If you love watching videos on YouTube, you might have considered subscribing to YouTube Premium. But is YouTube Premium worth it?
Let's take a look at what YouTube Premium offers, what you should know about it, and how to decide if it's worthwhile for you.
1. How Much Is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) costs $11.99 per month, after a one-month free trial. There are also two other plans available for families and students.
The Family plan costs $17.99 month and allows you to add up to five other people who live in your household so they get the same benefits. Per YouTube's terms, these people must live at the same address as you. If you're a student who can provide verification, your price is $6.99 per month instead.
Whether the cost is worth it or not depends on how many of YouTube Premium's benefits you use. Keep this in mind as we look at them below, especially in relation to what other services like Spotify Premium and Netflix offer.
2. No Ads in YouTube Videos
YouTube Premium's biggest selling point is that it removes advertisements from all videos on YouTube. While there are other ways to avoid ads on YouTube, they aren't officially condoned and deprive creators of revenue. Plus, the lack of ads extends to all platforms, even when you watch on smart TV apps or game consoles.
As it turns out, the prevalence of ad-blocking is one of the driving forces behind YouTube Premium. YouTube has long been the king of free videos, but those videos are expensive to host and stream. If people keep blocking ads, YouTube has no choice but to pursue alternative revenue models.
We know that advertisements are annoying, especially when you have to sit through a 15-second ad just to watch a 30-second YouTube clip. Want to get rid of them? YouTube Premium lets you do that in a way that helps the service stay in business and supports the creators you watch.
YouTube explains that it splits the money received from Premium subscriptions among the channels that those people watch. So by watching your favorite channels with Premium, they're earning money that they would otherwise have to rely on ads for.
3. Full Access to YouTube Originals
Even if watching ads on YouTube doesn't bother you, there are still a handful of other features that could justify the price of YouTube Premium for you. Early on, one of the major perks of YouTube Premium was access to YouTube Originals: a collection of exclusive shows made by YouTube.
However, more recently, YouTube opened up access to many YouTube Originals for everyone. Now, free users can watch YouTube Originals content with ads, just like any other video. The company vaguely states that "only select episodes may be available for streaming at a given time," but in our experience, the majority of Originals content is open to all.
Being a YouTube Premium member still has some perks in regards to Originals, though. In addition to ad-free access, subscribers can watch all available episodes in a series as soon as it premieres. They also get access to bonus content like deleted scenes and director's cuts.
Have a look at the YouTube Originals channel to see what's available. Some videos, marked as Premium, are only available for subscribers. We've collected the best YouTube Originals shows if you're not sure what to watch.
4. YouTube Music Premium Is Included
A YouTube Premium subscription also includes access to YouTube Music Premium. If you're not familiar, YouTube Music is Google's music streaming service. It replaced Google Play Music, which was retired in late 2020.
Like Spotify and other music streaming platforms, YouTube Music is available for free. With YouTube Music Premium, you also get ad-free access, the ability to play music in the background, and the option to download music for offline listening.
YouTube Music Premium costs $9.99/month on its own, so it adds quite a bit of value to YouTube Premium. If you don't already subscribe to Spotify, Apple Music, or similar, then you can enjoy two types of subscriptions under one umbrella.
5. Video Downloads and Background Play
The above YouTube Premium benefits apply to everywhere you use YouTube. But there are a few perks specifically related to watching on mobile devices.
One is that YouTube Premium allows you to download videos to your iPhone or Android phone for offline viewing. This is great for watching videos on the go if you have a limited data plan, as well as enjoying them in places with no connection, like a plane.
On YouTube's mobile apps, you also unlock the ability to play videos in the background. Even if you switch to another app or turn your screen off, your video will continue to play. This is handy if you often listen to long YouTube videos where you only care about the audio. Keeping your screen off will preserve battery life on your phone, too.
If you have kids, you'll be happy to know that the ad-free and offline access benefits apply to the YouTube Kids app, too.
6. YouTube Premium Is Not YouTube TV
YouTube's paid services have similar names, so it's easy to mix them up. We've noted that YouTube Premium includes YouTube Music Premium, as well as the fact that you can sign up for YouTube Music Premium separately from YouTube Premium.
However, you should know that both of these services are different from YouTube TV. YouTube TV is a TV streaming service that allows you to watch live TV channels. It includes DVR and similar features associated with TV streaming.
Paying for YouTube Premium does not give access to YouTube TV, and YouTube TV does not include YouTube Premium benefits. However, those who subscribe to YouTube TV do get full access to YouTube Originals as described above.
There's one other YouTube subscription separate from Premium: channel memberships. These allow you to directly support a channel and gain a few benefits in the process. Memberships aren't connected to Premium.
7. YouTube Premium Isn't Necessary
YouTube Premium has been around for years, and it hasn't really changed anything about the way YouTube works. If you aren't interested in paying, you can still enjoy videos from your favorite channels as usual.
The top benefit of YouTube Premium is certainly removing all the ads. If you watch YouTube regularly, it could be worth the cost for this reason alone. You might also be interested in signing up for one month and then canceling if you want to catch up on your Watch Later list during a trip or flight. And as mentioned, getting YouTube Music Premium is handy if you don't already use a premium music service.
Otherwise, there's not much of a draw to YouTube Premium. Most of the Originals don't require a subscription anymore. Cobra Kai, arguably the biggest YouTube Original, is now on Netflix. And if you mostly watch smaller channels, it's very unlikely that any of them will get picked to create a YouTube Original that's behind the paywall.
For roughly the same price, a Netflix subscription provides far higher-quality shows and movies than YouTube Originals offers. Amazon Prime, which is $10/month when paid annually, includes access to Prime Video, Prime Music, free shipping, and more benefits. That makes YouTube Premium look a lot less attractive in comparison.
There's also an argument that supporting YouTube Premium helps YouTube take control of content that's traditionally user-generated, which is what YouTube was all about in the first place.
Should You Join YouTube Premium?
The truth is that YouTube Premium is a mixed bag that will only appeal to certain people. If ads don't bother you, you don't need Premium. Unless you have lots of interest in YouTube Originals, Premium isn't worth it. And if you don't use YouTube's mobile apps often, you won't appreciate all the Premium benefits.
But if you want to get rid of YouTube ads and would use YouTube Music Premium regularly, then YouTube Premium is a good value.
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