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Why I Will Never Pay For YouTube Premium

And why you shouldn’t either

Katie Churchward
4 min readAug 9, 2021
Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

Some may be familiar with the monthly payment service of YouTube Premium, some may have only heard about it in passing and, some may have annoyingly had to click off pop-ups on YouTube asking you to sign up.

Launched first under the name of Music Key the Google-owned website began offering ad-free streaming of YouTube music videos for a set monthly subscription fee in November of 2014. It also allowed subscribers access to Google Plays music library (now defunct). This was then expanded in 2015 to include ad-free streaming of all YouTube videos (not just music videos) for a monthly fee under the new name YouTube Red.

Youtube Red then underwent further rebranding in May 2018 to launch with ad-free video watching under the name YouTube Premium and again seeing a split with YouTube Music being offered in addition. Google Play users following its shutdown were encouraged to transfer their library to YouTube Music following this launch.

For a cool $11.99 US monthly (with no option for yearly subscriptions) YouTube Premium also allows access to YouTube original content (Youtube-owned and produced and content by popular creators on the YouTube platform). The monthly subscription gives the ability to download and save videos for viewing offline, much like…

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Katie Churchward
Katie Churchward

Written by Katie Churchward

Serving up the 30-something perspective from the frosty north. Lover of books, travel and a great cup of tea. She/her.

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