Google Hikes YouTube Premium to $13.99/month and YouTube Music to $10.99/month
Google Hikes YouTube Premium to $13.99/month and YouTube Music to $10.99/month
In the US, new and existing customers will now have to pay anywhere from $2 to $13.99 per month to keep their YouTube Premium membership.
Main Points
- YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month, up from $11.99.
- Google Hikes YouTube Music to $10.99/month or $109.99/year instead of $9.99.
- YouTube Premium disables ads (while also helping creators), allows audio-only playback for videos, and allows downloading for offline access.
Monthly and annual prices have been increased for the first time in five years. These new prices were changed silently, without any official announcement from the video streaming major. This price increase is active for new subscribers by visiting youtube.com/premium. YouTube Premium now costs $13.99/month, up from $11.99. Also, if you subscribe through the iOS YouTube app, you'll pay $18.99.
9to5Google already spotted these changes and reports that the annual subscription has now increased by $20 and now costs $139.99. If you subscribe through the iOS YouTube app, you'll pay $18.99 per month, which is Apple's 30% share of the month-to-month subscription. In addition, YouTube Music, YouTube's streaming service that can either be made part of a premium subscription or purchased separately, will also cost $10.99/month or $109.99/year instead of $9.99.
YouTube Representative
"We are making pricing improvements to continue to provide great service and features to US customers of YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium. We believe this new price reflects the value of YouTube Premium, which gives customers the ability to play YouTube ad-free, in the background, and offline, as well as stream more than 100 million music videos through the YouTube Music app allows the songs to be accessible."
This price hike won't come as a big surprise to those who have subscriptions to some of the other video streaming services. Peacock announced the price hike earlier this week, joining Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV+ and ESPN+ all announcing price hikes last year. Last month last year, the Family Premium plan got a big hike to $22.99/month. He is still the same. The annual subscription, which was slated to launch in the first month of 2022, has gone up by $20 to $139.99. Compared to the monthly payment, you save $27.89.
YouTube and YouTube Music Ad-Free, Offline, And in The Background
Prepaid and subscription plans available. Prices start at $13.99/month. Free trials available with subscription plans only.
The features provided by YouTube Premium and YouTube Music were previously combined into a single subscription service in the form of YouTube Red. Red was shuttered in 2018 after being part of Google's effort to create a separate music streaming service to compete with platforms such as Spotify (SPOT).
Existing customers will see the new prices in their next payment cycle. An incoming email will explain the changes. Those who became a chronic member five years ago (with Google Play Music or YouTube Red) will receive a bonus three months at their current rate. YouTube is taking several steps to share its free service with as many people as possible. These actions can range from disallowing users from using ad blockers to presenting some un skip able ads of up to 35 seconds. The company is trying to motivate more users to migrate to the paid service, by adding ads to shorts.
Ads for Netflix's "Basic" plan in the US and UK have been discontinued and on Wednesday Netflix revealed that the $9.99 (£6.99)/month Basic plan has ended "for new members or recurring users". Customers who are still subscribed to this plan will not be affected unless they change or cancel their plans.
YouTube Premium disables ads (while also helping creators), allows audio-only playback for videos, and allows downloading for offline access. Other features include 1080p premium streaming quality, side-by-side viewing in Google Meet, the ability to try features early, and some extended free trials.