YouTube Premium Lite has been a welcome escape from the rising, steaming pile of “genuine” influencer adverts for shady crap I’ve seen on YouTube up to now 12 months. I plan to stay with my Lite subscription for the lengthy haul. And just one factor would make it higher: if Google labored Lite into its group and annual membership plans.
YouTube is outwardly testing a {couples}’ Premium membership in India, France, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, a pleasant two-person center floor for individuals who cannot take full benefit of the Household subscription for 5 individuals.
It might take months or years for this promotion to achieve the U.S., if it comes right here in any respect. However even when it does, Google has to this point solely provided group charges for the full-price Premium plan with YouTube Music and all of the bells and whistles.
My fiancée and I each stream means an excessive amount of YouTube every single day, from her Important Function and cat movies to my Let’s Performs. However nobody else in our respective households cares all that a lot about YouTube, so a $23/month household Premium plan felt like overkill.
However a YouTube Premium Lite two-person plan? That we might simply match into our finances! So I can solely hope Google decides to supply a wider vary of unconventional household plans quickly.
YouTube Premium Lite lets me persist with my weapons
I haven’t got official stats on YouTube advert frequency, however ever since I let my Premium subscription lapse after the 2023 worth hike, it has positive felt like Google has piled in additional adverts per video up to now 12 months than I ever bear in mind seeing.
I nonetheless tense up once I click on a thumbnail, my mind educated to anticipate 5–15 seconds of rubbish as I wait frantically for the Skip advert pop-up. Skip forward a minute? That is normally an advert. Pause the video for 5 minutes to test on my screaming cat? Time to auto-reload the web page with a contemporary advert!
That is why Premium Lite has been such a easy pleasure, simply definitely worth the $8/month.
I let my unique Premium subscription lapse as a result of I could not justify $14/month to take away adverts once I already had one other most popular music app. It did not matter how good YouTube Music was; I simply wished the selection to bundle it in or not.
After I made this argument, I normally bought one in all two responses: I used to be an fool for not switching to YT Music — even my managing editor bullies me about this — or I used to be a moron for not utilizing Courageous, Pie, NewPipe, or different workarounds to keep away from adverts at no cost.
Google making Premium Lite out there felt like validation; clearly, I wasn’t alone in wanting this feature, and I used to be proper to cancel my sub till Google let me pay for what I wanted and nothing else. The one factor I actually miss is having background play — and I can stay with out it — and downloadable movies.
As for advert blockers or ad-free browsers, sure, I am conscious that they exist. However I disabled my AdBlock years earlier than YouTube began punishing individuals for utilizing these strategies.
I did not suppose a lot about it throughout my faculty days, however as soon as I had a full-time job, I felt fairly conflicted about utilizing a loophole that stopped the YouTubers I preferred from getting paid for his or her work. Plus, my favourite creators apparently earn rather more from my Premium views than from advert income, so it feels good to assist my favourite channels extra immediately.
Ready for extra Premium Lite sub choices
Now I am simply hoping that Google ultimately affords a Premium Lite annual subscription, possibly for $79.99/12 months as a substitute of $95.88 complete with a month-to-month sub. After that, Google ought to transfer on to two-person and household Premium Lite plans.
Google bundled Premium and YouTube Music to get households hooked on each, nevertheless it means households already invested in Spotify Premium Household or Apple One Household will not give Google cash as a result of it means double-dipping.
A Premium Lite household or couple plan could be extra tempting as a standalone, and as soon as Google hooks a household, it is a lot more durable to unsubscribe as a result of all of your freeloading members of the family will complain. So it ought to profit their backside line, too.
Make these new Premium Lite plans occur, Google! Within the meantime, I will hold fortunately paying for myself.
