1. YouTube is my primary entertainment so I don’t mind paying for it in lieu of Netflix or Hulu or whatever
2. I like that it directly benefits the creators of the videos I watch
3. It gets everyone in my family ad free viewing for 0 effort across all devices (I primarily watch it from Apple TV app)
4. Gives you higher quality bitrate option sometimes
5. It gives me the moral and logical high ground when arguing with nerds about YouTube online
6. Can download video on most (all?) devices, comes in handy sometimes, but I don’t use it frequently
7. In the past there have been preview features / experiments that were locked behind it, I think PIP was one of them, may be wrong on that. Nice to check them out or get them first
Reg. point 2, creators get a fraction of a cent for your view. Just send them a dollar once a year, and they will benefit more. Then install adblocker.
Fwiw, creators get much more for views with Premium than for ad views. Still not a lot though. I think it was Linus Tech Tips who said that you buying one item of their merch gives them more money than watching every single video on their channel combined.
>moral high ground
Depends who you ask. Many would say supporting companies that are so anti consumer is in a meaningful way contributing to the problem.
Many would argue using "free" media sources is more moral since you're not supporting what many consider to be evil companies.
> It gives me the moral and logical high ground when arguing with nerds about YouTube online
The thing with paying for YouTube is that you’re giving Google money for them to get more data on you. Logically that seems like a bad deal. I get that you probably don’t mind it, but other people rightfully do.
> Can download video on most (all?) devices
Is that download as in “they are available offline in the app” or as in “you get an MP4 that you can watch in your preferred player”?
It is "they are available offline in the app". They do not give you an MP4 export.
just curious - so is YT Premium really ad-free on mobile? I've been burned by streaming services taking my money and still pushing ads in my face. that's the main reason I haven't signed up for YT Premium.
It's really ad-free everywhere EXCEPT for those sponsor segments that the video authors themselves add to their own videos. In those cases, YT premium usually shows a "skip this segment" button.
Whereas alternate YouTube clients that implement sponsorblock can skip those automatically
How does it give you a moral or logical high ground?
By arbitrary moral systems, same as everyone else.
For example, it's a counter to the standard argument that "you claim you're against obtrusive ads yet you're unwilling to pay to remove them, you want everything to be given to you for free!", etc.
This is not moral. You're in fact encouraging intrusive ads by paying to remove them.
It's very immoral from that perspective.
You might disagree with it, or you might consider it counterproductive, but it's a moral stance that acts as a counterpoint to the other, also moral, criticism.