I get that it started for free with less intrusive ads, but YouTube has had a huge impact on the way we all share and consume information. Understanding how much money it takes to run a service with the technology needed to provide high definition videos on a site that is up 99.9999999% of the time, I have no issue paying for a service that has changed my life in many positive ways. Now I do hate price gouging like everyone else, but it’s inescapable from gas & groceries to all streaming platforms.

  • SelfProgrammed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    3 days ago

    I paid for Google Music back before it was YouTube Music. It came with YouTube Red (I think they still called it that at the time). I’m still paying for premium because no ads is important to me. Also, according to now ancient videos by Hank Green, YouTube Red made a considerable, good impact for the content creators and I don’t care that other video platforms are cheaper because I’m not watching random videos, I’m following particular channels. I can almost never get the same content somewhere else. I’m locked in because of that. If my channels put their content on other sites, I’d drop YouTube in a heartbeat. If every video went on patreon and not just the exclusive videos, I’d drop YouTube in a heartbeat. I believe in the patreon model and am not a member of a single YouTube channel.

    I wish YouTube understood that they are not the content I watch, they are between me and the content I watch. Maybe then the relationship could be more respectful than ads on the pause screen.