Comment by tuna-piano
5 years ago
For $12 a month (40 cents a day) you can use YouTube ad free. Personally, I don't notice the missing $12 but I do notice the missing ads, so it's worth it to me.
If you don't want ads, this seems like a more than fair offer from YouTube.
I used Firefox with ublock origin[0] and never see an ad.
[0]https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
I pay for YouTube Premium largely because the family watches YouTube on Roku, AppleTV, etc. For that, it’s worth it.
I wish YouTube music wouldn’t share subscriptions with YouTube proper, but I just pay for Spotify and ignore YouTube Music.
The uBlock plugin also works on the Firefox Android app!
or, for adfree youtube experience on android, I am using "youtube vanced" [0](like advanced, but without the ad), and heard lots of people vouching for opensource "newpipe"[1]
Edit: Be warned: just found out that theres a "Block All Ads For Youtube Vanced ads" in playstore thats a fake scam (it even contains ads on its own). Real Vanced isn't on playstore
[0]: https://vanced.app/
non root: https://www.xda-developers.com/youtube-vanced-apk/
root: https://www.xda-developers.com/youtube-vanced-apk-root/
[1]: https://newpipe.schabi.org/
I use the same on desktop, but for an ad free mobile experience, and background audio play on an unjailbroken iPhone, coughing up the cash seems most appropriate.
Here's the browser add-on links for the curious:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ublock-origin...
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/ublock-origin/9nblggh444l4...
Make sure to go into the Options > Filter Lists and check the Annoyances section. That'll get you through most soft-paywalls these days (WaPo, The Atlantic, etc).
Also, the Japanese Language section will trip a LOT for some reason, so you may want to skip that.
Works great on Desktop, but more complicated on iOS without a piHole.
I use iOS Safari with content blockers and never see YouTube ads.
However, if YouTube were to start annoying me I would just stop going there. Just like when I stopped watching TV due to the frequency of ads on American television.
Fortunately for me, I don't watch a lot of YouTube. More often I'm on Twitch, where I also don't see ads on my desktop at least. Unfortunately Twitch has started downgrading their mobile experience trying to force all mobile users to use the Twitch app instead. It's not big loss, I don't really watch Twitch on my phone. On my tablet, I just RDP into my Windows desktop and watch through there.
I would miss Twitch if I had to leave it, but I'm so anti-advertising that if they forced ads on me I wouldn't think twice about leaving.
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Thief!!!!
"Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing programming." --Jamie Kellner, former Warner executive
I'm okay with this. They've deplatformed or suppressed most of my favorite YouTubers anyway, and they are trying to push a culture that I don't agree with.
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That requires me to be logged in, which is a no-go for me because they still use it to track me and come up with suggestions based on what I have viewed, which means I get an abominable amount of crap that is suggested and which I am no longer interested in (I watched 3 videos about the subject already, thank you very much) and even less privacy.
FWIW I turned off suggestions and I don't get recommendations anymore. Doesn't solve the tracking problem though.
Also it depends on the country too I guess. Like in India the same is available for 99 rs / month (129 rs if you wish to get yt music).
Not sure how long this will last but it's been the same since launch, so it's really a no brainer not to upgrade.
I just wish they offered a bundle with YouTube TV. I'd add this in a heartbeat to my YouTube TV service if it were $5-$6 per month extra as part of a bundle.
and it comes with a streaming music service that I personally believe is better than Spotify
Yeah, I don't technically pay for "YouTube Premium" but since it comes for "free" with my Google Play Music sub....well, cool.
On desktop I'd never notice (I haven't run without an adblocker for probably ten years), but on mobile it's a sanity saver.
On a side note, I switched from Play to Spotify in the last month because they kept trying to push me towards YT Music. The mobile app for YT Music is pretty trash, and the less Google I have in my life the better. Not to mention I was still getting ads on YT even though I had premium, I think the no-ads deal is for music videos only, not other YT videos.
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It's unfortunate they're phasing out of google play music and putting everyone on the Youtube Music app. I had to transfer all my music to it the other day. I still pay $9.99 for everything though and get to watch youtube ad free so I don't really mind but it's a bit of a bummer.