YouTube Is Raising Prices for Premium Subscribers.
When YouTube launched in 2007, the idea of paying a monthly subscription seemed laughable. But nearly two decades later, YouTube Premium has become a truly compelling proposition . It offers a virtually ad-free experience, as well as exclusive features and bonuses like YouTube Music . Of course, these benefits can only be justified at a price.
On Friday, YouTube began informing subscribers about a price increase for its Premium subscription for all account types. Going forward, the price of YouTube Premium individual plans will decrease from $13.99 to $15.99 per month; annual plans from $139.99 to $159.99 per year; family plans from $22.99 to $26.99 per month; and student plans from $7.99 to $8.99 per month. This only takes into account YouTube’s own pricing. If you subscribe to Premium through the YouTube app on iOS, YouTube charges an additional fee to offset Apple’s 30% commission. That’s why this Reddit user’s individual plan costs $20.99 per month. YouTube, for its part, is informing users of the option to subscribe directly through YouTube for a new price of $15.99 per month.
Interestingly, YouTube didn’t officially announce the price increase. Instead, word of mouth spread, as users shared their disgruntled emails from the company. Users have already been on edge this week, accusing the company of implementing 90-second unskippable ad breaks . YouTube insists it doesn’t have such long unskippable ad breaks and claims that the examples found online are errors. But whether this is true or not, the situation doesn’t justify the company’s announcement of a price increase.
Users are unhappy with this news . Scrolling through Reddit threads, I see nothing but disappointment and discontent, with many threatening to cancel or confirming they have canceled their subscriptions right now. One user called YouTube “greedy bastards,” while others extol the benefits of ad blockers , which negate one of the main benefits of a subscription. Consequently, in recent years, Google has waged a war against ad blockers , making them significantly more difficult to use on YouTube.
$15.99 isn’t the most expensive streaming subscription, and YouTube Premium still offers all the same benefits as before. But I’m not sure YouTube can continue to squeeze more and more money out of subscribers before they start losing subscribers en masse.