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Comment by noobermin | Hacker News Reader

Recently, I've been with people who unlike me don't have youtube premium and I loathe the ads. I'm so happy I pay for premium so I don't have to experience this.

I want to say "subscription is the right answer" but it clearly isn't enough for some people (netflix).

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The YouTube subscription just seems excessively expensive. I find it hard to fathom they would generate anywhere near as much revenue from me watching their ads compared to the subscription cost.

I found a youtube premium-lite option.

It removes adds, but does not allow background play and a few other perks. But it only costs 6 euros.

I found it a better deal than premium so I downgraded.

This would be great, exactly what I need. But they don't seem to offer it everywhere. I get the message "This offer is not available" when I go to https://www.youtube.com/premiumlite

Looks like YouTube Premium Lite is only available in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/2/22605455/youtube-premium-l...

I honestly would prefer a premium-lite. I don't use YT as an audio source so background tab audio is annoying (even more on mobile - stopping my phone doesn't stop the video). Really want premium-lite for family sub :D

So I agree for just YouTube it would be excessive. But they do combo it with youtube music which makes it a slightly better deal. Also personally they have the best family plan since it allows 6 accounts total and doesn't require to be "Under the same roof" like spotify. But I agree I probably wouldn't find the full price outside of the family plan worth it.

Last time I tried YouTube music, it was an underwhelming experience. I expected it to show only official videos, but it showed any random video with music. It substituted Google Play Music, where you could have a curated library and your own uploads, with random music videos.

I think it only show "any random video with music" if you've liked the video and it appears to be a legitimate music video (i.e. without dialog/non-musical noises etc.). I use YtM a lot and the only questionable videos are ones that I've hit like on (beat saber being a prime example - I've learned not to like anything like that, these days).

I can't say that I have experienced the random music videos thing, but I agree it does feel like a bit of a downgrade from Google Play Music. I used the podcast part of Google Play Music a lot, since it put music and podcasts all in the same spot. Now I have had to switch to pocketcasts for that instead.

The main reason I don't want to pay is it cannot remove the ads the content creators put in themselves.

I could see paying if it was a totally clean experience but to pay and get rid of part/half of the ads I would see does not seem worth it to me.

You can use sponsorblock to automatically skip a variety of creator-inserted ads and interaction reminders ("please subscribe/like" etc).

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/sponsorblock-for-y...

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On the topic: Same goes for me, "ad-free" YT is not really ad-free, only a little less "infested".

Even setting aside the explicit ads, there's also the fact that the vast majority of YouTube content has been diluted and corrupted to be a vehicle for YouTube ads.

For example, I read that so many YouTube videos are stretched out to ten minutes because that's the minimum duration to get two ads on your videos.

Yep, but I think it was the minimum for placing midroll ads. Now it's 8 minutes, but the "sightly over 10 minutes" phenomenon is still very much alive!

Ignoring the ethical debate, the "SponsorBlock" browser plugin can help to avoid native advertising inside videos. When in use, sections marked as ads or other filler content are automatically skipped. It is crowdsourced, so you can mark up a video yourself and contribute it, if the ads haven't already been marked by someone else.

Why do you just not use ublock origin?

Because it only works on a browser, people also experience youtube on other devices (smart TV, chromecast, App on a non-rooted phone).

NewPipe + Sponsorblock from FDroid and SmartTubeNext for Android TV

I cannot install it on my Smart TV

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