YouTube Premium

YouTube Music and Premium top 80 million paid subscribers • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on November 9, 2022Posted in Apps, YouTube, YouTube Music, YouTube PremiumNo Comments

Today, YouTube announced that it surpassed 80 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including customers using free trials. The year-over-year increase of 30 million subscribers is noteworthy and puts the company on track to becoming one of the top streaming music providers. In September 2021, YouTube reported 50 million Music and Premium subs. “We’ve worked hard to build an experience that puts people first, and we’ll continue providing the best, uninterrupted experience across all of YouTube, even on the go,” Adam Smith, VP Product, YouTube, said in a statement. Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music at YouTube and Google, said, “Alongside our music industry partners, we’ve been working hard to make YouTube the best place for every fan and every artist, and today’s news marks a significant milestone in that journey. We’re not stopping here. We’ve got lots to do and look forward to driving more growth and contributions back to the music industry.” In YouTube’s official blog post, Cohen reiterated that, between July 2021 and June 2022, YouTube contributed $6 billion in revenue to the music industry, 30% of which was from user-generated content. The company made the initial announcement in September. YouTube Music Premium costs $9.99/month and allows users to download and listen to music without ads. YouTube Music recently introduced an iOS 16 Lock Screen widget, “Recently Played,” which allows users to quickly access recently played songs, albums, playlists and videos from their lock screen. YouTube Premium is $11.99/month and lets subscribers watch and download ad-free YouTube videos as well as access all the perks of YouTube Music. YouTube ran a short-lived test in October that asked free users to upgrade to Premium to watch videos in 4K. Now, all users can watch high-resolution videos without paying for a Premium subscription. A few days after YouTube ended the test, the company announced it would increase the price of YouTube Premium’s family plan. Despite the new milestone, it’s still behind Spotify, Apple Music and Tencent, a China-only music service. Spotify reported its third-quarter earnings last month, revealing a total of 195 million premium subscribers and 456 million monthly active users. In July, Apple noted that it had 860 million paid subscriptions across the App Store, Apple TV+, Apple Music, cloud services and its other businesses. Tencent Music Entertainment Group has about 82.7 million subscribers across its three music streaming apps.

YouTube Premium’s family plan gets a price hike in several countries • ZebethMedia

By zebethcontrolPosted on October 21, 2022Posted in Apps, family plan, price hikes, YouTube, YouTube PremiumNo Comments

YouTube is raising prices for its Premium subscription plans across many countries including the US, the UK, Canada, and Argentina. News of the price hike emerged after several users in these regions received emails about a rise that will be effective from November 21. The video streaming service’s Premium plan for families lets up to five people use features like ad-free videos, downloads for offline consumption, and background play under a single subscription. On Thursday, several people on Reddit first noted that Canada-based users were getting emails about the change in the monthly rate from CA$17.99 to CA$22.99 for the Premium family plan. But soon folks from the US also posted about the tariff being raised from $17.99 per month to $22.99. Users from the UK also said the YouTube Premium family plan is now getting costlier by £2 — from £17.99 to £19.99 per month. UK:First, it was 10 unskippable ads.Then it was Premium only 4k upwards.Now, premium is more expensive. Man… YouTube are really getting greedy as of late. pic.twitter.com/sRtayaIezi — PlymouthJoseph (@plymouthJoseph) October 20, 2022 The situation is a bit more dire for Argentina-based YouTube users. The company is increasing prices for both individual and family Premium plans by quite a lot. The Individual plan will cost ARS 389 ($2.53) per month up from ARS 119 ($0.78) per month, and family plans will cost ARS 699 ($4.55) per month up from ARS 179 ($1.17) per month. That’s a staggering hike — of around 220% and 290%, respectively. 🔥¡Se avivó YouTube!🇦🇷Aumenta un 290% el precio de Premium 🔺La cuenta familiar pasa de USD 1.18 a USD 4.63 y la común de USD 0.87 a USD 3.30.🇺🇸En EE.UU. el precio es cuatro veces más caro. 🏴‍☠️Había muchos no argentinos usando VPNs en Argentina para tener YTP regalado. pic.twitter.com/KFKbKqOm0X — Maximiliano Firtman (@maxifirtman) October 20, 2022 Here are some other countries where YouTube has hiked the prices: Turkey (Family plan): TRY 29.99 ($1.61) per month to TRY 59.99 per month Turkey (Student plan): TRY 9.99 ($0.54) per month to TRY 19.49 ($1.05) per month Japan (Family plan): ¥1,780 ($11.83) per month to ¥2,280 ($15.16) per month We will update this list as we learn more. YouTube hadn’t commented about the reason behind the price hikes at the time of writing. A number of other companies have also announced price hikes. In recent weeks, for example, Apple has raised prices for App Store purchases to counter fluctuation in currency against the dollar and rising inflation across the globe. This could be a likely reason for the increase in YouTube’s paid plans for families. It’s a frustrating situation for users — who can provide feedback to YouTube through this page. However, there’s no guarantee YouTube will roll back the price increases in response to user feedback. The price hike also affects grandfathered family users — folks who migrated from legacy Google Play Music — who currently pay YouTube $14.99 per month. They will also have to pay $22.99 per month. But the price rise for those users is happening later: In April next year. YouTube has been trying to earn more money through premium subscriptions. Recently, it ran an experiment asking free users to upgrade to watch videos in the 4K. Earlier this week, the company ended the test. As noted above, multiple companies have raised the prices of their subscription plans this year. In January, the cost of a Netflix subscription increased between $1-$2 for different tiers. In February, Amazon Prime revised its rates from $12.99 per month to $14.99 per month; or $119 per year to $139 per year. Other services like Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu have also made their plans costlier.