Folks, just pay for YouTube Premium. In my family, between my kids and myself we watch more YouTube than Netflix/Disney+/Hulu combined so the YouTube family plan is the best value going.
This would imply signing-in. I don't sign in and reset the cookies regularly because I don't want my history tracked and suggestions personalized.
But Okay, I would sign-in and pay, if every video page had a download button and the whole thing would give me an API exposing all the features reliably (so I could use it easily in 3-rd party players with search and suggestions).
I am genuinely curious, how do you find videos worth your time without recommendations? 99.9% of what’s on YouTube I have zero interest in, the recommendation engine is how I cull the noise and actually find things to watch.
Not without recommendations. I just want the default recommendations directly related to the video I currently watch, ignoring what other videos I watched before.
How do I find? I just search for a particular subject (maybe also specify the author) whenever I want/need and have time to watch/read something.
Some prompt crafting-type technique of seeding the recommender with deliberate sequences of videos is probably possible. Youtube's system really is remarkably responsive to this kind of logged-out browsing, unlike most others.
Tangentially, there's a lot of praise for TikTok on HN, but I've never found anything compelling there myself.
Everyone should be doing this monthly anyways since YT recommendations along with your viewing trends can eventually get too narrow. Nice to reset it.
The same way as one did in the past: 1) search for something interesting, 2) look at the videos, 3) if you like a creator, subscribe to the RSS feed for their channel
I find this a totally unusable model to the point I don't understand who the heck pays for paywalled websites (for me it would be a waste because I would only read some 2.5 articles on the same website a year). I just search for a particular subject (maybe also specify the author) whenever I want/need and have time to watch/read something. Subscribe to someone and watch/read everything they would produce? Impossible, I don't have time for this. I watch many new (whom I have never seen previously and probably won't see in future although I liked them and they go on) creators every week.
For a simpler example, take webcomics. I created a category in my RSS readers for the webcomics I like. If I feel bored and want to read a webcomic, I just open my reader, click that category, and immediately see the most recent one I haven't read yet. I can instantly get exactly what I want, without any recommendation engine attached. But I don't get any notifications – I only look at it when I feel like it.
The same with youtube creators. If I feel like watching videos of a certain kind, I look at the channels I subscribed to of a certain topic, and see if they’ve got something interesting.
1. I search for a topic and pick out a video that seems interesting.
2. I remember the names of the few YouTubers I like, and I look them up once in a while.
I do actually have a YT account and I'm subscribed to some people, but I rarely bother to sign in.
For me, YouTube is a platform for seeking content rather than a platform for being fed content (like HN or Twitter).
Instead, I find videos through talking with friends, as well as when YouTubers I do watch recommend them. It works very well for me.
YouTube is the only Google service that I haven't stopped using entirely. Getting rid of it would be good, but there isn't anything else I've found that can really replace it.
https://www.polygon.com/23300486/disney-plus-subscription-ad...
https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/20/17761760/twitch-prime-tur...
Like the above sites, later on you will need to buy Youtube Premium Pro to actually get ad free youtube experience. Later on the current premium will definitely have ads.
Biggest difference is YT does not incur production and distribution costs (ie distribution rights). Creators on YT upload their videos and YT only pays out when they also make money off the ads.
So if a creator made a video and published it on YT and the thing got 10 views and no ad-revenue, the only cost for YT is the infra costs. Contrast that with a company like Netflix where they purchase rights to a film or TV series that flops.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6358146?hl=en
It also has youtube gaming where they pay streamers (buy out streamers at once) via contract just like Netflix buys rights for movies and tv shows.
https://www.polygon.com/23053800/sykkuno-youtube-deal-stream...
> Later on the current premium will definitely have ads.
I take it you work on the strategy of YouTube?
To get Youtube Original content like Kobra Kai (it moved to netflix in the end)
https://deadline.com/2020/06/cobra-kai-moves-netflix-youtube...
Or for non-premium user will get 5 ads before start of video whereas Premium user will get 1 ad before videos and get youtube originals, background video playback, download videos, youtube music etc. And Youtube Premium Pro users will get all other benefits of Premium users with one extra feature of going completely ad-free.
Do a lot of people want that?
I subscribe to YouTube premium but I've never been tempted to watch any of the original content. None of it is what I go to YouTube for. But I'm a sample size of one.
For me, its way overpriced, considering they are not creating any of the content and it doesn't actually cover all ads.
That's not true at all. I've been paying for Premium for over a year, and I can say with certainty that I have seen zero ads placed by YouTube. The only ones I've seen are ones creators put in themselves.
Any "pay for youtube directly" strategy MUST result in a creator 1) not needing to get external revenue from merch, sponsors, patreon, or anything like that. 2) not be so at the mercy of youtube algorithms and unaccountable decision trees that content match them to silence, remove their payment through "demonitization", and provide actual support to the creators so they can focus on creating instead of whipping up public shitstorms just to get basic support, and 3) reward creators for making higher quality content, instead of more addictive or "engaging" content.
Right now Youtube Premium isn't that service. What is that service? Floatplane and nebula are trying to be that service. Nebula specifically has nearly every high quality, "tech, science, invention, discovery, learning etc" content creators and it's like $100 a year. All of my favorite content creators are part of it.