> I'd be happy to support youtube if they actually supported their community and content creators

YouTube Premium does support creators, 55% of your subscription gets split among the creators you watch. The more you watch a specific creator, the more they get from your subscription. I've seen some creators say they get more from Premium users than from ad-watching users.

Google keeping 45% of subscription revenue is even worse than the 15% to 30% of app subscription revenue they keep.

For reference, Bandcamp pays creators 85% to 90% of the revenue they generate.

I am guessing Youtube's bandwidth cost will be higher compared to Bandcamp but that probably does not justify keeping 45% of the revenue.

YouTube Premium offers a number of features on top of ad-free viewing including access to an entire music streaming service. It's actually a marvel that only 45% covers this.

They could give 100% of their subscriptions to content creators and I still wouldn't call youtube a supporting environment.

Examples of youtube's hostility include removing dislikes to please ad companies under the guise of user safety, terrible account recovery processes and allowing copyright bots to shutdown channels by spamming claims because youtube has placed the onus of proof on copyright creators, and not the ones actually making the claims.

While YouTube still keeps a lot of your money when you pay for premium, you actually contribute more towards a creator if you watch with premium rather than ads[0].

[0] https://youtu.be/-zt57TWkTF4?t=408 (Timestamp 6:50)

VLC fills that need for me. Paste the YouTube URL into vlc and stream as audio, then turn off your screen. It even chromecasts.

I watch very little YouTube, probably <1h/mo on average but I continue to pay their $15 just so I don't have to see an ad. On desktop I can adblock but on mobile it sucks. I hate casting video (Chromecast) at a friends house and having to see an ad. For that alone I'll pay their stupid fee.