What is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium is a subscription-based service that adds various features to the basic YouTube experience. Unlike Spotify or Apple Music, it is not a dedicated music streaming platform, but rather a multi-faceted offering that has a number of small benefits to enhance your experience, including ad-free YouTube streaming and access to Google's Spotify streaming service. And that is just the beginning.
How much does YouTube Premium cost?
We haven't even gotten to the good stuff yet, but it's okay. You are a smart buyer and we respect that. A YouTube Premium subscription costs $ 12 a month.
Previously, YouTube Red cost $10 dollars, unless you had subscribed through the iOS App Store, in which case the price was $13 dollars. Currently, it is unclear whether Google plans to increase prices for Apple users or whether they will get the same bill as everyone else.
The best? They offer you to try it for free for four (4) months if you have a Samsung Galaxy. If not, the free trial will be one month. In the times is that almost all free tests do not exceed seven days, four months is a detail.
What do you get with YouTube Premium?
As we already mentioned, YouTube Premium comes with a lot of benefits, but we are going to simplify them.
YouTube Originals
If you access Premium, you will have access to the complete library of original YouTube content.
At this time, the list is relatively short, but it should be completed gradually over time. Many of the series are productions by great YouTubers like Poppy, PewDiePie and the Paul brothers. So far, the most popular (and acclaimed) series is Cobra Kai, a sequel to The Karate Kid.
Ad-free viewing
As previously mentioned, a Premium YouTube subscription removes all YouTube ads. That is, this includes banner ads and video ads (either in a desktop browser or on a mobile device) and extends to the YouTube Music app. For many, the default ad load isn't too heavy, but YouTube makers have decided that those who "use YouTube as a paid music service" may be upset by that ad density.
Google play music
This is the best part of a YouTube Premium subscription, in our opinion.
Google Play Music is very similar to Spotify or Apple Music and has a library of more than 30 million tracks (although, it must be admitted, it does not have as many complementary functions for music discovery).
Also, as an added benefit, if a song is unavailable, you'll get YouTube search results. And, as with other music streaming services, you can also upload your own music to Google Play Music (GPM). A standalone GPM subscription costs $10, so this is an incredible value.
YouTube Music Premium
Like Google Play Music, a Premium subscription also grants access to YouTube Music Premium, which offers background playback on mobile devices, offline viewing, and ad-free playback. For now, however, YouTube Music has no podcasts.
Background playback on mobile
With a YouTube Premium subscription, you can lock your phone (or switch to a different app) and the videos will continue to play in the background.
This is a good feature for listening to podcasts and other similar services, or simply listening to a song you like that you couldn't find on any other platform. It works in both the YouTube app and the YouTube Music app.
Offline viewing
You can also download videos (and full playlists) for offline viewing with YouTube Premium.
A very useful feature for certain occasions, such as when you have to take a plane (or, really, every time you want to save mobile data).
You should, of course, have a little free space on your phone, but downloading songs through YouTube Music instead of the default YouTube app mitigates this to some extent.
Should I have it?
It depends. If you're happily subscribed to Spotify or Apple Music (or Tidal), you probably don't need YouTube Premium.
But if you use YouTube continuously, you are a fan of Cobra Kai or any of the other Premium series, and you can overlook some of the secondary features of Google Play Music, it is worth the subscription for that price.