It was inevitable. Even though YouTube tried to explain the increase in prices of Premium subscriptions that some users encountered two months ago as an “experiment”, we all knew that sooner or later they would arrive in Europe. And this is what happened, and there is no longer any valid experience: YouTube Premium is now more expensive than ever.
Remember that Premium was born to avoid advertisements on YouTube; This way, the company recovered the revenue it had lost by omitting advertising, and everyone was happy. Over time, Premium received more features, and that was a blessing and a curse; because if it is true that some of these advantages are very interesting, like YouTube Music, it is no less true that they have become an “excuse” to increase the price of the subscription
To get started, users of an individual YouTube Premium subscription now have to pay 13.99 dollars per monthinstead of the 11.99 dollars per month they were paying until now. This is therefore an increase of two dollars, which doesn’t seem like much but which means that YouTube Premium costs the same price each month as Netflix, which offers access to two users at the same time and not just one like YouTube.
But the real blow comes with the YouTube Premium family subscription, which now costs 25.99 dollars per monthan increase of no less than 8 dollars per month compared to the 17.99 dollars per month that it previously cost. This change means that we will have to pay more than 44% compared to what we were paying until now in the Premium Family plan, which allows access for up to 5 members of our family. Once again, YouTube loses out in the comparison with Netflix, whose Premium plan supports four users at the same time but costs 19.99 dollars per month.
Indeed, Netflix is now cheaper than YouTube Premiumand it’s a phrase we never expected to have to say. This is a move that will be controversial, not least because it comes with a stricter policy against ad blockers on YouTube; It’s clear that Google wants to make a lot more money from YouTube than it currently makes, whether through advertising or direct revenue from Premium. The only plan saved, for the moment, is the Estudiantes plan, which continues to cost 8.99 dollars per month.
The new prices have already taken effect for new YouTube Premium users; Current users will experience the increase the next time they need to make payment, even if YouTube will first send an email to those affecteds informing them of the increase.
This will be a tough pill for users to swallow, especially since this price increase comes without major changes or advantages; They will have to pay more for the same experience they are already having. Despite this, YouTube promised that it did not take this decision “lightly”, and tried to explain this increase using the same excuse as Netflix: that it is necessary to continue offering “a service and quality features.
The company took the opportunity to point out that Premium is not only used to block ads on YouTube: it also provides access to functions such as downloading videos for offline viewing, and the full YouTube Music experience. , Spotify’s rival. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough for Spanish users.
