More price hikes are coming to YouTube Premium. Or, to put it more accurately: Users who were previously exempt from price hikes will be required to pay up just like anyone else.
In an email, YouTube announced that it would enforce previously announced price increases on its premium tier, even among subscribers who were grandfathered in at a lower rate. For new Premium buyers, the price of the subscription went from $11.99 to $13.99 over the summer. At the time, YouTube said that anyone who purchased Premium for $11.99 would get to keep that for three months.
Ultimately, YouTube upheld its grandfather rate for a little bit longer than it initially promised. According to the platform’s email update, Premium users who are still paying the lower price should expect their $2 price hike to hit in January. Users who were paying even lower rates than $11.99 per month will also be affected. Some subscribers who bought their premium add-on through YouTube Music or YouTube Red (as Premium was originally known) will be forced to give up the $7.99 or $9.99 monthly rates they once enjoyed.
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YouTube has attempted to make its Premium tier more attractive by loading it up with new features. In addition to the perks monthly subscribers have always enjoyed — such as ad-free browsing — they can now gain early access to new features. Premium members are some of the first people who are trying out a casual gaming hub called Playables and a pair of AI-driven updates. “We don’t make these decisions lightly,” reads YouTube’s pricing-related email, “but this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube.”
But Premium improvements aren’t the only factors drawing new users to YouTube’s paid tier. The platform is also making it more difficult for free users to access Premium perks. Its crackdown on ad blockers has forced viewers to watch pre-rolls, but some resourceful users are switching to stronger ad blockers instead. Will yet-another Premium price hike draw more customers to that illicit solution? We’ll find out once the calendar turns over to the new year.
