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Comment by 4ggr0 | Hacker News Reader

There's quite a genius workaround to this - it's actually possible to link a credit card to your google account and buy something called YouTube Premium. Actually removes ads, even on TV, insane!

i used an ad-blocker on YT since forever, when they started blocking them I bought YT Premium over VPN in a cheaper country. not sure how google is supposed to serve 4k 60FPS videos to people all over the world without them paying. i pirate movies and shows at home so it's not like i don't get it. but the entitelment about watching YouTube for free is a bit weird to me. it worked for years, we were able to cheat the system by just blocking ads. now they're starting to prevent it. too bad for us. but ya just gotta deal with it.

i'm unhappy about it too, but i can't really blame them.

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You're going to look silly when they add ads to premium too.

That will definitely be the day I stop using YT, which will probably trigger some withdrawal symptoms. I've used YouTube since I was a little kid, it's probably the platform I've used the most in my life, and it's not even close.

unfortunately, things don't last forever :(

but, you know. when netflix got more and more expensive and started blocking my family for using it because they dare to not live in my apartment, i switched to pirating. now i have about 500 movies at home and can watch them remotely. so. i'm actually happy for netflix turning me into a pirate ;D

I wonder what not using YouTube anymore will turn me into...

I understand your earlier comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but I find it hard to justify the £12.99 a month, when I can only imagine half of it is going towards Youtube Music which I have absolutely zero intent of using. Maybe it's a free add on and it would cost the same without it, but the idea of "wasting" money on that completely turns me off.

I'm considering doing the same as you with movies and downloading YouTube videos to my NAS with yt-dlp as they come out. Would probably be a better experience overall. Maybe this is the catalyst for me actually doing a bit of technical work for the first time in years.

> I find it hard to justify the £12.99 a month, when I can only imagine half of it is going towards Youtube Music

That's actually a good point, yes, forgot about that aspect. I think I didn't mention this because I bought my subscription over VPN in Ukraine and now pay about $2 per month. Unethical, probably. But, you know. if that stops working i'll probably have to find an alternative, as i absolutely hate and despise ads.

> downloading YouTube videos to my NAS with yt-dlp

yeah, same, this interests me as well. curate some sort of JSON file with channels you actually care about, and when new videos come out, download them locally and put them where my media streaming program can use them. then just delete them after they're watched, unless they're really important for some reason. i once started setting this up but got distracted halfway through and forgot about it :D there must be someone who already does this, but i didn't really find anything with a quick duckduckgo.

Would you be willing to pay £12.99 if it didn't come with YouTube Music?

Strangely enough, maybe? It would be easier to see that as the cost of the product on its own rather than a bundle. Still a bit rich for my blood though I think when other services are cheaper and don't have ads as part of the content.

No slight against the creators, of course make that cash, but paying for an "ad free" experience is difficult when you're still getting ads. Sure you have the ad free patreons etc. from individual creators and we're right back to the mess of paying for a thousand different streaming services.

> I wonder what not using YouTube anymore will turn me into...

An yt-dlp user I figure.

I'd give your guess an approximate 95% chance to become true, yes. As I've actually used it in the past and almost started using it as my main way to watch YT.

but the convenience of just opening the YT app on my phone while commuting and just instantly watching what i want is quite nice. at least for now.

That being said I could back to using YouTube Vanced + SponsorBlock on my Android phone, the part which is the hardest to circumvent is my Smart TV. Haven't found a way to sneak past ads there, without paying.

Or you could just watch youtube less :)

based on my reaction to your comment i might be addicted to it...

but that would generally be a good idea.

The way I got out was to stop using the recommendation page and the subscription feed first - if I can't remember the channel exists I probably won't miss watching it. (also your friends will remind you of some channels by sending you the video link and trying to discuss it)

I used ublock origin to block all images from youtube so I have to read the title instead of getting baited by a flashy thumbnail.

About 5 years later and I barely watch any video that isn't sent to me.

Google isn't some startup and no of people on ad blockers is minute

Yeah. And? They want to milk the last drops of $$$ out of their customers, as usual. If they want to block ad-blockers on their service then so be it.

i don't like the venture capital culture, enshittification pisses me off, the constant race for more revenue, growth and profits while cutting jobs and wages annoys me as well. but for me there's no moral argument against them blocking ad-blockers without criticizing the whole system around it.

do i think that services should be federated, open-source and non-profit oriented? Yes, of course. but YouTube is not that, at all, so being angry about them blocking this is just so unnecessary to me.

it seems to me that people are just veeeery pissed of that they either have to pay for it or stop using it. they don't know where to aim their anger at so they're just angry at Google.

You are right.

A startup would, instead, never show an ad, allow themselves to run out of money, upload a photo of themselves crying on LinkedIn about letting go all of their staff, and then say that they just couldn't find a way to monetize the app.

If it were that small of a number on ad blockers, they probably wouldn't be spending the effort to counter the blockers.

Don’t be naive. They are just greedy and want more money.

Well no shit. And the people who block ads are greedy and don't want to pay anything for the service, they have a delusional expectation it should be free for them forever.

Please educate yourself.

Please watch this video by Louis Rossmann titled “Why I will NEVER pay for YouTube Premium ever again!”:

https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=4Q3ZXQZZlcE

Better yet, subscribe to that channel and watch his videos.

Yeah, a creator who gets money from the very entity he complains about.

I unsubscribed from his channel the very day I saw that video. As a YT premium subscriber, I'll support creators who have at least some self honesty

For goodness sake, YT isn't close to perfect, but it's leagues ahead of the craptastic TikTok.

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