of work the NewPipe folks put in, both to keep up with this and to make the app more feature complete over time.
That aside, Premium Lite is for people who use YouTube for the video content (as opposed to only for the audio), which is most people.
I probably wouldn't even use it, but don't like to reward stingy dark patterns
The utility it brings for me is quite high.
What percent of battery life loss in phones that can't easily have their batteries replaced is attributable to this business decision and how many millions of phones has this resulted in being sent to the landfill years before they otherwise would end up there?