4 reasons I continue to cough up $14 a month for YouTube Premium

According to a report from The Atlantic, YouTube is massive. It has about 14 billion videos. This platform has become synonymous with online video streaming and is available on most streaming devices. As the platform grew and technology changed since the service launched in December 2005, it added features and services to keep up. However, to keep the platform humming, many of these features, such as the ability to block ads, were put behind a paywall.

If you’re like me, you may have too many subscriptions and not remember what you have. I need to cancel some. One that I won’t be getting rid of is YouTube Premium. While the name and features included in this subscription have evolved, enough benefits are vital to my daily life to justify keeping it. Even though there are twelve benefits of YouTube Premium, four keep me locked in.

What is YouTube Premium?

In the past few years, I’ve spent more and more time on YouTube and didn’t realize how much I take my YouTube Premium benefits for granted. Not everyone will view the features behind the paywall as worth the cost. For others, like me, they are quality-of-life and sanity savers.

Regarding what you can expect to pay for the service, it starts at $13.99 a month or $139.99 a year for an Individual plan. If you want to go for a Family plan, it will run you $22.99 a month to allow up to five family members access to the benefits. If you’re a student, you can get YouTube Premium for $7.99 a month, but you’ll need to verify your eligibility each year.

Below are the features included in the subscription:

You’ll find a breakdown of each feature on the YouTube Help page, which outlines the YouTube Premium benefits. Now, let’s move on to what I find the most beneficial to the subscription and what keeps me paying for it.

4

Ad-free viewing

Almost worth the cost itself

I know ads are vital to YouTube. These snippets that play before every video and sometimes throughout are revenue generators for the platform and creators. They also keep the streaming service free for those willing to watch ads during their viewing sessions. I am not willing to do so.

Long ago, I became annoyed by all the ads. It doesn’t matter if it is on TV, the radio, movies, YouTube, or anywhere else. When I go to YouTube, it is for entertainment or education, usually to complete a task. In those moments, the last thing I want is an ad distracting me from my goal. If I can avoid ads, I will. I have been viewing YouTube ad-free for so long that when I watch videos on someone else’s device that doesn’t pay for YouTube Premium or forget to sign in, the instant an ad starts to play, I feel my blood pressure rise.

At this moment, I am reminded of how much I dislike ads and how important this feature is to me. I know that there is a chance I will miss seeing an advertisement for a service or business that may benefit me, but I’m OK with that. I’m glad that a portion of my subscription fee offsets the loss of revenue for the platform and the creators for not seeing the ad.

3

YouTube Music Premium

A very close second

I listen to music all the time. Even when I’m not listening, I hear it in my head. I’ve used Google as my music service provider since Google Play Music. So, much like my video-watching proclivities and disdain for ads, it’s even more grinding when dealing with interruptions when listening to music. While the initial change to YouTube Music wasn’t smooth, I enjoy its evolution with custom station creation, playlists that match specific artist vibes by offering downbeat or upbeat stylings, and more.

Even though removing ads from my music listening sessions is important, YouTube Music Premium offers other features that make paying for it worth it. A big one is background play. Paying money to listen to music with the screen off or while scrolling social media shouldn’t be a thing, but it is, and it is another necessity for me.

So is the ability to download music for offline listening. This is another essential feature for me and others. Whether you want to save music offline while traveling or to save on wireless data, the basic function of listening when a data connection is vital for many. This is behind the Premium paywall, but I have accepted it and will pay for it. The other feature I like is the integration of YouTube into the music service, which brings more choices to the platform. If I find a song that only has a video or offers both audio and video, I can choose to hear the audio only, regardless of whether it was included separately.

2

Download videos for offline viewing

Watch anywhere

Like downloading music for listening when there’s no data connection or to save on streaming data, saving videos for offline viewing is as important. I live in rural Kansas, and connectivity can be challenging. Accessing a video to help me fix something or solve a problem, no matter where I am, is helpful. While YouTube and YouTube Music offer a feature called Smart Downloads, where the platform automatically downloads a set number of songs or videos to your device that it thinks you’ll like, it isn’t perfect. It can fill up your phone’s storage. I prefer to find videos I know I’m interested in and download them when needed.

1

Continue watching

Just a nice thing to have

While the features I’ve written about are essential, this last one, Continue watching, isn’t. Still, I enjoy having it around. You can start a video on your smartphone, then open YouTube on your tablet, laptop, or Google TV to see the video you were watching paused and ready to resume without searching for it. I didn’t expect to use this much, but every time the feature pops up, I’m happy it did. I love being able to start a video during my lunch break on my TV and finish it later on my phone without effort.

I’m locked in for the foreseeable future

Even though I have more subscriptions than I need, the one I use the most is YouTube Premium. Between watching YouTube and listening to music through YouTube Music, I access the premium features daily. Is YouTube Premium necessary? No, I could live without it, but it’s close. I would be more frustrated and enjoy using those services if I didn’t have the subscription. Between skipping the ads to background music listening, these are quality-of-life features that improve my mental health. While I plan to cancel some subscriptions, YouTube Premium won’t be one of them.