Ask HN: Is YouTube Premium worth it? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is YouTube Premium worth it?

With the Vanced app being taken offline and Vimeo charging some creators thousands of dollars, several people on HN asked: If you value Youtube and the free service is provides, why don't you pay for it?

I've thought of subscribing to Youtube, but its family plan is at £18, which is more than Netflix/Disney+ combined (very roughly).

Obviously, it's not that big an amount, but I wonder: Is it worth it?

As for supporting creators: We can do that via Patreon (if they have one)-- does subscribing to YT help?

If anyone has Youtube Premium, do you feel it is worth it?

View on HN

With ads overpopulating the internet and everywhere we look on our streets its good to be able to mentally sort through the junk instantly and to pay no attention to it. I think of it as mental training/fortitude to be able to recognize the "scam" they're selling and to be able to overlook it and move on without a second thought - McDonald's will never look like how they do in their ads.

Reminds me of a marketing class I took in uni and how marketing is everywhere, it's one of the few practical courses that I can apply concepts to every ad I watch.

On the otherhand, there are some more "interesting" ads such as free screeners from ads on ig in my area that I have attended and were actually pretty good and definitely worth it.

There's also technical ways of blocking those ads. So no, youtube premium isn't worth it.

I had it largely for Google Play Music now YouTube Music. I canceled it briefly when we switched to Tidal for music, but family members complained about the ads and were still themselves using YouTube Music, so I brought it back.

Is it worth it is a highly dependent, unanswerable question, though. I don't particularly think it's worth it because I don't watch much, if any, YouTube and don't use the music app, but some of my family members obviously disagree.

depends on how much you use youtube. its my main source of media so totally worth it for me.

music in the background at work / driving. actual videos most of my evenings, even if its just on in the background. If someone's content is exceptional to me i'll subscribe to their patreon for a couple months.

Cable would cost me what about 50 bucks a month depending on channels i wanted... so i figure i have about that to spend on entertainment elsewhere.

I really enjoy it, mainly because I hated the ad interruptions :D I can leave a podcast to the background while cooking, without having to go there every now and then to skip an ad which is several minutes long.

Downloads to a tablet is a nice plus when traveling. I don't have any other subscriptions.

I do not have an Android/iOS smartphone, so for me it is not even a question. The only youtubeable device I have is Nokia 8810 (good old nokia but with 4g) and thanks God youtube reasonably considers me as an undefendable cheapster who even does not deserve to be shown any ads.

Yes, but marginally so. I enjoy picture-in-picture, no ads, have little use for downloads. I think I'll keep it, bit I'm not very set on it.

>no ads

µBlock Origin much? :smirk_emoji:

Doesn't work reliably, in my experience. It's an eternal cat-and-mouse game.

It’s worth it for me just to never see a Liberty Mutual ad ever again. I will never be their customer, ever. Not after DJ Liberty.

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