You can save even more time by using SponsorBlock. I believe premium only gives you fake downloading -- you can't take it out of their app (correct me if I'm wrong). In contrast yt-dlp gives you direct access to the files.

YouTube premium downloading does store the video in the browser data store I think, yes.

I use yt-dlp for videos I want to keep a copy of, which are few and far between, and I use YT premium's download feature to queue up stuff I want to watch on my phone later when I know I'm going to a poor coverage area.

there's room for both solutions in my world.

True - With RIAA and such making YT implement something that looks like DRM just to say they have DRM on songs, I don't think YT is ready to actually offer downloading other peoples' videos from their official UI. For those that don't want to mess with yt-dlp, it's easy enough to search "youtube downloader" on Google.

I'm a heavy YouTube user (by my own standards... 2-3 hours a day) and a happy premium subscriber, and I totally agree that sponsorblock is a must-have.

These days, I'll happily not use a service/ product/ whatever if I have to pay for it.

But YouTube Premium, ad free, is wonderful. I bought it for my parents because they watch a lot of niche stuff. But now that I have it, it's worth even the crazy price increase (to like, $22/mo or something).

I like it better than Netflix/ Disney+/ HBO Max, as it's half entertainment, half educational (whereas the other streaming services are more entertainment and often doesn't keep me interested in spite of their catalogues).

the Family sharing of YouTube Premium is worth every penny I pay for it times 5. easily.

>YouTube premium was probably the best decision I did. Amount of time saved on ads alone makes it worth it.

Why do you get ads? I don't understand how there are people on Hacker News that don't use content blockers. Is is because of principle?

I barely visit sites with ads. And on my phone I have 1Blocker that blocks all the sites. I used to be very tech savvy and solved a lot of problems with coding/software etc, no I grew up and switched to Mac and iPhone and if there is a problem (aka YouTube ads) that can be solved with money then I buy it. I used to torrent movies but now I value my time more than money and happily pay or overpay to save any time that is wasted.

Blocking ads on the youtube mobile app (or even a mobile browser) is much more difficult than on desktop.

Ads can be blocked on mobile devices with NewPipe[1], or Invidious[2], alternatively Firefox which supports uBlock[3] on Android.

[1]: https://newpipe.net/ [2]: https://invidious.io/ [3]: https://ublockorigin.com/

It's not, FireFox or ReVanced does the trick

Use Brave Browser. It blocks ads for YouTube. You can even lock the screen and it’ll still play in the background (iOS).

Uses the app on iPhone maybe? There's probably an app that bypasses ads though.

Ah. I was forgetting people use locked down devices where content blocking isn't possible, or a hassle.

Yeah. I use iPhone. There is 1block but I am not sure if it blocks YouTube ads since I haven’t tested.

It blocks them in safari (since it's a safari extension) but not in any other app

I just watch from the Brave browser, built in ad-blocker

I think that's biggest issue in this thread. People locked down into their devices not even realizing there's relatively free-er world outside their locked-device bubble.

People realise just fine. You are implying that the only rational choice on realising that is to stop using those devices, which isn't true.

Someone has to compensate creators for the unethical broke bums that ride for free.

But that service is called Patreon, to compensate for YT being an unethical bum and unreliable source of money.

However much you disagree with their conduct, I'm pretty sure that just calling people names violates hn policy.

There was a time when I was living of AdSense, and I still use and encourage blockers.

If your business model only depends on ads you are putting yourself in a dangerous situation either way. For me ads always been a form of compensation, but nothing I was actively trying to milk most of it.

Today I run my own small niche ad platform. No tracking, no cookies, just jpeg or gif banners. In my opinion a completely ethical form of ads. And big surprise. That works too.

I don't use a blocker because the arms race leads to bad outcomes. I'm doing my part to postpone that as much as possible.

I've lived my whole life, just about, with an ad blocker in my browser, and I have yet to see the prophesised arms race. Maybe a dozen sites have refused to load the actual content, and of those only a couple asked me to subscribe (pay) for an ad-free experience (they were newspapers IIRC).

Hey, do you happen to have financial motives to advocate for youtube premium? E.g. are you an employee of G, or do you have a substantial investment into G? Just curious :)

It is just one of those things that is a no brainer. Same for me was iCloud storage.

This is a form of personal attack which degrades discussion and breaks the site guidelines, so could you please not?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html