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Michael here, and if you're anything like me, you watch a lot of YouTube, and maybe you've noticed
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there seem to be more ads on the platform lately. Unskippable ads, repetitive ads, and just annoying
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ads. YouTube Premium removes those ads for a monthly fee, but is it really worth it? Keep
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watching to find out. Number one, how much does YouTube Premium cost? After I mentioned the price
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of YouTube Premium in a recent video, someone messaged me to say I got the price wrong. Well
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my price wasn't wrong, but neither was the price that that person mentioned. Let me explain. Take a
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look at YouTube Premium's website. At recording time, the price is $11.99 per month with a three
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month free trial. But from the YouTube app on my iPhone, I click get YouTube Premium and the
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display price is $15.99 per month. What happened to $11.99 per month? It's the same service
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but at a different price. And here's why. YouTube is just passing along a charge from Apple when
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people use their iPhones or their iPads to sign up for the subscription. So to avoid the higher
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price, just sign up for YouTube Premium from a computer. I'm using a MacBook Pro, and that's okay
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You see here from the Chrome browser, I was able to sign up for $11.99 per month. And real quick
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while we're talking about pricing, you see here there's a discount if you pay for a year in advance
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Plus, there is a plan for families and another one for students too
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Let move on And we moving on to number two the features that you get for that monthly price first and foremost youtube premium removes the ads from videos like the one you watching right now
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look here the majority of people who responded to a poll of mine said youtube had the worst ad
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experience of free streaming services but with youtube premium the ads are gone even those that
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you can typically skip after a few seconds now i know what you may be thinking there are other ways
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to stop seeing ads on YouTube. But with YouTube Premium, the creators that you watch still get paid
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This was my cut of YouTube Premium revenue last month. I know it's not a lot
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but it does help creators like me who are more reliant on ads
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For example, a channel like mine is really dependent on ads because I've chosen to turn down all sponsorships
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to provide reviews that you can actually trust. The next two features are great for mobile users
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first I want to tell you about background play. With Premium you can press play on any YouTube
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video from the app and then it's going to continue playing as you navigate other apps on your phone
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For example open up a web browser and the YouTube video just keeps playing. If you like to listen to
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longer YouTube videos as background noise this is a feature that you're going to use more often than
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you realize. I know that I do. And the second mobile feature I want to talk about is downloading
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videos to watch offline it's not just for plane trips maybe you're trying to watch your data usage
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or you know you going to be traveling through an area with little or no reception premium members can download youtube videos to watch offline anywhere and after you downloaded a video navigate to the library tab from a mobile device and just click
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downloads you see here you also have the option to turn on smart downloads and when this feature is
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activated youtube is going to automatically download 20 videos a week when you're connected
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to Wi-Fi, and these downloads are all based on YouTube's recommendation system. Not done yet
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another benefit for premium users is YouTube Music Premium. Now, this is a separate app from YouTube
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and it's got millions of songs and videos, too, from your favorite artists, all available to
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download for offline listening, plus you can use background play. So if you pay for another streaming
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music app like Spotify or SiriusXM, you may be able to cancel it and use YouTube Premium instead
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Those are the main perks of signing up for YouTube Premium, but I should mention that YouTube
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Originals were previously a selling point of this service, but that's no longer the case
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Going forward, YouTube has moved away from producing those Originals. Now at the number three, how do I know if YouTube Premium is worth it
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After all this, if you're not sure if YouTube Premium makes sense for you, I've got three things that I want you to think about
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First up, how much time do you spend on YouTube? Fortunately, YouTube provides this information
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Click your profile icon, time watched, and you'll see a summary of your watch time history
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This is for YouTube only not YouTube music or YouTube TV So if you find you spend more time streaming YouTube than let say Netflix YouTube Premium may be a no But the second thing I want you to think about is how
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disruptive you find the ads, which is going to depend on the content you watch on the platform
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I don't know about you, but I appreciate that YouTube lets me skip a lot of those ads
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after a few seconds. But I finally signed up for YouTube Premium after seeing the same ad
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from a single company on lots of different videos from multiple creators that I follow
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So it wasn't so much the length of the ads that bothered me, it is just that they became
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way too repetitive. And if you watch a lot of long-form content on YouTube
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things like podcasts, home workouts, and meditation videos, certain types of ads
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may be more annoying than the ads on an average video. And the third thing to consider is how
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signing up for YouTube Premium would affect your overall streaming setup and your budget
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Ask yourself this, would you spend more time on YouTube without the ads? And would you take
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advantage of other YouTube Premium benefits, including the separate music app? If so
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you may be able to cancel another subscription to offset the cost of YouTube Premium
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Right now, I'm still in my free trial period, but I like YouTube Premium so far
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my biggest hurdle, I'll admit, it's a mental one. I pay for the live TV streaming service
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YouTube TV, for part of the year. So when you add up the cost of that and YouTube premium
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they're separate. It feels like an awful lot of money going to YouTube every month
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Thanks for watching today. If you enjoyed this video, I'll leave another one for you to watch right here
