Too expensive, opaque, greedy… YouTube Premium between failure and disappointment?
This is one of the points that makes you cringe the most when talking about YouTube Premium: the daunting number of features inaccessible in standard mode. Downloading video or accessing content offline are good examples, but the irony takes on a greater degree with background playback.
Features that should be standard
However, this functionality seems natural for an audio or video streaming platform in 2023. But not for YouTube. On the contrary, in the eyes of Google, it is a real added value, largely justifying paying €11.99 per month. 5 years after the arrival of Youtube Premium, the strong arguments in favor of subscriptions are gradually waning.
Discontinued YouTube Originals
Because, about added value, one of the big promotion axes for YouTube Premium has been abandoned in the open countryside. These are original YouTube productions. An exclusive catalog of series, films and documentaries specific to the platform. In 2020, there were barely 100 programs, where Amazon displayed more than 3,000.
[#Tech]: YouTube would no longer want to produce original creations https://t.co/hgVITEJ53Y #Tech #Series #Youtube pic.twitter.com/oh41zLcP5u
— Nicolas CHARLIER (@charlier_ni) March 26, 2019
Unprofitable, the project was ultimately not retained by the company, which decided in mid-2022 to cut most of its content. Thus, most of the creators involved in the production of series or films by YouTube saw their work stopped dead.
YouTube does not want to share the money
Creators who therefore find themselves, once again, abandoned by YouTube’s monetization programs. The platform had thus announced that its subscription would make it possible, in part, to remunerate the channels, according to certain criteria.
Except that, since this announcement, the redistribution does not work as expected. This is due to complex and fuzzy calculation methods, but also, logically, to monetization problems. Because, in the same way as for advertising revenue, a demonetized video will not be eligible for a sharing of subscription earnings.
Youtube Premium officially raises its price 👀 good or bad move? pic.twitter.com/KHSMLSgULK
— 2Cool2Blog (@2Cool2Blog) July 20, 2023
YouTube Premium is therefore a disappointment for a large number of subscribers. But, because the offer includes standard features otherwise inaccessible, many users end up being tempted. A cynical strategy, combined with a complex unsubscription process, which allows Youtube Premium to count more than 115 million users in 2023.
