It has been two years since YouTube Premium launched. First known as YouTube Red, the service is now bundled with YouTube Music Premium and offers a bunch of perks for a better viewing and listening experience. However, even though it is its two-year anniversary, YouTube Premium hasn’t exactly exploded in popularity. The relentless sign up pop ups certainly didn’t help, but there are solid arguments in favor of subscribing.
So, if you are yet to give Premium a try, we are here to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly about YouTube Premium.
What is YouTube Premium?
YouTube is the largest video-sharing platform on the web with plenty of free content for your viewing pleasure. So, why is there a premium version and what does it offer?
YouTube Premium is the platform’s paid subscription service. Here is everything you get for the price of $11.99 per month:
- Ad-free videos — no annoying ad-breaks on any content on any device logged into your Premium account.
- Background play — you can listen to long videos, podcasts and music with your screen locked.
- Offline playback — you can download videos for later offline viewing.
- YouTube Music Premium — ad-free access to the dedicated music app and its catalog of millions of songs.
- YouTube Originals — ad-free Originals and access to exclusive Premium content.
As you can see, YouTube Premium has a lot to offer. But are the perks as good as they are on paper, and is the price justified?
The good stuff
If you regularly watch content on YouTube, most Premium subscription perks are as good as they sound. To start off, it is hard to understate how great the ad-free experience is. Many of us use ad blockers on our PCs, but advertisements are much harder to escape on mobile. With the implementation of double pre-roll and unskipabble ads, YouTube Premium’s ad-free experience is pretty much a necessity for anyone that spends a significant amount of time on the platform.
Watching your favorite creators on the big screen of your TV when casting or using the smart TV app is also a lot more pleasant without constant interruptions. The experience is truly ad-free too: this means no trailers for YouTube originals or anything of the sort.
YouTube Music vs YouTube Premium vs YouTube Music Premium explained!
Speaking of creators, however, YouTube Premium has another great advantage which is not mentioned enough: revenue sharing. A Premium subscription supports the YouTubers you love because YouTube shares a portion of the revenue for every view they receive from subscribers. This supposedly includes demonetized videos too.
The good stuff doesn’t end there, however. The access to Premium Music included in your subscription is underrated to say the least. The service has a huge catalog of songs. I was personally able to find every obscure song I could think of. Even if some weren’t available as song files, I could still listen to the music videos with my screen locked.
Related: How to transfer your Google Play Music library to YouTube Music
The variety of genres and artists would please even the most snobby music fans. For them, a YouTube Premium subscription could be worth it for the tunes alone. It only costs $2 more per month than Spotify Premium, with additional YouTube perks to boot.
What YouTube Premium needs to improve
When YouTube Red first launched, all of the marketing seemed to be focused on original content. All of your favorite YouTubers but with bigger budgets — who wouldn’t want that? Unfortunately, YouTube still hasn’t delivered in this area. Nowadays, most originals are not exclusive to Premium subscribers. They can viewed with ads on a free account, but the quality seems to be deteriorating. The platform also looks to be pushing YouTubers aside in favor of celebrities.
This is unfortunate because YouTube seems to be squandering the potential of its existing creators. We have already seen how well some of them could do with bigger budgets. Mind Field, a documentary series by Michael from Vsauce, is the perfect example. Vsauce was already well-known for its fascinating scientific content, and Mind Field allowed Michael to dive deeper into issues by conducting experiments, interviewing experts, and more. It made for an intriguing and entertaining series. Today, YouTube could easily repeat its success by collaborating with channels such as Kurzgesagt, Crash Course, or even someone like the Angry Video Game Nerd. Instead, we have series like Celebrity Substitute and Create Together With Me with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Even if you don’t mind the celebrity videos, originals are sometimes easy to miss. Although I have been subscribed to Premium for two months, I rarely get recommendations for Originals, and few if any have popped up on my home page. That’s a shame because there are some hidden gems like The Boy Band Con documentary, which I highly recommend. The Originals tabs itself doesn’t have the best design either, making it hard to discover new things to watch.
Related: Forget Netflix, watch these free movies on YouTube instead
Finally, the other major qualm some users might have with YouTube Premium is its price. If you are not taking advantage of YouTube Music Premium, it’s hard to justify spending $11.99 a month for an ad-free experience and some original content.
Is YouTube Premium worth it for you?
If you are looking for a Netflix or Hulu substitute, the answer is no. However, if you want a more than decent music streaming service and a better viewing experience on YouTube, you can’t go wrong with YouTube Premium. It not only makes videos more enjoyable for you as viewer, but it also supports your favorite creators. So, if you haven’t tried it yet, don’t ignore the annoying prompt next time and test it yourself.