{"slug": "youtube-premium", "name": "YouTube Premium", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "Google's paid YouTube subscription offering ad-free videos, background play, and YouTube Music.", "recommenders": 14, "commenters": 29, "warners": 4, "score": 12.1, "rising": 6.04, "first": "2025-12-04", "latest": "2026-10-31", "why": "HN commenters pay for it mainly to remove ads, especially on TVs and phones, and like that YouTube Music comes bundled in.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 14, "neutral": 11, "compare": 0, "warn": 4}, "spark": [0, 1, 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 3, 4, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["No ads", "YouTube Music included"], "caveat": "Sponsor segments", "short_quote": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.youtube.com/premium", "pricing": "paid", "aliases": ["YouTube Premium"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters pay for it mainly to remove ads, especially on TVs and phones,", "cites": [{"id": 804691041, "item_id": 50293190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293190", "by": "stephen_cagle", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads", "excerpt": "I (and a non trivial number of people I knok) have switched to Kagi for search just to avoid having to deal with the bullshit that is the above the fold google search results. Course, they win anyway because I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads.. Feels like the world is becoming a split between people who can afford not to be the product and people who cannot.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 789686496, "item_id": 49355406, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49355406", "by": "dawn3727", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's definitely worth it; ads can be really annoying at times.", "excerpt": "It's definitely worth it; ads can be really annoying at times.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?"}, {"id": 764329328, "item_id": 47770583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770583", "by": "hitekker", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time.", "excerpt": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time. Algorithm is well tailored too. The \u201cremove video thumbnail\u201d and \u201cremove YouTube shorts\u201d chrome extension is a must install though.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}, {"id": 745191408, "item_id": 46574463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574463", "by": "davydm", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YT premium to drop the ads", "excerpt": "Incorrect. Totally incorrect. I don't mind an ad. Put it somewhere where it doesn't break the flow of the page or video, and we're all good. However, people got so thirsty for ad revenue, it became a game of \"find the content\" on most sites. At least an ad blocker restores some sanity and I can read the article. I pay for YT premium to drop the ads, especially on devices like my tv, where I don't want to muck about w", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ad Blockers helped kill the open web"}, {"id": 761805184, "item_id": 47612824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612824", "by": "seydor", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs)", "excerpt": "Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow"}, {"id": 787620098, "item_id": 49226256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226256", "by": "JohnTHaller", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads.", "excerpt": "I use uBlock Origin on my Windows, macOS, and Android versions of Firefox but I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads. I get YouTube Music. The creators I watch get a share of my monthly fee.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did"}]}, {"text": " and like that YouTube Music comes bundled in.", "cites": [{"id": 746399553, "item_id": 46649972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649972", "by": "DoesntMatter22", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have youtube premium to avoid youtube ads", "excerpt": "I have youtube premium to avoid youtube ads and now I use YouTube Music myself and it's great. Saves me money and I love it", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years"}, {"id": 746398832, "item_id": 46649927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649927", "by": "amanaplanacanal", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "excerpt": "Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years"}, {"id": 783087154, "item_id": 48942947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942947", "by": "QuercusMax", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads.", "excerpt": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads. Yet I've built myself a yt-dlp-based system to pipe audio into my multiroom audio system (built on Snapcast). It will cache things locally so they play instantly, and I can mix my own music library with stuff from Youtube Music seamlessly, which is impossible with non-piratical means.", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "As a musician, I prefer illegal downloading over Spotify (2011)"}, {"id": 752940737, "item_id": 47058796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47058796", "by": "0xCE0", "date": "2026-02-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "switched to YouTube Premium (no ads + YT Music)", "excerpt": "And it shows. Desktop app gets laggier and buggier on every update. And recently like 1 of every 10 consecutive songs just doesn't play. When clicking on the song, it feels like the app tries to redirect original song link (the \"app\" is a website) to some other link and it doesn't find it. As an example, Madonna - Frozen (from 1998 Ray of Light album) just doesn't play, just tried. I have been paying Spotify customer", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify says its best developers haven't written code since Dec, thanks to AI"}]}, {"text": " Common complaints are that creators' own in-video sponsorships still appear,", "cites": [{"id": 796591297, "item_id": 49786956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786956", "by": "Gareth321", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not.", "excerpt": "> I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money. > If you don't", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"}, {"id": 793516592, "item_id": 49594787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594787", "by": "fercircularbuf", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads", "excerpt": "Yeah, I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads, but then youtube creators at some point all decided to jump on the bandwagon of interleaving ads into their content. Many are kind enough to make it easy to jump ahead to when the ad is over, but man, I would much prefer they set up a patreon or just let me pay them through youtube's own UI. Incredibly annoying.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "TiVo to charge money for skipping commercials in your own recordings"}]}, {"text": " and that the apps can be buggy and the feed pushes Shorts and weak recommendations.", "cites": [{"id": 798658992, "item_id": 49916187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49916187", "by": "alpaca128", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour.", "excerpt": "> Oh, and how much are you paying for that service...? I paid YT Premium once. It unlocked a playback queue in the app. That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour. It's literally a simple playlist and yet not a single feature (adding, removing, reordering etc) worked reliably. The playback queue also randomly emptied itself sometimes. Meanwhile I get a superior version of this in the browser by simply open", "context": "", "use_case": "playback queue", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dear Software Makers"}, {"id": 791293073, "item_id": 49455817, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455817", "by": "e12e", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have premium because of Google Music", "excerpt": "Don't necessarily disagree - I have premium because of Google Music (although the official app is now so bad I use Metrolist). I don't see YouTube as a streaming service - more as a social(ish) video sharing/Indy publishing platform. For things like conference talks or training techniques and so on. If I had to watch ads, I'd stop using it.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}, {"id": 805119184, "item_id": 50319949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319949", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar", "excerpt": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar yet I still end up wasting time watching it. So I decided I need to limit my feed to my subscribed videos only, which YT app makes annoyingly difficult. How does HN handle this? I suppose downloading videos for consuming outside YT own app works, but what's the best solution for this, especially with Apple TV as a player?", "context": "pays for YT Premium, uses Apple TV", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 761805184, "item_id": 47612824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612824", "by": "seydor", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs)", "excerpt": "Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "No ads", "summary": "The main reason commenters pay is to watch without YouTube's ads.", "quotes": [{"id": 804691041, "item_id": 50293190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293190", "by": "stephen_cagle", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads", "excerpt": "I (and a non trivial number of people I knok) have switched to Kagi for search just to avoid having to deal with the bullshit that is the above the fold google search results. Course, they win anyway because I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads.. Feels like the world is becoming a split between people who can afford not to be the product and people who cannot.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 764329328, "item_id": 47770583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770583", "by": "hitekker", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time.", "excerpt": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time. Algorithm is well tailored too. The \u201cremove video thumbnail\u201d and \u201cremove YouTube shorts\u201d chrome extension is a must install though.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}, {"id": 780956640, "item_id": 48809790, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809790", "by": "com2kid", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for YT Premium so I don't see ads", "excerpt": "I don't use tik tok (it never managed to adjust itself to me, YT shorts figured me out faster). I pay for YT Premium so I don't see ads, and I have ad blockers everywhere else, and I just refuse to use any platform that forces ads on me. Related - ads are a pox upon society.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Kalshi Infects the News"}]}, {"label": "YouTube Music included", "summary": "Several say the bundled ad-free YouTube Music let them drop Spotify.", "quotes": [{"id": 746398832, "item_id": 46649927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649927", "by": "amanaplanacanal", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "excerpt": "Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years"}, {"id": 783087154, "item_id": 48942947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942947", "by": "QuercusMax", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads.", "excerpt": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads. Yet I've built myself a yt-dlp-based system to pipe audio into my multiroom audio system (built on Snapcast). It will cache things locally so they play instantly, and I can mix my own music library with stuff from Youtube Music seamlessly, which is impossible with non-piratical means.", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "As a musician, I prefer illegal downloading over Spotify (2011)"}, {"id": 752940737, "item_id": 47058796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47058796", "by": "0xCE0", "date": "2026-02-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "switched to YouTube Premium (no ads + YT Music)", "excerpt": "And it shows. Desktop app gets laggier and buggier on every update. And recently like 1 of every 10 consecutive songs just doesn't play. When clicking on the song, it feels like the app tries to redirect original song link (the \"app\" is a website) to some other link and it doesn't find it. As an example, Madonna - Frozen (from 1998 Ray of Light album) just doesn't play, just tried. I have been paying Spotify customer", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify says its best developers haven't written code since Dec, thanks to AI"}]}, {"label": "Ad-free on TVs", "summary": "Valued for removing ads on TVs and phones where ad blockers are impractical.", "quotes": [{"id": 745191408, "item_id": 46574463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574463", "by": "davydm", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YT premium to drop the ads", "excerpt": "Incorrect. Totally incorrect. I don't mind an ad. Put it somewhere where it doesn't break the flow of the page or video, and we're all good. However, people got so thirsty for ad revenue, it became a game of \"find the content\" on most sites. At least an ad blocker restores some sanity and I can read the article. I pay for YT premium to drop the ads, especially on devices like my tv, where I don't want to muck about w", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ad Blockers helped kill the open web"}, {"id": 761805184, "item_id": 47612824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612824", "by": "seydor", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs)", "excerpt": "Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow"}, {"id": 787620098, "item_id": 49226256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226256", "by": "JohnTHaller", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads.", "excerpt": "I use uBlock Origin on my Windows, macOS, and Android versions of Firefox but I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads. I get YouTube Music. The creators I watch get a share of my monthly fee.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did"}]}, {"label": "Worth the price", "summary": "Some kept it as their only media subscription and see good value in it.", "quotes": [{"id": 797335568, "item_id": 49833473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49833473", "by": "DoneWithAllThat", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "kept YouTube Premium", "excerpt": "I canceled almost all streaming services this year and kept YouTube Premium, and honestly it\u2019s the best decision I\u2019ve ever made. Watching costs spiral out of control of just absolutely garbage is insane to witness. I cannot imagine spending hundreds of dollars a year to watch __any__ of the what is largely low effort, low budget trash barely a step beyond the crappiest reality TV. And for the rare diamond in the roug", "context": "", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits"}, {"id": 738519344, "item_id": 46157459, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157459", "by": "AstroNutt", "date": "2025-12-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The only thing I pay for now is YouTube premium.", "excerpt": "Yuck!! My ex forced me into getting a Netflix subscription because she was dying to watch Stranger Things. It wasn't half bad for the simple reason I grew up in the 80's. The only thing I binge watched was Black Mirror, Sense 8 and a few documentaries. Since I was forced to get a subscription, thankfully I never gave those bastards my CC info. I just created an account and went to Target or Walmart and bought a coupl", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video, supporting creators", "switched_from": "", "story": "Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix"}, {"id": 794673936, "item_id": 49667121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667121", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I see a ton of ROI on the $16.", "excerpt": "Serious question: Do you watch a lot of YouTube? Why not just cough up the $16 for YouTube Premium? Creators actually do get paid more for Premium users' views than they do from adsense. You get to see none of these ads that piss you off. Look, I run UBlock Origin myself. But that's because there's zero other way to look at any Web content without going insane with videos and other garbage popping all over the place,", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots"}]}, {"label": "Supports creators", "summary": "Commenters like that creators get paid from Premium subscribers' views.", "quotes": [{"id": 795001216, "item_id": 49687576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687576", "by": "stillpointlab", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Google offers an option: Youtube Premium. That give both me and the creator what we want", "excerpt": "As much I love a good old \"Why don't you just ...\" response that terrifically misses the point - in this particular case I was watching YouTube through their Apple TV app. Now, there may be another \"why don't you just ...\" or \"well, actually ...\" response you have queued up, maybe some ramblings about a pi hole, or some anti-Apple hate, or some other solutioneering. Go ahead, tell me. But it is the structure of incen", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"}, {"id": 794673936, "item_id": 49667121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667121", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I see a ton of ROI on the $16.", "excerpt": "Serious question: Do you watch a lot of YouTube? Why not just cough up the $16 for YouTube Premium? Creators actually do get paid more for Premium users' views than they do from adsense. You get to see none of these ads that piss you off. Look, I run UBlock Origin myself. But that's because there's zero other way to look at any Web content without going insane with videos and other garbage popping all over the place,", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots"}, {"id": 787620098, "item_id": 49226256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226256", "by": "JohnTHaller", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads.", "excerpt": "I use uBlock Origin on my Windows, macOS, and Android versions of Firefox but I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads. I get YouTube Music. The creators I watch get a share of my monthly fee.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did"}]}, {"label": "Family use", "summary": "Used by families, including for kids' music on smart speakers.", "quotes": [{"id": 758855169, "item_id": 47428448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47428448", "by": "noemit", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We have Youtube Premium which I use to play music", "excerpt": "I canceled my family subscription last month. We have Youtube Premium which I use to play music - Spotify was over 20/month and no longer made sense. We mostly used it to play music on our Google speakers for the kids. It's one of those products that used to make sense, but now just doesn't feel so critical. It's easy to replace and patch where I used it.", "context": "Family subscription holder with kids", "use_case": "playing music", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify playing ads for paid subscribers"}, {"id": 794276193, "item_id": 49642262, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642262", "by": "mococa", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Besides youtube premium (because kid)", "excerpt": "Besides youtube premium (because kid) and apple one (because icloud) I have no more subscriptions. I love music and used to have Spotify, but I started to notice they started to remove tracks or entire albums from the catalog. Now I buy online or rip my CDs, it\u2019s much better and works offline.", "context": "parent", "use_case": "video for kid", "switched_from": "", "story": "The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021"}, {"id": 752401809, "item_id": 47025113, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025113", "by": "villgax", "date": "2026-02-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "just ended up paying for premium for my family", "excerpt": "I used to use this & just ended up paying for premium for my family to get over the headache of bugs & risking any IP associated with our google accounts lest Sundar wakes up on the wrong side of the bed", "context": "", "use_case": "watching YouTube", "switched_from": "NewPipe", "story": "NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Sponsor segments", "summary": "Creator-inserted sponsorships still appear, which Premium does not remove.", "quotes": [{"id": 796591297, "item_id": 49786956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786956", "by": "Gareth321", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not.", "excerpt": "> I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money. > If you don't", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"}, {"id": 793516592, "item_id": 49594787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594787", "by": "fercircularbuf", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads", "excerpt": "Yeah, I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads, but then youtube creators at some point all decided to jump on the bandwagon of interleaving ads into their content. Many are kind enough to make it easy to jump ahead to when the ad is over, but man, I would much prefer they set up a patreon or just let me pay them through youtube's own UI. Incredibly annoying.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "TiVo to charge money for skipping commercials in your own recordings"}]}, {"label": "Buggy apps", "summary": "Some report unreliable features like the playback queue and a poor music app.", "quotes": [{"id": 798658992, "item_id": 49916187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49916187", "by": "alpaca128", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour.", "excerpt": "> Oh, and how much are you paying for that service...? I paid YT Premium once. It unlocked a playback queue in the app. That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour. It's literally a simple playlist and yet not a single feature (adding, removing, reordering etc) worked reliably. The playback queue also randomly emptied itself sometimes. Meanwhile I get a superior version of this in the browser by simply open", "context": "", "use_case": "playback queue", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dear Software Makers"}, {"id": 791293073, "item_id": 49455817, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455817", "by": "e12e", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have premium because of Google Music", "excerpt": "Don't necessarily disagree - I have premium because of Google Music (although the official app is now so bad I use Metrolist). I don't see YouTube as a streaming service - more as a social(ish) video sharing/Indy publishing platform. For things like conference talks or training techniques and so on. If I had to watch ads, I'd stop using it.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}]}, {"label": "Feed and Shorts", "summary": "Commenters dislike Shorts and weak recommendations, and some need extensions to hide them.", "quotes": [{"id": 805119184, "item_id": 50319949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319949", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar", "excerpt": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar yet I still end up wasting time watching it. So I decided I need to limit my feed to my subscribed videos only, which YT app makes annoyingly difficult. How does HN handle this? I suppose downloading videos for consuming outside YT own app works, but what's the best solution for this, especially with Apple TV as a player?", "context": "pays for YT Premium, uses Apple TV", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 761805184, "item_id": 47612824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612824", "by": "seydor", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs)", "excerpt": "Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow"}, {"id": 764329328, "item_id": 47770583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770583", "by": "hitekker", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time.", "excerpt": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time. Algorithm is well tailored too. The \u201cremove video thumbnail\u201d and \u201cremove YouTube shorts\u201d chrome extension is a must install though.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}]}, {"label": "Ad blockers instead", "summary": "Some stopped paying and found ad blockers or SponsorBlock a better experience.", "quotes": [{"id": 738726576, "item_id": 46170411, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170411", "by": "JumpCrisscross", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to pay for YouTube Premium and have since stopped doing that.", "excerpt": "FYI, I used to pay for YouTube Premium and have since stopped doing that. Deleting the app and letting ad blockers filter out this nonsense is a superior experience. Strongly recommend. We\u2019ll get local AIs that can skip the cruft soon enough anyway.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube caught making AI-edits to videos and adding misleading AI summaries"}, {"id": 796591297, "item_id": 49786956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786956", "by": "Gareth321", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not.", "excerpt": "> I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money. > If you don't", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"}]}], "who": [{"by": "mococa", "context": "parent", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642262", "date": "2026-09-10"}, {"by": "noemit", "context": "Family subscription holder with kids", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47428448", "date": "2026-03-18"}], "tags": ["for TV viewing", "for families", "for music streaming", "for Android users"], "use_cases": ["ad-free video", "ad-free youtube", "music streaming", "video watching", "playback queue", "video streaming"], "compared": [{"slug": "spotify", "name": "Spotify", "co": 6, "switched_from": 3, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "newpipe", "name": "NewPipe", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "sponsorblock", "name": "SponsorBlock", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "youtube-music", "name": "YouTube Music", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "firefox", "name": "Firefox", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ublock-origin", "name": "uBlock Origin", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "nebula", "name": "Nebula", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49686445", "title": "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649168", "title": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319510", "title": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50291945", "title": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49913364", "title": "Dear Software Makers", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49828120", "title": "Search \u2013 A small, fast WebKit browser for macOS", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-02": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-08": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2}, "2026-09": {"neutral": 4, "recommend": 4, "warn": 1}, "2026-10": {"warn": 2, "recommend": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 805119184, "item_id": 50319949, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50319949", "by": "cromka", "date": "2026-10-31", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar", "excerpt": "I pay for YT premium but noticed the quality of recommendations is subpar yet I still end up wasting time watching it. So I decided I need to limit my feed to my subscribed videos only, which YT app makes annoyingly difficult. How does HN handle this? I suppose downloading videos for consuming outside YT own app works, but what's the best solution for this, especially with Apple TV as a player?", "context": "pays for YT Premium, uses Apple TV", "use_case": "video watching", "switched_from": "", "story": "HackerTube: YouTube built from videos recommended by HN"}, {"id": 804691041, "item_id": 50293190, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50293190", "by": "stephen_cagle", "date": "2026-10-29", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads", "excerpt": "I (and a non trivial number of people I knok) have switched to Kagi for search just to avoid having to deal with the bullshit that is the above the fold google search results. Course, they win anyway because I also pay for youtube premium to avoid seeing ads.. Feels like the world is becoming a split between people who can afford not to be the product and people who cannot.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google Search is now less than half of Alphabet\u2019s revenue"}, {"id": 798658992, "item_id": 49916187, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49916187", "by": "alpaca128", "date": "2026-10-01", "stance": "warn", "quote": "That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour.", "excerpt": "> Oh, and how much are you paying for that service...? I paid YT Premium once. It unlocked a playback queue in the app. That queue had 5 separate bugs I found within an hour. It's literally a simple playlist and yet not a single feature (adding, removing, reordering etc) worked reliably. The playback queue also randomly emptied itself sometimes. Meanwhile I get a superior version of this in the browser by simply open", "context": "", "use_case": "playback queue", "switched_from": "", "story": "Dear Software Makers"}, {"id": 797570306, "item_id": 49848144, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49848144", "by": "bs7280", "date": "2026-09-25", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "youtube premium exists because I dont want to waste my precious time on stuff I dont want to see", "excerpt": "Theres a distinction between built more rigorously and tested more rigorously. By many definitions, agent created apps are built more rigorously. They write more unit tests, attempt to handle more edge cases, write more lines of code, create features faster. For certain things, I do think agent created tools tend to be better. But - I have found that every single model available is lacking in creating a great UX, eve", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Search \u2013 A small, fast WebKit browser for macOS"}, {"id": 797335568, "item_id": 49833473, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49833473", "by": "DoneWithAllThat", "date": "2026-09-24", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "kept YouTube Premium", "excerpt": "I canceled almost all streaming services this year and kept YouTube Premium, and honestly it\u2019s the best decision I\u2019ve ever made. Watching costs spiral out of control of just absolutely garbage is insane to witness. I cannot imagine spending hundreds of dollars a year to watch __any__ of the what is largely low effort, low budget trash barely a step beyond the crappiest reality TV. And for the rare diamond in the roug", "context": "", "use_case": "video streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+ and Hulu raise prices by up to 13 percent after doubling profits"}, {"id": 796591297, "item_id": 49786956, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49786956", "by": "Gareth321", "date": "2026-09-21", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Google advertises an ad free experience, which it's not.", "excerpt": "> I mean, the stuff that's in the video is not really under Google's control. It is completely within Google's control. They have a hundred pages of terms of services, dictating everything the content creators may and may not do and say, down to individual words, symbols, and opinions. If Google wanted to, they could tell content creators to stop adding sponsorships. I understand you'd make less money. > If you don't", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Disney+: New user agreement allows ads before movies in all subscriptions"}, {"id": 795031312, "item_id": 49689457, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49689457", "by": "jjallen", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I Use happily YouTube premium", "excerpt": "I don\u2019t see many these days thankfully. I Use happily YouTube premium and mostly AI for web browsing-equivalent activities.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"}, {"id": 795010288, "item_id": 49688143, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49688143", "by": "unethical_ban", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use adblock and on my TV, Youtube Premium.", "excerpt": "I use adblock and on my TV, Youtube Premium. I loaded a stock web browser on VPN and checked Youtube looking for ads. Holy shit, it's all scams. Sample size of three, but not a single ad was a known company or a decent product.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube on TV", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"}, {"id": 795001216, "item_id": 49687576, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49687576", "by": "stillpointlab", "date": "2026-09-13", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Google offers an option: Youtube Premium. That give both me and the creator what we want", "excerpt": "As much I love a good old \"Why don't you just ...\" response that terrifically misses the point - in this particular case I was watching YouTube through their Apple TV app. Now, there may be another \"why don't you just ...\" or \"well, actually ...\" response you have queued up, maybe some ramblings about a pi hole, or some anti-Apple hate, or some other solutioneering. Go ahead, tell me. But it is the structure of incen", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Why is Google still serving dodgy ads?"}, {"id": 794673936, "item_id": 49667121, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49667121", "by": "xp84", "date": "2026-09-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I see a ton of ROI on the $16.", "excerpt": "Serious question: Do you watch a lot of YouTube? Why not just cough up the $16 for YouTube Premium? Creators actually do get paid more for Premium users' views than they do from adsense. You get to see none of these ads that piss you off. Look, I run UBlock Origin myself. But that's because there's zero other way to look at any Web content without going insane with videos and other garbage popping all over the place,", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "I spent $220 on Google app ads and 60% of the installs were robots"}, {"id": 794276193, "item_id": 49642262, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49642262", "by": "mococa", "date": "2026-09-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Besides youtube premium (because kid)", "excerpt": "Besides youtube premium (because kid) and apple one (because icloud) I have no more subscriptions. I love music and used to have Spotify, but I started to notice they started to remove tracks or entire albums from the catalog. Now I buy online or rip my CDs, it\u2019s much better and works offline.", "context": "parent", "use_case": "video for kid", "switched_from": "", "story": "The same nine streaming subscriptions cost $702/year more than in 2021"}, {"id": 793516592, "item_id": 49594787, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49594787", "by": "fercircularbuf", "date": "2026-09-07", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads", "excerpt": "Yeah, I pay for youtube so I don't have to watch ads, but then youtube creators at some point all decided to jump on the bandwagon of interleaving ads into their content. Many are kind enough to make it easy to jump ahead to when the ad is over, but man, I would much prefer they set up a patreon or just let me pay them through youtube's own UI. Incredibly annoying.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "TiVo to charge money for skipping commercials in your own recordings"}, {"id": 791293073, "item_id": 49455817, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49455817", "by": "e12e", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have premium because of Google Music", "excerpt": "Don't necessarily disagree - I have premium because of Google Music (although the official app is now so bad I use Metrolist). I don't see YouTube as a streaming service - more as a social(ish) video sharing/Indy publishing platform. For things like conference talks or training techniques and so on. If I had to watch ads, I'd stop using it.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music", "switched_from": "", "story": "Meta reaches $17B settlement over social media harms to children"}, {"id": 791257265, "item_id": 49453579, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49453579", "by": "zeristor", "date": "2026-08-26", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Premium YouTube", "excerpt": "I signed up for Nebula, it is a lot more for HD quality, which I though was sneeky. In the end I never got in the habit of opening Nebula to watch the content. I pay for Premium YouTube and have noticed when there's an in video ad you can skip through to the end of the ad, YouTube have set that up. I tend to watch 2 minute of several videos on rotation, I guess I should just put the Apple TV out of reach and I can't ", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nebula Sans"}, {"id": 789686496, "item_id": 49355406, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49355406", "by": "dawn3727", "date": "2026-08-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's definitely worth it; ads can be really annoying at times.", "excerpt": "It's definitely worth it; ads can be really annoying at times.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: Which software do you happily pay for every month?"}, {"id": 788954288, "item_id": 49309643, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49309643", "by": "rvz", "date": "2026-08-15", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "YouTube Premium is not that bad you know.", "excerpt": "> \"Aug 31st 2026: All remaining Manifest V2 extensions removed from the Chrome Web Store\" There goes all the ad blockers. YouTube Premium is not that bad you know.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Chrome Web Store will remove all MV2 extensions on August 31st"}, {"id": 787620098, "item_id": 49226256, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49226256", "by": "JohnTHaller", "date": "2026-08-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads.", "excerpt": "I use uBlock Origin on my Windows, macOS, and Android versions of Firefox but I also pay for YT Premium. It means I can use the official YouTube client on my Android devices without ads. I get YouTube Music. The creators I watch get a share of my monthly fee.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube on Android", "switched_from": "", "story": "Microsoft Edge is about to lock out older ad blockers, just like Chrome did"}, {"id": 783087154, "item_id": 48942947, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48942947", "by": "QuercusMax", "date": "2026-07-16", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads.", "excerpt": "I pay for Youtube premium, which gives me unlimited Youtube Music usage with no ads. Yet I've built myself a yt-dlp-based system to pipe audio into my multiroom audio system (built on Snapcast). It will cache things locally so they play instantly, and I can mix my own music library with stuff from Youtube Music seamlessly, which is impossible with non-piratical means.", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "", "story": "As a musician, I prefer illegal downloading over Spotify (2011)"}, {"id": 780956640, "item_id": 48809790, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48809790", "by": "com2kid", "date": "2026-07-06", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I pay for YT Premium so I don't see ads", "excerpt": "I don't use tik tok (it never managed to adjust itself to me, YT shorts figured me out faster). I pay for YT Premium so I don't see ads, and I have ad blockers everywhere else, and I just refuse to use any platform that forces ads on me. Related - ads are a pox upon society.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "How Kalshi Infects the News"}, {"id": 764329328, "item_id": 47770583, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47770583", "by": "hitekker", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time.", "excerpt": "I pay for YouTube Premium. No ads; I feel like it respects my time. Algorithm is well tailored too. The \u201cremove video thumbnail\u201d and \u201cremove YouTube shorts\u201d chrome extension is a must install though.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube now world's largest media company, topping Disney"}, {"id": 761805184, "item_id": 47612824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47612824", "by": "seydor", "date": "2026-04-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs)", "excerpt": "Youtube charges $10 per month and doesn't produce a single video. It's an amazing money maker for them and the only media subscription i pay for (to avoid ads on TVs). They should quit it with the Shorts though, nobody likes those", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video", "switched_from": "", "story": "Men are ditching TV for YouTube as AI usage and social media fatigue grow"}, {"id": 758855169, "item_id": 47428448, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47428448", "by": "noemit", "date": "2026-03-18", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "We have Youtube Premium which I use to play music", "excerpt": "I canceled my family subscription last month. We have Youtube Premium which I use to play music - Spotify was over 20/month and no longer made sense. We mostly used it to play music on our Google speakers for the kids. It's one of those products that used to make sense, but now just doesn't feel so critical. It's easy to replace and patch where I used it.", "context": "Family subscription holder with kids", "use_case": "playing music", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify playing ads for paid subscribers"}, {"id": 752940737, "item_id": 47058796, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47058796", "by": "0xCE0", "date": "2026-02-18", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "switched to YouTube Premium (no ads + YT Music)", "excerpt": "And it shows. Desktop app gets laggier and buggier on every update. And recently like 1 of every 10 consecutive songs just doesn't play. When clicking on the song, it feels like the app tries to redirect original song link (the \"app\" is a website) to some other link and it doesn't find it. As an example, Madonna - Frozen (from 1998 Ray of Light album) just doesn't play, just tried. I have been paying Spotify customer", "context": "", "use_case": "music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify says its best developers haven't written code since Dec, thanks to AI"}, {"id": 752401809, "item_id": 47025113, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025113", "by": "villgax", "date": "2026-02-15", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "just ended up paying for premium for my family", "excerpt": "I used to use this & just ended up paying for premium for my family to get over the headache of bugs & risking any IP associated with our google accounts lest Sundar wakes up on the wrong side of the bed", "context": "", "use_case": "watching YouTube", "switched_from": "NewPipe", "story": "NewPipe: YouTube client without vertical videos and algorithmic feed"}, {"id": 746399553, "item_id": 46649972, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649972", "by": "DoesntMatter22", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I have youtube premium to avoid youtube ads", "excerpt": "I have youtube premium to avoid youtube ads and now I use YouTube Music myself and it's great. Saves me money and I love it", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years"}, {"id": 746398832, "item_id": 46649927, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46649927", "by": "amanaplanacanal", "date": "2026-01-16", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "excerpt": "Cancelled mine a while ago. My partner likes watching YouTubers on the TV, and I can't abide ads. So I pay for YouTube, get rid of the ads, and get free music streaming as a benefit. Win win win!", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video and music streaming", "switched_from": "Spotify", "story": "Spotify increases its US subscription prices for the third time in 3 years"}, {"id": 745191408, "item_id": 46574463, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574463", "by": "davydm", "date": "2026-01-11", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I pay for YT premium to drop the ads", "excerpt": "Incorrect. Totally incorrect. I don't mind an ad. Put it somewhere where it doesn't break the flow of the page or video, and we're all good. However, people got so thirsty for ad revenue, it became a game of \"find the content\" on most sites. At least an ad blocker restores some sanity and I can read the article. I pay for YT premium to drop the ads, especially on devices like my tv, where I don't want to muck about w", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ad Blockers helped kill the open web"}, {"id": 738726576, "item_id": 46170411, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46170411", "by": "JumpCrisscross", "date": "2025-12-05", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I used to pay for YouTube Premium and have since stopped doing that.", "excerpt": "FYI, I used to pay for YouTube Premium and have since stopped doing that. Deleting the app and letting ad blockers filter out this nonsense is a superior experience. Strongly recommend. We\u2019ll get local AIs that can skip the cruft soon enough anyway.", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free YouTube", "switched_from": "", "story": "YouTube caught making AI-edits to videos and adding misleading AI summaries"}, {"id": 738519344, "item_id": 46157459, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46157459", "by": "AstroNutt", "date": "2025-12-04", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The only thing I pay for now is YouTube premium.", "excerpt": "Yuck!! My ex forced me into getting a Netflix subscription because she was dying to watch Stranger Things. It wasn't half bad for the simple reason I grew up in the 80's. The only thing I binge watched was Black Mirror, Sense 8 and a few documentaries. Since I was forced to get a subscription, thankfully I never gave those bastards my CC info. I just created an account and went to Target or Walmart and bought a coupl", "context": "", "use_case": "ad-free video, supporting creators", "switched_from": "", "story": "Warner Bros Begins Exclusive Deal Talks With Netflix"}]}