No. If your business model is ads, I won't support you. I'll find a way to block your ads and I'll tell everyone who will listen how to do the same. I don't appreciate being brainwashed just so creators can get paid.

> If your business model is ads

But... The point is exactly that the business model is either ads or you pay directly. Your response is that because there's the ad option ( which let's face it, the vast majority of people prefer), you wouldn't pay to remove ads? That doesn't really make any sense.

You can't rail against ad-based business models and not accept the only possible alternative.

> Your response is that because there's the ad option ( which let's face it, the vast majority of people prefer), you wouldn't pay to remove ads?

Yes, I'm not gonna pay to remove ads. Paying doesn't actually remove all ads, just YouTube's, it won't do a thing to the paid promotion segments in videos. Paying also makes my attention even more valuable to advertisers, I want it to have zero if not negative value. It also doesn't stop adtech's endless tracking and surveillance capitalism, it encourages it.

> You can't rail against ad-based business models and not accept the only possible alternative.

That's far from the only alternative. You can charge money for your work up front. You can make a patreon, I've seen plenty of YouTube creators doing this with considerable success.

How would be your business model without ads if you owned YouTube then?

As a video platform owner, you should pay creators, you should pay for all the server costs which is capable of 4k+ streaming, besides you serve all the music and pay royalties.

I don't really know. If it can't work without advertising then maybe it shouldn't exist in the first place.

Why not just stop watching the videos? Then you’re not exposed to ads.

Because I don't have to. The videos are free.

Maybe you didn't know this, but Google is stingy as fuck in terms of the portion of ad revenue they share with content creators. Most content creators just see youtube as a way to get exposure, then they turn around and monetize other ways like sponsors, patreon, product sales, etc.

Do you have an actual source? Some numbers? Because 1k views=$1 is pretty good for a clips channel[0], and YT Premium views have always payed more than ad-supported views[1,2]. It's generally not sustainable to only rely on Adsense but it's a piece of the pie that most creators couldn't make up for overnight if it disappeared.

0: https://youtu.be/aaoVlFVqYuk?t=20

1: https://www.dailydot.com/upstream/totalbiscuit-youtube-red-p...

2: https://twitter.com/LinusTech/status/1486935690315112455?s=2...

I’ve also read an article that google pays 68% of ad revenue to creators if I’m not mistaken.

You are forgetting about things like patreon or buying merch which will generate much more revenue for the creator than premium does.

LinusTechTips made a video specifically about the issue of Vanced from the perspective of a user as well as a creator.

But for REALLY small creators that don't think they deserve a patreon or want to sell merch. I ran a very niche live-stream for a while, and the most steady stream of income for my live streams was from Youtube Premium users.

Youtube premium does not block sponsors so even if you buy the subscription you sometimes end up with 2-5mins of ads in video. The only way to get rid of them on mobile is with Vanced

Most people just get sponsored these days. YouTube ad revenue hasn't been viable for a long time...

How? A creator earns $1k-10k per million views (US - depending on video length)

I absolutely would, but Youtube Premium isn't nearly on the level Vanced is. Its just better in anything and makes the whole experience much better. I used it once and could never go back to the normal youtube app honestly.

Youtube Premium is not available in my country. I should not have to endure two unskipable ads at the beginning and middle of a two minute video because of that.

In my opinion, you have a valid use case.

No thank you. If the only reason people make videos is so I'll watch the ads, they can go straight to hell where they belong.

I would pay for YouTube premium but it's not available in my country.

Every time this discussion comes up on HN I get downvoted for being completely against adblock. It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off other people's plate. Usually the argument about tracking comes up. As if it's used for anything other than attempt to sell you products and services. Completely screw over small businesses and screw the content creators. On a venture capitalist forum. The hypocrisy is unreal.

> It's crazy how far people will go to justify taking food off other people's plate.

We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it. The second they insist on showing us ads despite our preferences, their software becomes malware and will be blocked.

And nobody is "taking" anything off anyone's plate. They're the ones sending us free stuff bundled with ads. We're just deleting the noise. Just like ripping ads out of magazines and throwing them away.

If you don’t watch the videos, then you won’t see the ads, no?

Yeah, but I'll watch the videos anyway. Because they're free, I'm not obligated to pay attention to ads and uBlock Origin gets rid of them.

Nothing is “free”

Sure it is. At no point does YouTube charge me any money before streaming any of their videos. They send it to my browser absolutely free of charge.

They do so hoping that I'm gonna look at the ads. I'm not obligated to make it happen.

> We don't have to justify it. We simply don't want to see ads. That's the end of it.

Replace "see ads" with "pay money." Pirates are thieves and content theft is piracy.

Exactly. Because you know what's better than paid shit ? Free shit. Especially if it contributes to me not showing ads _and_ costing Google. I am happy to steal your precious, endlessly reproducible bytes.

Nope. "Piracy" is just copyright infringement. It is literally just copying bits, no theft of any kind is occurring. The only loss here is the corporation's artificial monopoly rights which shouldn't even exist anyway.

I am genuinely concerned that you feel bad. But do you know how much money poor people pay to watch ads + all the scam ads they get (and unfortunately lose money). Seriously, test it. (I used to live in 3rd world and now use adblock)...

> Completely screw over small businesses and screw the content creators. On a venture capitalist forum

Then please try to screw VCs (not innocent people in developing world that want to see something for 1GB data per month and they lose so much money for ads). Sure please bill the VCs.

Yes, the hypocrisy is unreal.

Am I taking food off other people's plate when I manually skip ads in podcasts I'm listening to? Do people who change channels on TV when ads start steal? Is it theft to toss ad inserts from a newspaper straight into trash?

It's because modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed (which would be fine), it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution, or associate a product with something people love in a manipulative way, because those types of ads are worlds more effective at driving sales. That's cancer capitalism and a lot of people with principles rightly refuse to be a part of it.

> modern advertising's purpose isn't to tell people about a product they already wanted but didn't know existed

Yes.

> it's to cause people to feel a sense of fear/loss/inadequacy that they previously didn't and then present the product as a solution

Maybe a bit.

But, these days I think the real reason is the corrupctive influence ad money buys. Major media platforms censor at the whim of their advertisers. Content providers also do so.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAkQlZgnbUQ

Completely agree. I've seen websites delete whole pages and heavily censor remaining ones because somebody complained to Google that their sensibilities were offended. Advertisers should not have this power.