Why would I pay for premium if it doesn’t remove the ads? It’s like they don’t do market research and just make shit up.
“Premium lite”? What is this doublespeak?
All the people saying “I’ll just stop using it, no big loss,” are you only using YouTube for fun? Have you never needed to pass a class, prep for a job, work on a house, learn a skill using it?
It is such a large repository of human knowledge that is so far not widely replicated anywhere else. I rely on it for learning skills to provide for my family, as far as learning other useful abilities.
For example, YouTube taught me how to service my own vehicles. I have a specific set of old 90s Volvo cars, and there is a youtuber (Robert DIY) who does an excellent job documenting how to do maintenance on them. I have done my best to archive everything he posts, but he is just an example, as there are countless other informative tutorials and how-tos posted on YouTube.
As of now, Google has their grips on an enormous amount of practically useful data, and they know it. It’s beyond fucked, and to act like it is inconsequential or ignorable is very short sighted.
What pisses me off most is that the way the internet works now is that ten years ago, someone who wanted to share about how to service your 90s Volvo that would have written it on a web page with a few photos that would have been quicker, cheaper and easier to write, quicker and easier to read, and cost next to nothing to host.
But because Google control fucking everything, that same person is now heavily incentivized to make it a pointlessly long video instead, that took days to make and edit, and is harder to use while working, and if they don’t do that then they ain’t getting anywhere near the top of the search results and you weren’t going to find it anyway.
It sucks and I can’t wait for people to wake up and tell Google to fuck off and stop ruining the internet.
To keep using walled gardens like Youtube, Reddit or Discord in an effort to share and preserve knowledge is just a losing proposition. The sooner we stop using them, the less of a headache it will be when the companies behind these gardens decide it’s finally time to cash out and start to charge for access.
The knowledge you grow in a walled garden doesn’t belong to you.
You are absolutely right!
Knowledge is power - Google has tons of it. Not only on YouTube, but also the data they collect about every user, every click and interaction, etc.
I think the Tech-Giants have way too much power and even have some sort of monopoly. Like you said: No one has or even can recreate something like YouTube. Same with (for example) Microsoft. Even though FreeBSD, Linux Distros, OpenBSD, … gain popularity, they are nowhere near Microsoft’s Windows (or any other Product). And if you look at schools, businesses or governments, they (for some ungodly reason) use and pay for Microsoft products. Children get hooked on their Products in school!
Something has to change, I honestly don’t know what exactly, but these monopolies destroy our freedom! Maybe it would be better, if our countries had politicians, that do their work, not care about some “make America great again” shit.
It reminds me of Reddit (human solutions/ideas for random problems and interests), except the costs of storing and serving video are probably really high with a large userbase. (I wonder exactly how high, though. I’m sure it’s hard to put a single unit price per GB/hour or whatnot, but still . . .) It’s unfortunate that so many people have put so much work into sharing their knowledge but have basically experienced vendor lock-in.
Just recently I found old reddit and forum threads and a few YouTube videos that helped me and a buddy fix her car. The solution(s) was provided by just enthusiasts and random people helping others in their spare time by documenting stuff. Although there’s also a lot of unhelpful threads and videos out there too, lol.
I’m never going to pay to see ads in my life. Nope.
Sadly I do so every week when going to the cinema
Yeah, horrible innit? When I used to go to the cinema as a kid in the 70s and 80s, you’d get maybe ten minutes of trailers before your film. And I never minded that, I don’t dislike watching trailers. These days, totally different. Last time I went to the cinema there was maybe half an hour of ads. Some trailers, but mostly just advertisements for crap.
It is so fuckin disrespectful to their customers. If I wanted to see all that bullshit, I could have stayed home and watched it on TV. Except I don’t watch TV because the experience is so poor - largely because of ads.
I understand that cinemas have been struggling ever since covid, even before, and I understand that advertising revenue pays the bills. But cinema isn’t cheap, for me it’s an occasional treat when there’s something I really wanna see on the big screen. I do not want to spend that much money and get treated like a fuckin farm animal being fed crap. Wankers.
I can’t be alone in feeling this way, who wants to pay to see ads? Who thinks that sounds like a great evening out? It ruins the experience, and it’s insulting, by the time the movie starts I’m angry. I’d rather pay a bit more and just have a couple of trailers.
I recently went to a small autonomous cinema with a mate and saw Mulholland Drive. Great experience, comfy seats, could bring in drinks from the bar, no fuckin ads. But for new films there aren’t many options. So I don’t often go to the cinema.
Sorry for this long and bitter diatribe! You just hit on something that really pisses me off too.
I’ve started to go 15-20 minutes late. I’ve never missed a minute of movie, but I’ve skipped so many ads.
Go 20 minutes late my dude
That’ll be the one movie they decide to show no prescreening ads lol
That happened to me once. I think it was I Heart Huckabees. It started and people were so confused. I half think David O Russel asked them to do it to throw people off.
I haven’t gone to a movie in like… 10 years probably. Ha…
Edit: Guys. I think a lot of you missed where I said EASIEST METHODS.
Easiest methods to ditch Youtube ads:
- PC: Firefox + uBlock Origin
- Mac, option 1: Safari + AdGuard
- Mac, option 2: Firefox + uBlock Origin
- Android, option 1: Youtube ReVanced (FYI: ALL Play Store listings for this are fake; the official site is revanced.app and is the only place to get it)
- Android, option 2: Firefox Mobile + uBlock Origin
- iPhone/iPad: Safari + AdGuard
For those who may have heard about Pi-hole and are wondering why it’s not on this list: PI-HOLE DOES NOT BLOCK YOUTUBE ADS. IT NEVER HAS AND NEVER WILL.
Android, option 3 (Better): newpipe from fdroid. 0% algorithmic feed, exclusively show who you’re following, in chronological order
How does Newpipe work? It feels too good to be free.
How does Newpipe work?
Youtube ReVanced
Revanced still Relies on G services
Also, Theres this very unknown app Called Freetube for all plattforms or newpipe for Android
Revanced uses microG, which is optional. I also mentioned that these were the easiest methods. But, you’re absolutely right in that there are plenty of other methods to choose from.
I tried Freetube for a while, but it just never works. An actual coin flip each day whether or not anything would load at all. I got so tired of it I just went back to Youtube, as I’ve only ever seen one single ad in my entire time using uBlock Origin on Librewolf.
Google is constantly making changes that break it, the developers fix them quickly… but if your distro doesn’t keep the newest version in their repo then you’d have to install it from their git repo.
Generally they have a patch for any breaking changes within the day.
I use it consistently with few issues. Once in a while, usually on Thursdays (when it seems YT rolls out changes), something breaks, but the devs are quick to fix it. The last issue I experienced was when YT transitioned to SABR, and it was out for a day or two before they had things working again. I am at least perfectly capable of going without for a day once every two months.
It’s also one of the projects I’ve used to learn more about how fixes are worked on in FOSS. I will typically run nightly builds also - I find it pretty cool to follow an issue and once they push a fix I can instantly grab that fresh build without waiting for it to be packaged.
If you want to give it a try again, get mpv and yt-dlp installed in your system then activate from Freetube settings the external player button, which you’ll be able to click from search or from a vid page
Yeah, this will work for a while but I think the days have gotta be numbered.
Best long term solution? Leave YouTube.
I guess in the meantime: if on PC grab the freetube flatpak. Really decent client, anonymous and create subscriptions without actually subscribing.
Mac also has the excellent Orion Browser where you can install uBlock origin
Can I block youtube ads with a transparent proxy like squid ? What about a self-hosted youtube auto-downloading queue list ? I’m fine with .mp4 files !
Can I block youtube ads with a transparent proxy like squid ?
I haven’t tried that, so I’m not entirely sure. I just focused on the easy methods that most people will gravitate towards.
Try it and let us know what you find!
What about a self-hosted youtube auto-downloading queue list ? I’m fine with .mp4 files !
Sounds like
yt-dlp. Lots of people use that to get around ads, and also for data hoarding.I think it is extremely hard because they are served from the same servers (technically, ads are YouTube videos)
And if the logic on the client isn’t removed, it will hang waiting for the ad
I’m curious for something more sophisticated that dns blocks. Something that modifies the content on the fly like, ublock, dark reader and sponsorblock.
deleted by creator
I use IgeBlock on Android. It has the banner ads, but not the video ads, so it’s pretty good if you don’t wanna deal with Revanced
uBlock on mobile Firefox gets rid of all the ads though.
That, and Revanced isn’t difficult to set up, you don’t even need root:
- Disable stock youtube app
- Download Revanced manager
- Grab the recommended .apk version of YouTube from APKMirror
- Patch it with Revanced manager
- Install it
And you’re done. Update once every 6-12 months or so.
You can also use the Orion browser with Ublock Origin on iPhone.
No Grayjay? Been using that almost exclusively since they released the desktop version. Had to log out and back in with my (new, basically blank) YT account a few times after updates, and there are very rare cases of certain videos not wanting to load, but overall it’s been working well so far.
Why bother to pay if you’re just going to get ads anyway
<gangster> It would be a shame if you were not to pay and had more ads than content. </gangster>
We have network television at home.
Damn, you pay and still get ads? Does that count as findom? Like it feels very cucky, doesn’t it?
It’s like cable TV, pay $100+/mo just to watch ads
Also starting to spread on the cheapest plans of streaming services like Prime and Netflix.
Cable TV providers in the 70s: “No commercials when you pay for our services!”
Cable TV providers in the early 80s: “Ok, we actually meant no commercials on premium channels, but local channels will, and it’s not our fault.”
Cable TV providers in the late 80s: “Fine. What we meant was no commercials on movie channels.”
Cable TV providers in the 90s: “Uhm, so only on-demand shows will be commercial free.”
So what we need is a new disruptive media type that puts is on the head-end of the cycle again?
Nah. We need to hack the planet.
Probably 10 years until AR starts this cycle over.
Adblock/revanced are working. Google’s ad revenue is getting squeezed and so they need to shoehorn more ads everywhere to get the same revenue levels, since so many people never see the ads.
Keep using them. You’re making business really difficult for scummy Google.
Adblock, maybe a noticeable fraction on desktop, but Revanced users are within a rounding error of the total users, surely?
I feel like both populations are now dwarfed by the numbers watching YT on their TV’s built-in apps, which throw demented amounts of ads at you.
I’m dating this person and we were watching YT and she didn’t have any ad blocker up and I was fucking blown away
Revanced users are within a rounding error of the total users, surely?
Some of us use NewPipe. 🤷♂️
The $ revenue share to creators per video view has dropped, even though the percentage of Google’s ad revenue shared with the creator has remained the same. So to me this means Google is earning less per video view. (That could also be just a result of the ad market in general collapsing, eg advertisers just pay less)
Also, Google has added new requirements to get the video share. You need to post new videos at a regular cadence, or they kick you out–even if your old videos are still getting views. (began being enforced in 2023, I think). Its another way they can keep their revenue numbers looking OK by cutting a cost associated with older videos.
Google has also escalated their efforts to make it more difficult to view content without also viewing the ads.
So maybe its wishful thinking, but I think they are feeling the squeeze.
Unfortunately unlike the reddit or twitter situations its significantly harder to accumulate enough fresh video content to attract the views necessary to get the ball rolling and make a shift away from YouTube.
remember when paying removed ads? crazy i know. no subs ever.
wtf is premium lite?!!? Lmao
it’s the opposite of Economy Plus
Oh so you pay to be abused, gotcha.
The ads will continue until morale improves.
And with that I can confirm I will continue to use adblock.
Youtube has ads?
🤷(https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases)
Imagine paying for “Premium Lite”
freetube still works great! no ads, and an easy to use interface.
And it has an Android fork (FreeTube Android), and can have playlists, subscriptions etc. synced across devices with Syncthing. It does sometimes result in sync conflicts though, but if you reload it before using it on a device, you will be fine. Most sync conflicts I get are for history, and that’s fine by me to lose some history.
