YouTube Premium: Review
YouTube is a free service, so why pay for it?
As the rest of the world, there's been a lot of time in front of the TV and other screens the last two year. Where streaming have been one of the main culprits
Top used streaming service
In my household YouTube and Netflix are the most used streaming services
9 out of 12 months, YouTube was the app spent the most time in based on the Nintendo Switch statistics. Remaining three months, it was in a close 2nd
Spending so much time watching YouTube, ads was getting annoying and why I decided to try out YouTube Premium
No Ads
Getting rid of the ads, is probably the main reason why people would go for YouTube Premium and certainly was my reason
Last two years, I've seen a steady increase in the amount of ads in my region
Supporting your favorite creators
Another benefits, is that you help support your favorite creators
If you use an Ad Block solution, the creators get no money when you watch their videos. If you use Premium, creators still get paid and you have the benefit of no ads
YouTube Music
YouTube Music is Google's alternative to Spotify. It's a music service, where you play the music found on YouTube, but the app is optimized to be more similar to other music apps
You can still watch music videos in the app, but you also have the option to only see the thumbnail and with background play, the app functions very similar to other music apps
Since it comes bundled with YouTube Premium (Lite is not available in my region), it's an okey service. I doubt I'd ever sign a subscription for just YouTube Music, as I have done with it's competitors in the past
YouTube Kids
YouTube Kids have always had kids friendly ads, that you can't click on. In regular YouTube, if you click on an ad you will be taken to where the advertiser wants (Google Play, website, etc)
In the YouTube Kids apps, ads will only show and nothing happens if you click them. If you have Premium, there will be no ads displayed in Google Kids as well
What plans are there?
You can get YouTube Premium as an individual membership or as a family plan, good for up to six users
With both these premium Premium plans you get:
- No ads
- YouTube Music
- Background play
- High quality offline videos
Many of these features used to be free to all, but have gradually become paid features
Premium Lite
For a few select countries in Europe, YouTube is offering Premium Lite. It's 40% cheaper than regular Premium price, but only contains no-ads benefit and none of the other Premium benefits
It's on pilot run and why it's only some select countries that have it available
Should you get YouTube Premium?
Depends on your usage and preferences. If you don't mind some ads and won't really be using any of the other Premium services, there's not much point in upgrading
I tried YouTube Premium Family for the trial, but saw it wasn't worth it for our usage. My profile is being used on the TV and a few other devices, so I just went with Individual subscription. Just bear in mind that with Premium, there's a screen limit of one device when it comes to music content. Other content don't have this limit
Tags: #YouTube #Google #YouTubePremium #YouTubeKids #YouTubeMusic
