- YouTube Premium silently increased the price of its tiers
- Google started emailing users about the change before announcing it
- For many subscribers, this could be the straw that broke the camel’s back
YouTube Premium is the latest subscription service to raise its prices in the United States, but the timing couldn’t be more awkward, especially as it follows controversy around its 90-second unskippable ads for free users.
As spotted by eagle-eyed users on Reddit, YouTube has already increased its monthly fees on all of its plans, including its budget Premium Lite tier that only launched last year. With the new changes in place, subscription prices have increased by up to $4.
The standard YouTube Premium individual plan has now increased from $13.99 to $15.99 per month, while the new Family plan fee is now $26.99 per month instead of $22.99. YouTube Premium Lite will now cost $8.99, an increase of $1, and Music Premium will cost $11.99/month, up from $10.99.
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Unlike Netflix, where customers are no stranger to frequent price increases, fee hikes don’t occur as often for YouTube Premium members. The last time Google raised its subscription prices was in 2023, when individual plans increased from $11.99 to $13.99, with the family plan increasing to $22.99 the year before. It’s safe to say that existing members are pretty frustrated with this decision, but it’s the vagueness on Google’s part that seems to bother them the most.
For starters, it took Google a while to weigh in on the change (the company provided a statement to Variety), leaving subscribers to figure it out for themselves via email. However, not everyone has been informed and those who have received emails are still scratching their heads: why is Google raising these prices?
One user shared a screenshot of their email which details the following: “To continue to provide great service and features, we are increasing your price to $20.99 per month. We don’t make these decisions lightly, but this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube.”
The fact is that users are not fooled.
More YouTube bounty from r/youtube
The biggest difference between YouTube Premium and a platform like Netflix is that the latter has an ongoing production of original content, so it has a valuable place to invest the money generated by subscription fees. Another user pointed this out, saying that YouTube doesn’t have Netflix-scale original content to invest in because all of its hosted content is made by creators with YouTube channels, leading users to wonder where their money is actually going.
Along these lines, YouTube has also been criticized recently for its 90-second non-skippable ads on its TV app. But despite the company’s comments countering claims that it is conducting secret testing, the price hikes give us enough reason to believe that Google is trying to lure even more free users to the dark side – but will it cost them the loyalty of long-time subscribers in the process?
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