NewPipe (mobile), FreeTube (desktop), SmartTube (TV). If you did not know about these, you’re welcome.
Does…. Any one, actually, you know, subscribe for YouTube?
I have a YouTube Premium subscription
Why
It really boils down to a few reasons:
- I don’t like ads, and I prefer not to see them
- Running a platform like YouTube is not cheap, and I understand that Google needs money to keep things running.
- The revenue of Premium is split between YouTube and the creators, much like ad revenue is. So it also supports the channels that I follow.
You pay and you’re still the product, they continue with all the tracking they do.
That hasn’t stopped me from using other Google services like Gmail, Docs, or Drive either.
If I ever decide I want to opt out of Google’s ecosystem I’ll just serve them a GDPR data deletion request.
That’s what I did when I deleted my Twitter account as well.If you don’t want to be tracked, you shouldn’t own a smartphone.
Because let’s face it, you’re never going to be able to stop it unless you get rid of all your tech.
Tracking != taking all of your data and selling it for profit. That’s what Google does with YouTube, even if you pay for premium. So I see no reason to pay for it.
Not to mention a premium sub costs more than most streaming services out there, including double the price of lots of Plex shares that have thousands of movies and shows to watch.
I don’t understand the Google selling data argument. I thought Google was an ad broker. Someone goes to Google and says I want to play ads on YouTube for my awesome baking book, play it for people who are into baking. YouTube has the watch history of people and is able to tell who watches a lot of baking content. That’s not selling data to someone in my books as the advertiser does not receive any personal details about the people where the ad is played. He is just buying impressions. Or am I missing something?
I see your point, but it assumes I want other streaming services or content. I have YouTube Premium to avoid ads. The content I watch is almost exclusively YouTube creators.
That and paying for other services isn’t free of tracking either.
I guess I’m resigned to being the product in some instances.
Imo it should be a choice whether we are tracked for monetary gains or not, and not a necessary evil. But with most basic services/devices you are not even presented with that choice. E.g. when buying a phone.
And if you do have a choice, sometimes accessibility is restricted so much that you can’t participate in our networked society.
I think we have to find ways to provide access to the most basic services with a minimum of tracking. Anything else should still be an option of course.
How to achieve this? I don’t know. But EU regulations certainly wouldn’t hurt for now.
You’re objectively wrong. You can have a fully free and open source android rom without any spyware (not even from google) and be free, and I also use Piped for watching youtube because I don’t have a google account. Check out privacy communities on lemmy.
Edit: And about getting rid of all tech, of course you can’t be 100% independent and have 100% privacy, but you can mitigate most of it if you know what you’re doing.
Many years ago I tried that, and found out that privacy is possible, but the cost is incredibly high.
By using pi-hole I was able to find out if my mobile phone was communicating with Google. As long as I had GAPPS on LineageOS, there was plenty of traffic. When I removed GAPPS, the traffic went quiet, but my phone became severely crippled.
Sure, I still had some smart apps on my smartphone, but I was also cut off from my bank, so basically living without money in todays society. Not really a viable option. Also, updating apps from fdroid was incredibly inconvenient, but I hope that issue has been fixed now.
No, sorry but you’re wrong. Your phone will still ping towers it’s near, those pings are logged. You’re being tracked as long as you carry a smartphone.
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I didn’t know the channels get some of the revenue. Do you get to influence who the money goes to? Like a twitch prime sub?
It replaces the ad revenue the channel would otherwise have gotten from your view, at a higher rate than an ad impression.
Basically a percentage of your premium is divvied out based on watch time. When I signed up it was half of my payment went to creators, I don’t know the current split though
For me its solely because of a ad free experience on my TV, since its the primary device I’m using it on. And i got it relatively cheap from turkey so it’s not that big of a deal. I might reevaluate if the price increases though.
If you have an android tv device check this out. YouTube without the ads. Use it on my Amazon sticks. https://github.com/yuliskov/SmartTubeNext
I’ll take a look at it, thanks!
I got premium because I have ADHS and need to listen to something when I want to sleep or do chores. With premium I can turn my phone screen off of let it run in the background.
Dunno if you have iOS or Android, but on Android you can also just use Newpipe :)
Because I use YouTube more than every streaming app and my Plex server combined. And the creators I watch get money and I don’t have to see ads
Fair enough
I use it so much for work that I just can’t rely on a typical ad blocker and I can’t justify not paying for it at this point.
As blockers don’t work on Google TV
I dont like ads on my iPhone.
Not sure how well it works on YouTube since YouTube ads might not come from third parties, but I set dns.adguard-dns.com as my DNS provider, and now Flow Free and other games don’t have ads.
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Does that work for the app itself? Or do I have to use safari? I use PiP all the time and don’t want to lose that either.
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It’s not bad if you max out the family subscription (5 members) and use YouTube music.
Still, I’m a hypocrite because I absolutely hate their habit of hiding features behind the paywall, and making ads more obnoxious to irritate users into paying for premium.
Ya’ll should just VPN to Argentina and get the sub for cheap, it’s a few bucks per month compared to the obnoxious 13.99.
I pay around 2€ for mine per month plus the VPN fees, it’s a no-brainer
Ah ok, certainly makes sense for ur usecase. I didn’t meet anyone who was YouTube music yet. Does it have high quality audio or is it just YouTube quality?
It has 256kbps AAC, which is the same as Spotify (in the web browser anyway - I think the Spotify apps do 320kbps)
That’s enough for most people I guess
Ditto. It is my most used subscription.
I watch more YouTube than cable (never) or Netflix (maybe one binge a month).
I use it for music in the car and at work.
I play audio from some sciencey channels while I try to goto sleep.
I’ll probably keep paying. I do get value out of it.
How does it compare to a Netflix subscription, or whatever you got?
I would dump Netflix before cancelling YT Premium. Everything on Netflix I can stream for free from pirate sites to my TV. YouTube actually has tons of informational and educational content and a premium subscription lets me support it without the ads. I probably watch YouTube twice as much as all my other vid subs combined.
I’ve been so annoyed with the ads that I’ve started to go elsewhere for instructional content.
I watch a lot more YouTube than Netflix, personally
I’m technically still sharing a Netflix account with my parents, though I rarely use it at this point.
Whenever I want to watch a movie, and I check Netflix, they don’t have it. (It’s worth pointing out that I’m not in the US)In contrast, YouTube Premium gives me pretty much exactly what I seek from it. Videos from channels that I follow, but now without ads.
you hopefully mean you had a prem subscription, the more people quit because of price policy the better it will be for everyone
Oh yeah, because historically, whenever a large internet platform starts losing money, things definitely get better for everyone. Nevermind Reddit and Twitter and Meta and Netflix and Hulu having to nickle and dime users for basic functionality of their platforms, things are definitely better. I love all those raised prices and lowered quality of service.
Right.
out of all the subscriptions, it’s probably the best one. you can get youtube for free but either you’re gonna get ads or you’ll block them, and the creators you like will start seeking other forms of revenue that are just as/more annoying, or just quit.
yt-premium makes youtube an actually nice experience and keeps money flowing to creators. There’s a limit to how much that nice-experience is worth but it’s better than paying for netflix, and a bunch of netflix execs get paid, and the creators don’t. then the show you like is cancelled and removed anyway.
I fee like premium is really the only way to make youtube more sustainable for content creators and the platform alike. However, youtube has currently deemed that demonetized videos should lose all youtube premium revenue. That’s incredibly stupid.
Imagine if premium revenue went to creators you watched, regardless of monetization status. Premium subscribers would be highly sought after for content creators, since it’s a more reliable revenue source that gives them the freedom to make what they want. It’s good for YouTube/google too because thats less reliance on advertisers.
It could use some adjustments, maybe taking some inspiration from patreon.
Personally I become a member of the channels I’d like to support or join their Patreon if they have them and then use AdBlock+SponsorBlock and uYou+ on mobile.
If you pay for premium Google is still collecting all of your data and using it for their own gain. Why support them at all?
someone’s gotta do the hosting part, honestly that’s pretty difficult and I can’t see anyone else being able to make a youtube other than google. The platform itself does have value. I don’t think that value is 45% of the money but it’s not a case of they shouldn’t make any money.
Their yearly revenue has increased by $20B over the last 5 years alone, let’s not pretend YouTube is hurting for money here.
And other video platforms do exist and are successful. I think more people would consider premium, myself included if three things were different.
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The price. Over $10 a month for no ads is insane. If it were $4.99 a month I probably would have it and not care. I hardly even remember that I pay for Plex pass each month. I don’t want or need YT Music, make a separate plan.
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Paywalling old features like being able to watch videos with your screen off on mobile. Most videos where it’s just a person taking and there’s no on screen content worth watching is perfect for that. But they removed it as a free feature locking it behind premium. That and being able to throw the app into the background and have the playback continue. I mean come on…
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Screwing over the creators. YouTube, much like Reddit, has taken the thing that made the platform what it is today, that being the content and those who generate it, for granted. The whole adpocalypse and constant demonetization of videos for stupid reasons is getting old. Things might be a bit better now? But I support most of my favorite creators off platform through Patreon or whatever so they get what they deserve and aren’t shafted by Google being full of greedy fucks.
So yeah, really it’s YouTube shooting themselves in the foot. It’d be very easy to get tons of people to sign up for premium but they’re choosing profits over people. We all know how that works out.
Google can go fuck itself. Ever since they removed the “don’t be evil” slogan they’ve been doing a great job of being shit.
that argument of ‘they have money’ doesn’t make fucking sense lol. them having money has zero to do with them asking for payment in exchange for a service like every other company out there. the fuck does their bank account have to do with the costs of hosting millions of videos for millions of viewers? bupkus - that’s what.
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Yea I’ve been kinda watching youtube through this whole social media moment, suspicious that they’ve successfully taken a middle road here that will probably last. Ads and profiteering? You bet … but it seems that there’s a monetisation model for “creators” that kinda works (though I’m not sure at all about that). And so, for anyone that actually wants to make any sort of living doing the creative stuff that the rest of us lurkers want to consume, the inevitable question of how do you live within capitalism seems to have an answer of some sort in youtube while all the other platforms perhaps don’t have healthy or appealing answers.
As for the fediverse, I think there’s a massive opportunity for donations and crowd funding to become a much more central and normal aspect here so that making some sort of living by contributing to and being a part of this space is actually viable. Even some sort of subscription model for platfroms that are essentially non-profit creator-driven would make a lot of sense here.
That’s a problem that goes beyond any single platform though, and at the moment, cross-platform or fediverse-wide work seems to be lacking behind a little bit.
Unlock origin on the desktop, brave browser for mobile yt seems to work fine at not showing ads
I do, you get Youtube Music as well and no ads, which is a great combination.
YouTube music is superior to Apple Music and Spotify. Change my mind.
I moved to YouTube Music from Spotify and I really miss being able to move the songs around in a playlist on the mobile app. I used to spend a lot of time curating playlists where order mattered (I might avoid having two songs back to back that are the same tempo/vibe, or I might tell a story with the progression of songs in the playlist).
I’m also annoyed by the fact that sometimes YouTube Music will hang forever on a blank loading screen instead of accepting that there’s no connection and sending me to my downloaded songs. I don’t know if Spotify does better about this because I never had Spotify Premium.
However, one good thing about YouTube Music is that you can find covers and unofficially released songs much more easily. I search for covers often, to see how others might interpret a song I like.
Now i haven’t been subscribed to spotify since at least 2015 so things may have changed but when i’m controlling someone elses phone with spotify i pretty much always prefer it to youtube music which has been my main player pretty much since it launched (i wont change for as long as i have yt premium though :p).
I use Youtube music and I think it is inferior to Spotify. Offline music is much more seamless, music quality is superior, shuffling a playlist is easier, recommended music is better, dedicated desktop app, and more. The only reason I use YouTube music is because there is more selection.
I’m not sure about Apple music though since I never had an iPhone.
Is it better than Google Music was? Cause I had that for years and swapped to Spotify when they first announced they were axing Google Music to combine it into YouTube Premium.
It is absolutely not better than Google play music in any way, shape, or form. It has improved a lot since launch though. I’m still bitter about that switchover.
Same man. 😭
I do. I watch a ton of YouTube. Revanced and NewPipe are rad but there’s no effortless way to have an adfree experience on the TV.
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Feel free to elaborate.
OP here. I do in fact confess that I share a YT Premium subscription with a friend, though I myself eschew the bog-standard YT apps with those patched using Revanced Extended just because of long-standing QoL issues on said regular apps.
I used to when I used have it when subscribed to Google Music—which was amazing but then they tried to replace it with YouTube Music and yet another big amazing Google product died—and there was no point anymore.
I’ve considered it to stop ads on the TV app, but always thought it wasn’t worth it. I can’t even be bothered ad-blocking the network to include the TV, so raising cost of Premium now may as well make the product cease to exist in my mind.
I strongly dislike ads, but want to support good platforms and content creators. I eagerly waited for it to become available in the Netherlands back when it was still called YouTube Red. I subscribed the day it became available.
Ethical ad free YouTube: you support creators and the platform that hosts them, much better than through ads.
Too bad most videos now feature sponsored segments so creators are effectively double dipping in my premium support and advertiser money. That is honestly more annoying. I have more respect for creators who have Patreon and don’t feature sponsored content.
I couldnt agree more. The money has to come from somewhere and i’m not watching any ads so it’s the obvious solution. I frankly just use sponsorblock so it autoskips the sponsor spots. But the whole thing is just absurd tbh.
I do, and YouTube is my primary Media consumption for both video and music.
That said, I have the family plan which went from $15-23 back a few months ago and it was difficult to keep. I actually cancelled it and used Spotify and some of the available ad-blocking apps, but ultimately didn’t like Spotify, so I came back.
If it were to go up again anytime remotely soon I’d be gone.
Yes, the whole family watches YouTube on the TV, on the iPad/mobile phone apps, that it’s worth it not to see the ads there, plus background play of audio, plus the whole family can stream their music from YouTube Music so no need for an aditional Spotify subscription.
Anyway, I just wish they’d remove the sponsor stuff on the apps like SponsorBlock does on the desktop for me.
I do but I got it „on my holiday“ in India
Question for you: I looked into trying this approach myself, but Google would not accept my non-Indian payment information.
As it happens, they also refused to take my payment information when I visited Argentina and Turkey, too.
How did you do it?
I used my credit card (Visa by Klarna) and it worked just fine. But it’s been a while since I’ve been there, maybe they changed something?
Out of all the streaming services I pay for I get by far the most value out of yt premium, I probably spend 10x longer watching yt vids compared to movies and TV shows, and it has a dedicated music app that links nicely with my android auto.
Yes, a family plan makes it cheaper. You won’t see any ads on your devices, from your TV to your PC, and you can listen to YouTube videos even when your phone is locked. It also includes YouTube Music. It’s a great deal, and I’m not sure why some people don’t see it that way. Sure, you could get a different YouTube client for your phone, install an ad blocker on your PC, block ads on your router to get rid them on your smart TV, and listen to music on Spotify for free. But the value of a good service is that you pay a reasonable amount of money and get all these features without any additional work on your part.
If you already have a paid spotify/apple music subscription, and already have a buttload of streaming apps subscription (netflix, apple tv, etc), suddenly the prospect of adding $13.99 youtube subscription into your list of monthly subscriptions seems a lot less appealing.
Yes, and you could even switch from Spotify/Apple to YouTube, because it essentially offers a similar service, but with added benefits. That’s their proposition. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to accept it or not. However, I find it hard to agree with the common online sentiment that YouTube Premium is worthless.
It’s not that easy to migrate from Spotify premium to Youtube Music, especially with how Spotify somehow got more and more podcasts into exclusive contract. I also use spotify premium on various 3rd party clients as well, not sure if youtube music support that use case. But yeah, from pricing alone, youtube premium which includes youtube music sounds like a good deal if you’re ok with switching away from spotify/apple music.
That’s where you get rid of the other streaming services and check !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com how to get your TV series ^^
But you don’t have to have all those subscriptions. You get YouTube Music included so you don’t need a separate music subscription. You also don’t have to worry about working out the latest app/add-on/plugin/site that lets you play YouTube without ads. It’s pretty good value actually. I get more from it than I do my Netflix subscription. I rotate my other subscriptions based on the shows I’m watching. I always have a YouTube subscription and don’t foresee stopping it just coz I can’t go back to ads haha.
I wonder if most of the complaints of ads on YouTube are coming from people who subscribe to something like Netflix, but spend just as much (or more) time streaming YouTube.
i pay for youtube premium, i don’t like seeing ads on my phone
My adblockers are holding steady with a 0% rise! I still ain’t paying!
I don’t have the money to sustain the “everything is a subscription” simple as that. So adblockers and piracy is the only way to get media content.
I still go to the cinema, but some cinemas over here are already experimenting with subscriptions.
I’d be willing to pay for a few subscriptions if I didn’t feel like subscription services are trying to gouge me left and right. I miss the days when subscriptions to Netflix and Spotify gave me access to 90% of content online.
Contrast this with Steam, which gives me centralized convenience, seamless updates, online sync, achievements… No wonder that’s where I spend almost all of my entertainment money these days.
By the time steam chokes and shittifies we are all doomed
Software subscriptions are what really bums me out. Back in the day you could just buy your software and have it forever. Now Microsoft Office is a subscription, Adobe Photoshop is a subscription, and so much more. Nothing pisses me off more than when I install a basic app on my phone and find out it’s actually a subscription app.
Literally the only major software I can think of right now that isn’t subscription based or insanely expensive is Apple’s Final Cut Pro at $300.
This right here is one of the biggest reasons I turned to exclusively open source software, cuz man the amount of internal rage I feel any time I have to log into software is unreal, like I open the software I want it to just go
Fortunately Microsoft Office isn’t fully subscription yet, but with how much they’re pushing Office365 it’s not too surprising that people don’t seem to realize this. You can still buy a permanent license from MS directly (with some digging around to get to the correct page) or from 3rd party websites. Only downside is it locks you into the current version of Office, but for the average user (me) that’s not too much of a big deal - I can’t recall them releasing any major must have features over the past 10 years.
Just wait a few more years - Windows 11 will probably be the last “desktop” license you’ll be able to buy. Microsoft really, REALLY wants the next OS to be Windows 365 Cloud OS, run on Azure (of course) and available only via subscription.
I don’t think this will quite happen. People will lose their minds if they need to pay a subscription to use the OS that comes with their newly purchased laptops.
Unfortunately, I recall thinking the same thing about Photoshop before Adobe switched to the subscription model, but here we are.
Adobe made the switch to subscription in 2013, and their revenue the following year grew to about $4 billion. It has continued to increase every year, often by double digit percentages - revenue for 2022 was $17.6 billion, an increase of almost $2 billion over 2022. And 93% of that revenue is from subscriptions.
On a more positive note, maybe a Windows subscription model is what will finally lead to the Year of the Linux Desktop…
It’s like what cable networks did back in the day, if you want to view a channel, subscribe to it. We have come full circle.
Good lord they are going to put ads again in streaming services aren’t they
going to
Uhhhh
Wait Netflix has ads?
Well fuck me sideways
They already have.
Where? Haven’t seen one on Amazon prime, Netflix or HBO yet
Peacock, Paramount+, Hulu, and YouTube TV all have ads or ad plans. Some even just have ads on popular shows no matter the price you pay.
I’ve started getting ads for other shows and movies on Prime. I’m sure they’ll start putting other ads in front of the actual content too soon
I just don’t care 🙌
I seriously couldn’t give two fucks about supporting influencers or tech companies. Uploaders can pay for the infrastructure for all I care. Like people use to host websites out of passion, now everything is about profits, and politics, why would I want to support that? Why should I give two fucks about making someone else rich?
Fuck that shit. You can get cracked copies of the YouTube App that give a much better experience.
I do pay for a couple subscriptions, but in the 2000s I had a subscription service for video games called GameTap and it was great except they could add and remove games on a whim and when you stop paying you lose access to all of it. So you need to remember a subscription service is ephemeral and there’s long term benefits to having the files yourself.
A single ticket to my local movie theater costs $16.50 for an adult ticket to a typical movie. That is already more expensive than a month of unlimited Youtube premium, even at the inflated price.
Video streaming is a consumable product. What model would you prefer. Ad supported is still available. A la carte is reasonable in theory, but doesn’t seem like it would work well for a site like youtube (even though youtube does have some a-la-carte offerings such as movies)
We used to have a movie subscription service around here. It failed because it was essentially sellings dimes for nickels.
From an actual cost perspective, a video streaming on YouTube is not even remotely the same as a movie ticket. The company selling the movie ticket has to price each ticket to ensure that the company can make enough money to cover:
- Rent/lease for the building
- Wages for employees
- Purchase/rental of movies from studios/distributors
- Purchase/rental of equipment to project movies onto screens
Google has its own costs of course, but for essentially the same thing (showing a person a video), Google’s costs are vastly lower per person, because the video they are showing you is a digital file that lives on a server, and the same file is shown to everyone who wants to view it.
Another example: A book printed on paper requires a lot of physical materials - ink, paper, cardboard, glue, etc. Selling a paper book requires machines to print the pages, trucks and trains to transport raw materials to and from factories, and to locations where they book can be sold.
For a paper book to end up in your hands, lumberjacks need to be paid to cut down trees. Miners need to be paid to dig the materials required to make ink out of the ground. Printing press operators need to be paid. Truck drivers need to be paid. Warehouse workers need to be paid. Delivery drivers need to be paid.
A Kindle ebook is a digital file that has been uploaded from the publisher directly to an Amazon server, and Amazon is certainly able to provide itself with server space at far lower than retail cost.
A brand new printed paperback version of the lastest David Baldacci novel costs $19.99 on Amazon. The Kindle version of the same book costs $14.99. Considering that the Kindle version has almost zero of the costs associated with the print version, and is literally the exact same digital file that is sent to every single person who purchases the ebook, the ebook, compared to the paper book, generates almost 100% profit with almost zero additional costs or overhead.
Given this, should an ebook cost almost as much as a real book? Should a YouTube Premium subscription cost as much as a movie ticket?
Or are two of the most profitable companies on the planet simply charging “real” prices for digital products because they have a de-facto monopoly in their respective markets, and they can basically just do whatever they want?
A) Phyical books cost way more to buy than they do to print. You are mostly paying for the writing/editing.
B) Youtube is nor charging anywhere near “real” prices for their subscription. Renting movies on youtube is generally in the $3-$5 range, far cheaper than seeing a movie in a theater. The subscription gives you unlimited access to almost their entire library of videos and music. The only physical analouge is a library, but those only exist due to government funding and a quirk of copyright law that does not apply as well in the digital realm.
I never understand the practice of increasing prices to stuff like this when you have less income, because all it does is drive away current and potential customers.
It’s like with cinemas, if you reduce the ticket price enough you’ll easily fill up screens. If they want more money from YouTube premium they should reduce the price to increase membership to cover the cost and then some for what you reduced it by.
It’s not rocket science.
They want people to start using YT Premium while slowly blocking ad-blockers, but they increase the subscription price… what?
I miss Google play music. Shit was fire.
I pay $22 per month for the family plan because I don’t want my kids or my folks to have to be constantly inundated with ads. And I enjoy being and to play free music that is exactly the songs I want.
I was really upset when they raised the price on me, and kicked me off the grandfather plan. But in the end I decided it was still worth it.
But what the real cost to Google is here is that they have evaporated my loyalty and good will. I now see them as a company that will squeeze me when they know they can get away with it, and that my loyalty and being an early adopter means nothing to them.
That will definitely affect every future buying decision I make for future products and services.
Yeah I love Youtube Premium on the family plan. People on the internet act like there’s no benefit to it as long as Adblock and Youtube Vanced exist. Meanwhile I have an iPhone, smart TVs, and my whole family does too. My nieces and nephews don’t have to get bombarded with ads, and that’s well worth it to me. But the way they silently jacked the price up $5 per month was a total dick move that I’m not happy about. If they keep pulling this shit, it’s only a matter of time before I find another solution.
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Yes. I was an early adopter away back when their motto was “don’t be evil”, when Android devices were premium hardware at extremely low prices, when Google apps were free or super cheap.
They have changed over time. They weren’t always greedy scumbags.
I’ve had a bunch of their pixel phones and one ended up breaking. So I did a warranty exchange and they kept sending me bad phones with even more problems than the one before it. Like their refurb department doesn’t even bother fixing a bad device before sending it to their next victim. And they have zero customer service, so I was pretty much screwed. No more pixels for me.
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Google, like many tech companies, often promotes the idea that its services are designed with customer interest in mind. Features such as personalized search results, targeted advertising, and location-based services are promoted as benefits to the user. Google Meet, Google Classroom, and Google Docs are some tools that are particularly relevant in remote working and learning environments. Additionally, they have made efforts towards user security with two-factor authentication, safe browsing technology, and by alerting users to suspected phishing attempts.
However, Google has also been criticized for its data collection and privacy practices. Critics point out that these personalized and location-based services also mean collecting vast amounts of personal data on users, which may compromise their privacy.
So, it could be seen as a mixed bag - while Google provides expedient and useful services, concerns about data privacy and how this information is used persist. As an individual user, it’s important to stay informed about these issues in order to make choices that best serve your own interests and comfort level with privacy.
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As a user of Google’s services, it’s natural to be curious about why you should be concerned about data privacy. Here are some reasons:
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Data Profiling: Google collects data from its network of services to develop a detailed profile of you. This includes your search queries and interests, websites visited, video history, location data, emails, and more. This profile helps them to predict and influence your behavior, which can be a concern if you value your privacy.
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Targeted Advertising: A significant part of Google’s income is derived from advertising. By collecting your data, they can display hyper-targeted ads that are more likely to lead you to purchase a product or service. While this might seem beneficial, it can feel intrusive and manipulative.
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Sharing/selling to Third parties: While Google states in its privacy policy that they do not sell your personal info, they do share your data with third-parties for reasons such as improving their services, developing new ones, and for advertising purposes.
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Potential Data Breaches: While Google has robust security measures in place to protect user data, breaches can and do occur in the digital world. In such cases, your sensitive data could potentially be exposed to malicious parties.
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Ethical Concerns: Some people have concerns about the sheer volume of data collected by Big Tech companies like Google, how it’s stored, whether it’s anonymized securely, etc. The concentration of so much data in the hands of a few entities raises questions about monopoly and power dynamics.
As in all things, it’s essential to weigh the convenience and benefits Google provides with these potential downsides. Using privacy-oriented alternatives or adjusting your privacy settings can help you maintain a greater level of control over your personal data.
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get caught in an automated process and have your life ruined, for starters. I’d say that’s a pretty real world consequence of letting Alphabet scan all of your photos.
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Doesn’t matter to them what you think, since they can simply buy any good alternative that show up.
Basically these companies are similar to kings now. They own our services and our data. And the peasants may whine a bit but can do nothing.
At least on Lemmy we are left alone for now.
I had that for $14 a month and they were going to raise it to $22 so I said bye just at the perfect time since ReVanced released it’s manager to install.
The amount of downvotes on comments trying to help people not get price gouged and comments supporting these subscription price increases shows me just how many corporate shills are actually out there. No wonder these corps keep getting away with this bullshit.
Edit: Wow so many people took personal offense to this…almost like it they know it’s true but are afraid to admit it. Everyone is hurting financially right now, some more than others. Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation and record profits. Keep shilling folks, enjoy emptying your wallets for the millionaires while you struggle.
I’m not going to defend the price increase, but a lot of comments in here are just aimless hatred of the idea of paying anything, ever.
Pound for pound, YouTube Premium has been a decent deal at $10. Has been. This is pushing it, but there’s a lot of comments that seem absolutely indignant at the idea of paying YouTube period (and by extension the content creators).
There’s got to be some room for nuance here. The internet is plagued by advertising and paywalls, yes, but it can also not exist without them, so we find some middle ground.
I’ve been using the internet for over 24 years. I can tell you that the internet can survive without ads or paywalls. Ads and paywalls are a product of greed. Ads are way more efficient these days but many used to take up so much memory. I remember when AdBlock or whatever it was called came out. It made browsing the internet smoother.
The only way the internet can survive without ads or paywalls is for the person/business hosting the content to pay for everything out of pocket.
A platform like YouTube could never exist without some form of revenue. I understand that there are small platforms out there, such as PeerTube, but they will never be comparable to the scale of YouTube without some form of revenue. Sure, people could grow PeerTube by spinning up their own instances, but then they need to provide their own hardware and storage. At which point you’re spending just as much, or likely more, than you would on a subscription service.
I think its possible it will just be slow and requires people to sacrifice a bit just like we are trying to do with lemmy. maybe find a different route for ads like how Brave the browser does it where it give the user the choice to see ads and give them and the content creator a cut if they agree to it, not that I trust that browser but its an interesting concept
It can definitely exist without advertising and paywalls. It just going to be smaller.
I don’t understand what shilling will earn for these people. The corps don’t care about you. They never will and never have. Do these shills think there’s some comfy bonus to be gained if they wave their flag around in support of greedy practices?
Yet year over year, the prices keep going up even with record inflation
Well yeh, that’s what inflation is…
It’s surprising to me. First moment I’ve thought maybe Lemmy is a worse place to be. Is there really that many astroturfing trolls here? Yikes.
I can afford $13/month on my income and watch YT on a daily basis, much more than any other streaming service by a wide margain. Does that somehow make me an astroturfing troll?
Poeple think they are sharing their enormous profits with creators. Maybe they get a few bucks from the billions.
Ya how dare people actually pay for a platform that hosts billions of videos and streams to billions of users essentially lag free and is actually decent and shares revenue with it’s content creators. /s
Things cost money. You don’t have to be a corporate shill to not expect everything to be free, you just have to be an adult.
Google is one of the richest companies in the world.
Ok? And? They aren’t a charity and don’t owe you free video hosting services.
EDIT: I find it hilarious that point out the fact that you aren’t entitled to free hosting services is getting down voted. Lmao how old are the people here?
No but I’m not going to pay Google for anything. It’s obscene to give them even more money.
Whether you think that service is worth it or not is up to you.
But don’t act like you have some moral high ground here and that people who are actually paying for a service that you are stealing from and a service that actually shares revenue with it’s content creators and encourages independent creators are just corporate shills.
Some of us are adults and realize things cost money and not entitled children that expect everything for free.
And some of us are adults that don’t have your innate need to wield your moral high ground like a smug pedantic asshole.
I am not the one calling anyone who isn’t pirating a corporate shill.
Dude they sell our data to advertisers and big data for profit. The least they can do is provide some services for us for the amount of analytics they collect from us on a daily basis.
As someone who’s actually worked in this industry, your data isn’t enough to pay for video hosting services to the scale youtube provides. Youtube makes up a significant chunk of all network traffic in the world. It costs money.
You’re a content creator, aren’t you? 🤣
No i am not. But I am happy to support actual content creators and the platform that they host on and gets them the most views because I spend more time on YT than I do on any other streaming platform.
Dude, they ARE the advertiser. That’s Google’s main business. They have no incentive to export ANY of your account data to 3rd parties. Business tell them what groups of people to advertise to, and their systems handle the rest. They’re open about how it all works.
They were already being paid and profitable, both from direct cash and ad revenue, but that doesn’t ever seem to be enough.
You are free to disagree with their pricing and cancel a subscription if you have one. That’s how the free market works.
“Free market works” is by itself a very questionable statement.
But there sure are some more options beyond that. Although some people think we shouldn’t be free to pick them.
You are free to pick w.e you want. That doesn’t make someone actually paying for a decent platform a corporate shill.
And I don’t owe them a subscription if I don’t agree with the value they’ve placed on it. Free market, baby. 👍
Sure, absolutely, you don’t. No one is claiming otherwise.
You seem oddly offended at the idea people wouldn’t lol. I don’t know why you’re taking this so personally.
No I just think it’s stupid to call people who would pay for a service a corporate shill. I have no issue with someone who doesn’t think a subscription is worth it. Maybe read the whole thread first next time.
I get that, but the vast majority of content creators seem to make their money with sponsorships or their own ads, so most of what google is doing is content distribution, not creation. Which makes the amount of money they want for that seem ridiculous when pretty much every other streaming service that produces high profile and expensive shows themselves is way cheaper.
This feels like your supermarket requiring entrance fees in addition to you having to pay for stuff you actually buy.
Youtube spends more on revenue sharing than some big streaming services do on content creation. Content creators who also have sponsored segments are essentially double dipping but that’s on the content creator.
Also I don’t know how much it is in the US, but in Canada, YT is one of the cheapest streaming services if not the cheapest, and I get way more value out of youtube than I do from Netflix, Crave, Prime, or Disney+.
I don’t know about the revenue sharing. But in Germany, youtube premium is 12€, Amazon prime and Disney is 9€, Paramount is 8€ and Apple tv is 7€. Only Netflix is the same price for hd or more expensive with 18€ for 4k.
I see.
We are at fault for youtube giving shit away for free. We are responsible for youtube’s profits.
We not only need to offer content FOR FREE to youtube … but then accept that we must pay youtube for our content.
Get fucked.
Before telling others to get fucked, maybe learn to read and grow the fuck up.
YT shares revenue with content creators. No one is offering shit for free.
Things cost money, wether you think the service is worth it or not is up to you, but no one owes you shit just because you are an entitled prick.
I am a grown up. But I have little tolerance for corporate cheerleaders of any shape or sound.
Ok feel free to build your own alternative.
Oh take your ball and go home already.
You should take your own advice. Your bs hasn’t worked.
I think what you are seeing here so far is the organic result of those dumb enough to pay this kind of money for youtube being personally offended and defending their bad decisions.
We will get there but I’m not sure that this platform is large enough to be a major target for corpo bots just yet. Just dummies.
So I have a question for YouTube Premium haters:
How is this any different than what most people pay for both another music service and another video service? It’s about half the cost of other music + video services (when combined), even with the increased pricing over the years. I’ve been paying for YouTube Premium since the awkward Google Play Music transition and it’s a bargain, especially when I had my student discount at like $4.99 a month.
My YouTube subscription costs 0. ublock Origin.
Holy greed!
So sad there are no free alternatives such as NewPipe that do exactly the same thing.
They emailed me thanking me for being a part of their journey for so long and as a gift they are delaying my rate going up by 3 months. Cool……
Thankfully the price of my YT free account is still only the cost of everything I’ve ever written in email or a web browser so all good 👍
