Upsold to YouTube Premium

It is de rigueur of late for phones and operating systems and apps to provide analytics on usage time, and YouTube is no exception. I was somewhat surprised to learn just how much time I spend on YouTube: for the last week it’s been an average of 1 hour and 20 minutes a day, for a total of 9 hours and 22 minutes over seven days:

Not only is that a lot of video watched, but it’s a lot of advertising consumed, especially as YouTube has been on a tear recently to run at least two unskippable pre-roll ads and an increasing number of embedded in-video ads (that simply appear, seemingly at random, during watching) per video.

If YouTube’s goal was to push me to become a YouTube Premium customer, it worked, as I signed on for a $17.99/month family plan yesterday.

(Pro tip: if you subscribe to YouTube Premium through the YouTube app for iOS, you’ll be charged, by Apple, $22.99/month, but if you subscribe through a web browser you’ll pay only $17.99/month, and thus save $60/year, and you still get the benefits of YouTube Premium in the iOS app).

So I’ve bought my way out of advertising jail.

Beyond the aversion to advertising, the aspect of YouTube Premium that pushed me over the edge to purchase was that there’s a revenue share with creators:

Currently, new revenue from YouTube Premium membership fees is distributed to video creators based on how much members watch your content. As with our advertising business, most of the revenue will go to creators.

Knowing that my viewing habits support the creation of that which I’m viewing is a lot more palatable than knowing that my viewing-of-annoying-advertising millstone supports creators. I’m pretty sure creators appreciate it too.