Key Takeaways
- YouTube Premium offers ad-free content and background audio capability.
- A variety of features, including saving videos offline, justify the $14 subscription fee.
- The most compelling feature of the service is the removal of ads, which improves the viewing experience.
When I first heard YouTube PremiumI’ll admit it: I had my doubts. The idea of paying for a popular video hosting platform where all the content is available for free seemed unnecessary. I don’t like ads when they interrupt my TV shows and movies, but for online video, I didn’t think I cared that much.
Turns out I was wrong. After signing up for the service for a completely different reason, I discovered that i without ads YouTube is too good to live without. Over the past few years, I’ve become an evangelist for YouTube Premium, even including friends in my family’s subscriptions.
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However, removing ads isn’t the only feature of YouTube Premium, and it wasn’t the feature that got me to sign up in the first place. While others don’t agree that Premium is worth the priceat this point I can’t imagine life without it.
YouTube Premium
What is included?YouTube and YouTube Music without add-ons and in the background
Price$14 per month
Live TVNo
What exactly is YouTube Premium?
It’s just YouTube as you know it, but better
YouTube
YouTube Premium was first launched as a music subscription in 2014, offering subscribers ad-free music videos from major record labels. The company also launched the service as YouTube Red in 2015, this time making all of the platform’s videos ad-free.
Finally, in 2018, the name was changed to YouTube Premium, reflecting the additional benefits subscribers receive by subscribing. First and foremost is to remove ads from all devices and browsers. There is also original content published by YouTube’s biggest creators that is only available to subscribers. Additionally, Premium allows users to play audio from YouTube videos in background or picture-in-picture mode on mobile devices, and users are able to save videos for offline viewing.
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Why I subscribed to YouTube Premium
The second features got me
The larger YouTube Premium price removes ads from all videos. Nice feature, but one I didn’t think I cared about. Instead, what got me signed up was the background audio and offline video saving capabilities.
I often found myself wanting to continue watching or listening to YouTube videos while traveling on the train without a cell phone signal.
When I worked from home, I used to have YouTube hosted chat shows playing while I was at my desk. But when I needed to go out and walk the dog, the only way I could continue listening live was to keep the YouTube app on my phone open and the screen on. If I quit the app or turned off my screen, the sound would stop.
In addition, I often found myself wanting to continue watching or listening to YouTube videos while traveling on the train without a mobile signal. That was impossible, of course. When I saw that YouTube Premium would allow me to listen to audio in the background and save videos to continue watching on the subway, I decided to sign up for a free trial.
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The killer feature of YouTube Premium
It was commercials all the time
Although I may not have signed up to remove the ads, in the end, it was a feature that ended my doubts about YouTube Premium.
I really enjoyed the ability to listen in the background and save videos offline, but as my work situation changed, and as cell service increased on the subway system, I found myself not needing either feature as much. They were and still are great to have, and it’s hard to imagine doing without them, but they weren’t the features that kept me hanging on to my subscription for years.
After years of getting used to watching YouTube without seeing ads, their sudden intrusion was maddening.
It was really commercials all the time. I thought I was fine with putting up with ads at the beginning of videos, or peppering them with long ones. Turns out, I had no idea how good ad-free life could be. In fact, I mean the best deal when, recently, I temporarily suspended my subscription.
I spent a few weeks dealing with ads on YouTube, and you guys — it was terrible. After years of getting used to watching YouTube without seeing ads, their sudden intrusion was maddening.
YouTube Premium may not offer a lot of features, and it may seem like paying $14 a month without ads and background sound capability on your phone, but from what I’ve seen, it’s really worth it.
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