YouTube Premium is UNDERRATED | Daily #197

I’m currently on a trial subscription using YouTube premium. I truly underestimated the value of it before and regret that I didn’t get it sooner.

I know that probably 80% of YouTube users probably use an Ad-Blocker. But for me, I always tried to support my content creators by at least watching/listening to an ad.  Even though it is probably just one cent. Now with YouTube premium, I don’t get ads while also supporting my favorite content creators.

But the key two features that will keep me using the service are the YouTube music and the background playing on YouTube itself.

YouTube music is the same as Spotify and Apple Music. They have a similar range of all the albums and artists like the other providers. But there is one crucial difference. YouTube Music also allows you to play music from YouTube itself.

There are probably music songs that aren’t on Spotify or Apple Music that you like. The chances that they do exist on YouTube as a video format is more likely though. Well, with YouTube music you can add that video to the playlist and it will play the audio of it as well.

A literal game-changer.

One downside of YouTube is that their web app (or progressive web app) is garbage. The performance is atrocious when you compare it to Spotify or Apple Music. I get hiccups a lot when I browse the audio library and sometimes it even straight interrupts the audio.

This doesn’t mean that the mobile app is a garbage app though. In fact, barring UI bugs as of right now, it’s performing pretty well.

As for the background playing of YouTube. This is also a game-changer and probably even more than YouTube music. Most of the podcasts that I listen to aren’t even on Spotify or Apple podcasts. (Don’t ask what I listen to.)

Now that I can just open any video and listen in the background when I’m for example in the gym.

People argue that this should be a default option without the need for a premium subscription. To those who have the same sense, I say this: ‘stay broke and cry about why things should be free’.

This is going to change my daily life and should have done it way sooner.

YouTube premium is mega-underrated.