I’m gob smacked…
Genuinely stunned right now at the whopping — between 20 and 83% — price increase that Google has just dropped on long time users of the YouTube Music and Premium services. And no, that’s not a typo!
Users are being contacted today by Google noting that the service charges are increasing, quite substantially. If you’re only using YouTube Music on a single device, the price hike isn’t as bad, but for my family account we’re looking at $32.99 a month vs the current $17.99 per month; that’s a whopping increase and at that price, a Spotify Family account at $21.00 a month is looking pretty enticing…
In the email subscribers are receiving, Google notes this is to keep improving the service and supporting the creators and artists:
We don’t make these decisions lightly, and this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube. This is the first ever price increase for your subscription.
Other accounts are going up by a few dollars per month, depending on your tenure on the service. Long standing YouTube Music users will recognise the old $11.99 plans, which are going up to $16.99
I understand the need to raise prices and, on a platform like YouTube support the creators; but this is a shocking increase that surely, will result in a mass exodus of users to other, cheaper platforms.
My family plan is going up to $33, from $22.99.
I’ll be switching to Spotify and using an ad blocker.
I copped the same increase as you and will certainly be looking around now. It’s an obscene price rise.
I don’t have a premium account but would around $10 to just have no ads. I’m not interested in music or offline play. It would be great if they could bring out a cheap plan with less features.
I received one of those emails too but didn’t realise how much it had increased. That’s outrageous, Spotify is looking good to me or maybe I’ll just switch over to Amazon Music. Would be interested to see an article sometime showing the differences between Music services or even sharing your experience of what you end up doing. Thanks Phil
Ouch! that’s such a big hike for family accounts. I have all my music on my microsd card. So I don’t pay anything, and I’m not into all the new stuff, especially rap crap.
No idea on pricing for other music providers, but there is a few others.
I suspect my Youtube premium will be next?
I got the same email. After giving them $18 a month for many years, which is a decent fee for the service, it’s very hard to swallow the increase to $33. They know that changing providers for long term users who have Google Nest Speakers right through their homes by now will be a huge inconvenience. This is price gouging in the extreme and Google should be ashamed to not offer a more staged increase to long term customers.
Similar thing happened with Nest Aware. No thanks. I unsubscribed.
I complained to YouTube over the weekend. They are holding firm on the pricing, but gave me a 2 week discount off current fees to make me go away. That insulting discount will be picked up in their first month of new charges to me, so they know exactly what they are doing. I encourage everyone to lodge a complaint with Youtube about the price increases.
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My YouTube Premium/Music (Originally YouTube Red when I signed up) plan is going up from my grandfathered plan rate at $9.99 to $16.99!
Yup mine is an 80% increase. And it’s just a few days after reporting their increase in profits for q3 2023.
Sounds like Greed.
Phil, this gouging is not merely YouTube Music. It’s _ALL_ of YouTube which is doing this multi-country price gouge on Premium users, in the immediate wake of their open assault on ad blocking, and their increase in the number of ads free users are now being forced to sit through, before and during videos. I’m on the now long grandfathered plan that Google Play Music users got, giving them YouTube Premium in conjunction with their GPM subscription, $9.99. When GPM was murdered by Google to try to shove everyone YTM, there was no price increase on those grandfathered YT Premium… Read more »
its almost a doubling of the price.
this is utterly ridiculous
I wonder if this is why I got offered a YT Premium Family Plan 1 month trial, recently. I signed up of course, and immediately cancelled. I enjoy ad-free YT but not enough to pay. I have been on several YT Premium (and Red) trials… no idea why/how.
I would never pay for youtube ,