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Despite price hikes and a war against ad blockers, YouTube Premium remains one of the top subscription services for people who want to stream content. A recent announcement just clued us into how good the platform is doing. According to a new blog post from YouTube, YouTube Premium has crossed 100 million subscribers.
In case you need a refresher on what YouTube Premium is, it’s the paid subscription service provided by YouTube that offers several perks you don’t get if you are a free user. For starters, you can enjoy the platform with no ads.
Also, you get other perks like video downloads, background play, access to new experimental features, and a subscription to YouTube music. All of these are bundled in a $13.99/month package for individuals. Depending on your region, the added tax can push the service to nearly $16/month, so you’ll want to keep that in mind.
YouTube Premium reaches over 100 million subscribers
After crossing the 100 million user mark, YouTube released a blog post about it. Ever since 2015, YouTube has charged a monthly fee for its premium offering. Back in the early days, it was called YouTube Red. This platform paid prominent creators at the time to produce original content. Those days are behind us now, but there are some great shows that came from it (shoutout to Collegehumor’s “Bad Internet”).
Now YouTube Premium lives on as a way of getting the most out of YouTube. There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding it. For starters, the service has been increasing its price, but what else is new? This is happening with all streaming services. YouTube Premium used to cost about $12/month for an individual package a few years ago. So, the fact that it’s nearly $16/month is a bit of a bummer.
Also, YouTube has been in a war against ad blockers. Obviously, this gives people the ability to completely sidestep advertisements on their videos. This leads to a substantial decrease in YouTube’s ad revenue. While the company has been trying to stop this, it’s struggling to do so. In any case, the fact that the company’s user base is growing means that people are still willing to pay for the service to enjoy the features.
Fine print
One thing to notice is that YouTube is counting both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music. While they’re tightly integrated, they’re still two separate services. So, there’s a community of people who only have YouTube music. YouTube is counting both YouTube Music and YouTube Premium subscribers.
Also, the company stated in the blog post that it’s also including current trials. So the 100 million users include people who have not paid for the service yet. There’s always the chance that they would hastily deactivate their trial on the very last day. Again, what else is new?