this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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wow just wow while i can't say i didn't see this one coming but it always amazes me where greed could lead someone

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago (14 children)

Probably get shit for this, but…

I just pay for Premium.

YT has literally become my cable. I listen to music, watch movies, documentaries, stand up comedy, news, sports… and cat videos, obviously.

To me it’s just worth it to pay a bit of money each month and have the whole thing just available to me.

I feel like if you were to put a money value on all the complaining, stomping of feet and trying to side-step the ads I’ve seen over the last several years, you’d probably find it’s actually less to just pay and enjoy it.

Just my opinion, of course…

[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 year ago

you do you if you use it that much and you think it's worth your money then good for you ( i honestly mean it ) we don't like youtube ads, YES that is true but it is not the only reason :

  • some of us hate youtube ( and google by extent ) for tracking
  • some of us hate youtube because it's algorithms tricking us into forcing certain agendas and ideals upon us
  • some of us hate youtube because the hypocrisy around how they treat content creator differently yet claiming they are all under the same "rules"

the list goes on but what i want to say is that we don't hate people who pay for youtube we hate those who defend the platform like it's a white knight and nothing shady happening in it

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Given that we are in the piracy subreddit, you can change your Google account to Argentina or similar and pay Argentinian prices for premium. I'm from Europe and I pay 2€ for a family subscription for 5 people.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I pay for Indian Youtube Premium with Revolut

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How’d you manage to get the pricing? VPN?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

VPN to India, Revolut Rupee "account", virtual debit card and an Indian street name generator

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm doing it with Spotify :]

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How couldtl you do that? Asking for a friend

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Use a VPN when signing up for premium.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Nah, can't do it on principle. I know they already make money from me for selling my data, I'm not going to also pay them to do that.

[–] ExistentialOverloadMonkey 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Google sucks and YouTube is evil.
If they were not such an explicitly and overtly shitty company, I'd pay for premium no qualms.
As it is, I wouldn't give them a dollar if the CEO would personally suck me off.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

If the CEO would suck me off, that would be worth a dollar to me, honestly.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

It's the principle of the matter to me. Google became the multibillion dollar corporation it is by selling my data, your data, everyones data. To then come around and demand I pay to continue using their service the way I have for over a decade? But also still continue selling our data? Nah, fuck that. When they cut me in a percentage on the data selling business, maybe then I'd consider premium.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You're paying for premium, but you're not paying it to people producing the content you enjoy. You're paying it to a middle man parasite. Content creators get a tiny fraction of your money.

Paying because they made it deliberately difficult to use without paying is akin to giving the bully your lunch money because it's better "money value" than standing up for yourself. That's not something I can do without losing respect for myself.

And my "trying to side step the ads" has so far taken a total of 30 seconds - installing uBlock origin, which I would have done anyway.

Besides, to use premium you need to be logged in. Being logged in Google outside of a contained environment is idiotic if you have a shred of respect for your own privacy.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That middle-man parasite enables those creators to upload their content for free and provides the bandwidth and discovery for everyone here to watch them. It's a give and take relationship. I don't see the problem here, especially as creators get more money from Premium viewers than they do ad-supported viewers. Sure you would get more from a direct payment from the viewer, but you're not subscribing to every creator you watch either.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You know that this parasite in the first place enables creators to make a living? Youtube also has the best revenue split between it and the creators. They're storing exabytes of data for you, watchable at any time, in any resolution you'd like. Google has been running Youtube at a loss for a long time and ads are not going to cover the costs. They need paying users. 12.99$ a month for more videos than Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.... , unlimited music streaming and even giving your favorite creators more money (they get more revenue from premium members than from free "ad-viewing" members) is not a lot to ask for. Stop your Spotify or Netflix or Hulu or Sky subscription and get youtube premium.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

@FederalAlienSmuggler
@whatsarefoogee
back in my day "pay the artists, fuck the platforms" was the motto

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The likening to cable is noteworthy because cable started as a means of "tv without those pesky ads" and then...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I also have been paying for Premium the last couple years and I completely agree. I get more value out of my premium subscription than I do Netflix or Max. Plus premium supports the creators more than ads do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I had your same mindset for years but the cost of premium went up this year and when looking at the new price vs other streaming services, it didn't make sense for my family any more. If their AdBlock thing starts screwing with my account, I just might be done with all Google products.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's especially worth it if you can get a sub from a developing country

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hold on, this sounds like a secret way to save moneh

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You can do it via VPN. Just a quick Google search found something but the link keeps getting edited for some reason. Just google it yourself

Tip: Don't use Nord VPN. Try Mullvad if you're going this route.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How much is it supposed to cost? Here on Chile it is around 5 bucks

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They'll probably push ads for premium users too, though

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If that happens I’ll probably just stop using it

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

No, all your reasoning so far just comes to the conclusion that you will pay for ad-free Super Premium.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I will have to start paying for premium now ig.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Yup I just subscribed in the Philippines, it's like 2€ per month