5 Reasons Why I Refuse to Pay for YouTube Premium

That doesn’t mean I haven’t considered the first option. But every time I consider this idea, YouTube takes another step that adds to my list of reasons to avoid subscribing.

The latest price increase is one of the many reasons I remain committed to my denial. And based on a recent survey of readers, I’m not the only one who thinks it’s just not worth it.

YouTube Premium users will soon have to pay more in the US, with the price of an individual subscription rising to $15.99. Meanwhile, the Family plan has increased to $26.99, with Premium Lite increasing to $8.99 per month.

While it will take some time for these prices to reach other markets, it is not a positive sign for consumers who are already facing strained budgets and rising costs. YouTube’s prices aren’t suddenly rising; Other services are also increasing their prices.

YouTube Premium was already too expensive for me. As the service simply becomes more expensive, it is no longer attractive. After cutting the subscription for months, I’m not really interested in getting another subscription to avoid the ads.

Had I not already subscribed to Spotify, YouTube Premium would have been a more attractive option for me. YouTube does not offer a Premium Lite option in South Africa, so I had to switch my music streaming to YouTube Music to get the full value of my subscription.

Ironically, I used to be a Google Play Music subscriber. But Google discontinued the service, and YouTube Music was a highly underdeveloped alternative at the time, which is why I moved to Spotify.

In South Africa, YouTube Premium is priced similarly to some streaming services. In fact, it costs more than Prime Video and only slightly less than Netflix’s basic plan. The difference is that when I subscribe to a streaming service, I use it for several hours per day.

On the other hand, I don’t use YouTube for more than an hour per day – and that’s especially on days when I’m trying to kill some time while drinking coffee and playing Pokemon Go. There are days when I don’t use YouTube at all.

If it costs less, I can justify the price with my limited usage. Right now, I don’t even subscribe to more than one streaming service at a time. So it wouldn’t really make sense to subscribe to YouTube Premium for the occasional video.

Part of my refusal to pay for YouTube Premium is spiteful. This is because YouTube has become one of the pinnacles of encroachment in its effort to push free users towards a paid plan.

Instead of improving YouTube Premium, Google is flooding the free version with ads to force viewers to upgrade. But there was a time when YouTube subscriptions actually offered original content to attract users.

YouTube Premium has some benefits, like the ability to download videos for offline viewing. However, the biggest thing that pushes people towards the paid version of YouTube is to avoid ads. Subscribing to YouTube Premium would feel like I’m rewarding Google for making its product worse.

If I could share my YouTube subscription with others, I could afford it by splitting the cost. However, family plans can only be shared with people from the same household. This means that since I live alone, I don’t really have the option of using a shared plan.

In some regions, YouTube also offers subscription for two people. However, once again, these people have to live in the same house.

Personally, I think if you pay for a group account, it doesn’t matter where these people live – you’re paying for that account slot either way. But after the ban on password sharing, many companies are not offering it.

From time to time, when I’m faced with yet another unskippable ad on my TV, I consider whether it’s time to subscribe to YouTube Premium. After all, I want to support the creators of the content I love.

But inevitably, all these reasons come into play before I’m tempted to go with that subscription option. As a result, I believe that YouTube Premium is not worth it for me.