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Weird to think that there is some percentage of this world that still goes to BestBuy, GameStop, and watches ads on TV and that its big enough to be worth marketing to.
I’m often surprised when I hear how other people live. Conversation at work will go like:
Employee A: “Youtube ads are getting ridiculous.”
Me: “You still see Youtube ads?”
Employee B: “Yeah, just get Youtube Premium. Such a smart investment.”
Me: “Wait, what?!”
Several of my millennial friends have cable TV and Tivo or something just because they are creatures of habit and are too tired from raising kids to consider changing their process. Weirdly, my boomer parents are the most tech savvy media consumers I know. They just have terrible taste.
This is one of those things that I go against the Lemmy hivemind on. I cut out pretty much every streaming service and sail the high seas for most of my media.But I consider YouTube Premium worth the cost.
I got grandfathered into it when Google Music shut down and I really haven’t felt the need to change anything. YouTube music is better than Spotify. I don’t have to constantly play the whack-a-mole game of ad blockers that will inevitably break during a YouTube update. I don’t have to rely on finicky software to get videos to play in the background with my phone screen off.
Look, I get it. All these features used to be offered for free without ads. I think that more than anything is why people are so rabidly against premium, because they feel like they had that stuff stolen from them. But YouTube is a service, not a right. You were never guaranteed those features permanently. The cost of Premium is miniscule compared to the benefits I get from it. I use YouTube a LOT. Weather for how to videos, or ASMR, or background music, or documentaries, or podcasts. I like knowing that no matter where I use it, from my computer to my phone to the random smart TV in a hotel that I cast to, I’m not going to see any ads.
All this is based on the current services offered at the current price. If and when they start making those services shittier or increase the cost, then I will seek alternatives; but not before.
EDIT: I love all the many replies going “Yea but you could just use this program combined with this plugin on your locally hosted server. Just use these 3 different pieces of software. Have you tried Squootle? Just use Squootle and SEvR, bro. If you use Squootle you can download the video, recompress it, and play it from any desktop running Windows 7.”
Man I just use ublock on Firefox, it works on all my devices including my phone, and I’ve never once had to play with it
And can you play videos on your phone with the screen off?
How about when you cast to a smart TV? Does your browser based ad-block work then too?
What do you use for music? If it’s Spotify, why? YT premium costs just about as much.
I’m not the person you asked, and I don’t care if you buy YT premium, but Firefox mobile can play background videos, the only finicky thing is it pauses when you turn your screen off, but you can press play on your lockscreen to start it again.
I use smarttube next on my television.
For music, I personally do Qobuz because they pay marginally better than Spotify (albeit still not a ton.)
If you haven’t, check out Grayjay for YT on mobile.
Or NewPipe
Who is she? Not sure why I should care.
