So you still get music. But Google's branding strategy here is just odd and confusing. I don't really think they even known how this is going to shake up.

The ad part I agree quite well with. However, I find that Youtube's recommendation algorithm is quite lacking. I mean this is also the case with Netflix and other social media I have used so not just Youtube's fault (only one that sticks out as better is TikTok).

For me, it tends to simply repeatedly recommend way too similar videos. If I somehow happen to watch a video about aa tech review, my feed will be tech reviews and that's it. Heaven forbid I make the mistake of clicking some random political video, and I am now in a hole where my feed is full of right-wing, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy theorists and so on.

In general, it seems like Youtube's algo gets quite quickly to the local minimum/maximum but then struggles to look around or away from it. This leads to very a insular and locked-in-your-own-box experience.

Yeah, every time I click some SNL clip on Reddit, YouTube decides I want all SNL all the time. But I find simply right-clicking a couple and telling it to stop recommending them is very effective at undoing that.

> it seems like Youtube's algo gets quite quickly to the local minimum/maximum but then struggles to look around or away from it.

I've observed this too. Sometimes I feels like I have watched every single synthesizer video ever uploaded to YouTube. But I don't consider that an entirely bad thing. There's something to be said for a service with an engagement ceiling. If I find myself scrolling too far down to find an interesting video, that's a good signal that maybe I should get off YouTube and find something better to do.

I'd pay for Premium if it didn't come bundled with a music subscription (and the price reflected that).