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Comment by fluxsauce | Hacker News Reader

I've been a Google Play Music subscriber from the beginning, which means I've enjoyed the grandfathered $7.99 price. That has also extended to YouTube Red.

However, this announcement muddies the waters a bit.

> If you are a subscriber to Google Play Music, good news, you get a YouTube Music Premium membership as part of your subscription each month.

Cool, I guess, except I don't go to YouTube for Music. I really am incredibly interested in YouTube Red. I mean YouTube Premium, I guess.

> To extend the features of YouTube Music Premium beyond the music app, we’re soon introducing YouTube Premium, the new name for our YouTube Red subscription service. [describes YouTube Red] If you’re already a YouTube Red (soon to be YouTube Premium) member, don’t worry you’ll still enjoy your current price.

So, if you have Google Play Music, do you get YouTube Premium?

View on HN

It sounds like previous subscribers are grandfathered in:

“When YouTube Premium launches, YouTube Red members will automatically receive access at their current price. In countries where YouTube Red is currently available, a new member can also secure this price ($9.99 in the U.S.) by joining now at youtube.com/red.”

I agree it’s very confusing.

https://youtube.googleblog.com/2018/05/introducing-youtube-p...

nope, you have to pay $12 to continue having Red. :(

This is extremely disappointing. I’m sure the amount of $7.99 GPM early adopters is minuscule to their metrics, but the cost of goodwill is far higher.

> If you’re already a YouTube Red (soon to be YouTube Premium) member

I subscribe to google play music but if I look at my youtube red status is says member. So I assume, I will continue to enjoy it at no extra cost. I chatted with google and they said the same but the wording is really confusing...so who knows.

YouTube Red is the killer feature that keeps me with GPM. If I lose YouTube Red, I'd probably switch back to Spotify.

> > If you’re already a YouTube Red (soon to be YouTube Premium) member

> I subscribe to google play music but if I look at my youtube red status is says member. So I assume, I will continue to enjoy it at no extra cost. I chatted with google and they said the same but the wording is really confusing...so who knows.

That's reflecting the current pricing structure, no? Currently, buying play music also gets you read. From the article, it looks like you no longer get Red (renamed Premium), you instead only get YT Music.

But buying YouTube Red gets you GPM and will get you YT Premium.

Buying GPM which gets you YTR won’t get you premium? It’s the same price!!

Not the same price for those of us who were grandfathered into the $7.99/month GPM intro price. Hence the problem. Otherwise a switch to YTR before May 22 would remove the uncertainty.

Also, I subscribed when living in the US and now live in Canada. I'm wondering if I can somehow retain the grandfathered price or an equivalent discount whenever I switch my Google account to know that I live in Canada now. Somehow I'm guessing not... $9.99 Canadian is actually less than $7.99 US most of the time, but YTR isn't available on this side of the border, so I can't lock that in. (YT Premium will be here, the announcement says, at some unspecified later date.)

Canada seems to have the same $7.99 grandfathering deal (but in Canadian dollars) for its early subscribers. Time to ask Google support what they can do, I guess...

Yeah, I’m super confused. Does this mean I will start getting ads in YouTube because I only have the Google Play Music subscription? If so, they’ve just removed the one reason I haven’t switched to Spotify.

Considering that Google has been doing this kind of stuff for years now, it's pretty clear that goodwill does not cost enough to matter.

Google support told me the opposite. Why does everything need to be so confusing?

Because Google absolutely does not care about you as a consumer.

It's not clear how this benefits their advertisers either, though. It just seems like poor planning.

Google Support are correct, and that is what the article says. The poster you're replying to is simply wrong.

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