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YouTube Premium family plan price update ($17.99/month -> $32.99/month!) (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 year ago by trk@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone

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So this is some bollocks. Guess I'll be cancelling our plan since it's only used by two of us.

Current price $17.99/month, new price $32.99/month.

If they boiled the frog better I would probably have accepted a $5/month price rise, and then another later... But close to doubling in one go is a no from me dawg.

Thank you for being a loyal member throughout our journey. We created YouTube Premium so that you could enjoy all the videos and music you love without interruptions.‌

To continue delivering great service and features, we are increasing the YouTube Premium family plan price to A$32.99/month. We don't make these decisions lightly, and this update will allow us to continue to improve YouTube Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube. This is the first ever price increase for your subscription.

Links to cancellation etc: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12400348?sjid=6028684095030617608-AP

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[-] Why9@lemmy.world 115 points 1 year ago

$400 a year for YouTube premium.

I'd gladly pay that much for a robust ad blocker!

[-] Machinist3359@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

At this point, everyone should invest a fraction of that into automating youtube downloads. No ads, no buffering, and $200 will get you eniugh hard drive space for years.

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[-] bestusername@aussie.zone 89 points 1 year ago

Got the same bullshit email, total dick move by Google and I'll be cancelling. It's just pure greed.

I'm be exploring the ad blocking and/or VPN options.

Google need to separate YouTube and Music.

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[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 75 points 1 year ago

Jesus, how do they justify that price?

They charge more than Netflix yet they don't even make any of their own content?

[-] ChronosWing@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 year ago

It's because you also get youtube music streaming included with it. If netflix had its own music streaming service bundled in their prices would be even higher than they are now.

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[-] Yerbouti@lemmy.ml 61 points 1 year ago

I'm always amaze by the fact that all these streaming platform do is give you access to others content ( they dont create shit), but they get to keep 98.7% of the revenue, because.

[-] Palacegalleryratio@hexbear.net 24 points 1 year ago

In this industry the “means of production” = “hosting and distribution platform and servers”. If you’ve got no way of hosting your content and putting it in front of people, your content may as well not exist. In much the same way an actor needs a theatre.

So as per any capitalist industry, those that own the means of production (I.e. google with YouTube) exploit its workers (content creators) to generate profit in the same way a steel mill owner gets to keep the profits from his steel mill despite the fact that the owner never creates any steel ingots themselves.

[-] Krauerking@lemy.lol 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah people don't notice that the Internet used to be like going over to a friend's house who had the cool stuff which over time became niche shops.
Rules, regulations and restrictions, slowly put up more and more stops for simple small people to enter the space and left only large companies in it's place. Some of this by consumers own demand for more.

So here we are, the Internet just the next space for capitalism and having every last scrap of revenue squeezed from it while those with capital complain they need the next big invention to exploit as they run out of space and room to grow and things to consume. Each day pushing more towards their pockets and less towards the rest of us.

I just want small curators back. Small groups filling niches instead of massive "creators" who simply consume as much as possible to regurgitate it back at their audience.

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[-] Rednax@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I will not justify the price increase of this post, but the high margins kinda do make sense to me.

The average profit that youtube makes on a gigabyte worth of video data, is much much lower than that 98.7%. There is such a vast amount of random crap being uploaded, that the content creators that actually generate views, hence revenue, must bear a huge sinkhole of costs for youtube. The same holds for Twitch: streams with only a handfull of watchers cost Twitch money. But it is a double edged sword. Because the reason these content creators are as big as they are, is because they could start from nothing, and upload for free. The big guys support vast amounts of amateurs trying to become big. It is probably one of the most socialistic models we have in our current capitalistic market.

That being said: Youtube is getting shittier in an attempt to sqeeze this model for extra profit.

[-] cjsolx@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There is such a vast amount of random crap being uploaded, that the content creators that actually generate views, hence revenue, must bear a huge sinkhole of costs for youtube.

There are better ways around this than by doubling the price for everyone and continuing to allow unlimited BS uploads for free. They charge $1.99 for 100GB of storage for email and photos. I guess it never occurred to them to include a minor barrier like this that most legitimate aspiring content creators would be willing to pay but would stop randos posting 10 hour long videos in 4K.

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[-] space_comrade@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago

These platforms are basically just one step removed from pure landlordism. Same goes for Uber and similar shit. The platforms themselves are usually cheap to maintain, the exception here might be Youtube since it does gobble up a whole lot of bandwidth and storage but come on nobody streams $10 worth of bandwidth a month.

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[-] sphere_au@reddthat.com 35 points 1 year ago

It's times like these when I'm glad I refused to even log into Google to view YouTube, let alone buy subscriptions. I also refuse to view downloading content (without logging in) that's freely available to be viewed as piracy.

These subscriptions are undoubtedly a rip-off. For those saying creators get a "cut", there's a reason why sites like Patreon exist. It's substantially better for creators if you subscribe to them directly that way and get your videos from Patreon. Same with Nebula etc. If I really had to pay then I'd do that (and do already for some stuff that was never on YouTube anyway).

You can get enough subs for the price of a YT premium to get plenty of content to watch, even if you don't want to subvert Google. So there's zero reason to throw money at them for this. None at all.

[-] lud@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

I am not saying I like YouTube, but they are actually one of the best when it comes to paying their creators.

Pretty much every popular creator from other platforms (like tiktok) goes to YouTube once they are big and want to earn money.

And yes of course they earn more on Patreon, but if I recall correctly most YouTubers get most of their money from YouTube, because they have their biggest audience.

De-monitisation is a pretty huge problem for many though.

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[-] roguetrick@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm curious what's driving this revenue rush at Alphabet. It almost feels like something internal, like they're trying to make it actually self sufficient based on cloud pricing.

[-] galoisghost@aussie.zone 25 points 1 year ago

It’s not just Alphabet it’s cloud based companies across the board and basically VC money is drying up because it can be secured on 0% interest loans anymore

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[-] Seraphin@pawb.social 22 points 1 year ago

It's happening across a lot of industries, especially tech. During covid line went up very fast. Post-covid line stopped going up fast, but companies are desperate to keep it going up fast. Otherwise it would count as a slowdown in year-on-year growth and we can never ever have that (/s).

[-] been_jamming@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

Companies then: Let's make money!

Companies now: Let's make more money faster! Our graph of profit must concave up!

Companies 100 years from now: Let's increase the rate at which the rate at which our growth in profit increases increases!

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[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 30 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I can't blame them. The fight to block adblockers is an expensive one, and they went all in on the fight. /s

Asshats.

E: adding the sarcasm mark, in case it wasn't obvious.

[-] SeatBeeSate@lemmy.dbzer0.com 29 points 1 year ago

Revanced project, smart YouTubeTV and/or Smart YouTubeNext, ublock origin, and xManager for Spotify.

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[+] ndsvw@feddit.de 25 points 1 year ago

[deleted]

[-] krogoth@lemmy.sdf.org 38 points 1 year ago

I'm never going to shed any tears for Google losing revenue, and I've got no issues with people using adblockers etc. That said, I think saying that not being able to understand why people pay for it risks being a bit narrow minded.

Paying for things that you use shouldn't be seen as some abherrent action. If you watch an hour of YouTube a day on average that's still less than a buck an hour even with the price hike. I imagine some folks also like the convenience of being able to just use the official aps without fucking around, particularly if they have iPhones.

Pay for premium, or watch ads, or get into the ad-avoidance arms race, or stop using YouTube. It doesn't bother me which one people choose. But this opinion that some folks seem to have that they are for some reason entitled to gratis, ad-free video streaming is so bizarre.

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[-] Sydius@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

I watch a large, large amount of content on YouTube. For me, it's easily worth it, but I also have to mention that I used a VPN to subscribe in a country where the prices are cheaper, and most likely would not pay the "real" price.

This also means that I have no real idea about the current ad situation.

Still, I know how expensive hosting gets, and there are no real alternatives to Google. Amazon and Microsoft can do it, but even if they launch a service, they need creators on it, and, more importantly, they need users. YouTube had more than a decade to establish itself. Any new platform needs a few years to get users, and it will lose money every second of that time.

You have your smaller platforms, but they need to survive as well, and not everyone is willing to pay a monthly price to access it. Nebula lives as long as there are users willing to pay for it. Floatplane requires a subscription as well. Both platforms only host a limited number of creators.

In the video hosting business, unfortunately, there are no bad guys. I can understand why no one wants to watch the same 30 second long ads, 3-4 at a time, 2 times a video. I also understand the platforms that want to survive, and make a profit. Unfortunately, adblocks, as much as necessary, are the cause of the problem as well.

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[-] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 23 points 1 year ago

For reference this is about $20 USD

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[-] yoz@aussie.zone 23 points 1 year ago

People saying I'll cancel will not cancel. I've seen so many corp simps in the last few years that I lost faith in humanity

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[-] retro@infosec.pub 23 points 1 year ago

All prices seem to be going up around the board. I just got an email saying my Turkish Family Plan (via VPN) is increasing from TRY ₺59.99 to TRY ₺115.99. That's $3.29 to $6.36.

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[-] frogbellyratbone_@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago

imagine paying $204/yr instead of taking 20 seconds to download ublock

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[-] root@aussie.zone 21 points 1 year ago

Enshittification of youtube is definitely progressing very rapidly.

[-] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago

nearly double the price for the same thing! this after disney raised prices, max downgraded service and kept prices the same, and disney is about to finish buying out hulu in order to, I'm sure, raise prices. Yarr!

[-] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 year ago

selfhost jellyfin
automatically download youtube videos based on a txt file with channel urls
redirect youtube links to invidious for all other use case.
never directly visit the youtube site ever again, depending on other service you use, no longer need a google account.
no profit cause i never paid a dime but no regrets either.

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Lmao, that's not gonna fly with my wife.

The only reason I got premium is because she uses YouTube quite a bit and I'd rather pay than her having to deal with ads all day

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[-] No1@aussie.zone 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Personally, I'm a fan of

Piped for browser
SmartTube for android app/android TV

For those who must have the official paid version, keep an eye on Ozbargain Youtube.

Free trials and/or VPN + subscribe overseas for a fraction of the price, eg Individual has been $2.34 a month via India, A$2.30 via Turkey

(this is before any potential price increases in those countries)

[-] D3FNC@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago

uncritical support for the mad lad accelerationists working undercover at youtube premium

[-] fine_sandy_bottom@aussie.zone 15 points 1 year ago

Does this mean that for people who don't pay they're going to make the ads twice as annoying?

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[-] Faceman2K23@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 1 year ago

Yea it's a pretty crazy increase. time to VPN up and move the family plan to india or turkey.

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[-] Nougat@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It costs so much more to get the packets across the ocean, right?

[-] morrowind@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

Well... I guess it helps creators at least.

Unless youtube changes their cut

[-] skribe@aussie.zone 13 points 1 year ago

That's going into Google's pocket, not the creators'.

[-] Polar@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

Why do Lemmy users spread lies?

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[-] Lt_Cdr_Data@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 year ago

Imo you are fiscally irresponsible even if you paid the 17 bucks

[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

What is the benefit of "Youtube Premium", anyway? Is that just Youtube without ads?

[-] Evotech@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

And YouTube music

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[-] librechad@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We will own nothing, don't pay, sail the seas mate.

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[-] FunderPants@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 year ago

November last year the plan in CAD went from $17.99 to $22.99 a month, I took that because.i get a lot of use out of it. I haven't got an email yet but $46 a month will get it cancelled.

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[-] WIIHAPPYFEW@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

Marx wasn’t lying, that rate of profit can tend to fall

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