"I have canceled my YouTube Premium subscription. The old price (22,99 EUR) for a family account was already steep… but 33,99… YouTube… are you insane? Have you freaking lost it? Happy to pay for an ad-free experience… but this is beyond reasonable or sanity even"

I get it, the price is frustrating and it's too much for a lot of people. Most people, even.

But my word... I'm constantly amazed at how many of the replies to these sorts of posts are basically saying "steal it" — which is effectively what you're doing if you don't have a subscription and choose to block ads.

The subscription is expensive, for sure. Is YouTube taking the piss with the price? I have no idea, but since they host the content, maintain the platform and give 55% of revenue to creators, obviously the subscription won't be peanuts.

If you won't pay it, bear the ads. If you won't bear the ads, don't watch YouTube. If you watch YouTube and block ads, at least be honest about what you're doing.

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I, too, like to dream up wildly unrealistic fantasies. I don't usually say them out loud, but hey man, you do you!
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I can understand this perspective, but it's also saying "I'll pay the YT premium if they limit a channel's earning potential". Is that a fair expectation? But really, this problem manages itself like most others; if sponsored segments are too annoying, simply leave a comment, downvote the video, and stop watching that channel. If enough people agree with you and do the same thing, the channel owner will learn quickly enough.

I often get told, on social, that I'm a bootlicker when I make these arguments – sticking up for corporations, and so on.

If I were arguing with socialists or anarchists, I could totally understand that perspective, but... listen, multiple things can be true:

1) YouTube is a monopoly and charges what it can get away with. Capitalism, baby! Like it or, I dunno... find the mythical country that has made an alternative work out.

2) Blocking ads isn't the 'ethical' solution; not using YouTube is. Blocking ads is vigilantism.

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It's kinda wild how openly people talk about and recommend blocking ads. The social acceptance for it is increasingly huge, which isn't surprising – social acceptance for theft increases as inflation rises, but it's usually stealing essentials from greedy supermarkets, not stealing entertainment.

3) People often compare YouTube's high price to Netflix's comparatively low (but now regularly increasing) price. Netflix, however, isn't a monopoly. It has higher costs and greater competition, so charging less than YT is purely a competitive measure, not 'the right price'.

Ultimately, there simply isn't enough competition for YouTube, and it's comfortably wealthy enough to keep things that way. They pay popular creators well above the market rate so as to maintain their dominance and to inspire new channels to believe they too can make a living on the platform, all of which works to stop startup rivals from having any real chance of getting off the ground.

It isn't rocket science, and as long as we're all addicted to capitalism and consistently refuse to support the likes of Lina Khan in doing anything about it, that's how it'll stay.