What Is YouTube Premium?
YouTube Premium includes everything included in a YouTube Music subscription — ad-free streaming, downloadable content, background playback, etc. — and an ad-free YouTube experience and access to YouTube Original content. You also gain the ability to download YouTube videos for offline viewing.
YouTube Premium is priced a little higher than YouTube Music, costing $11.99 (AU$14.99, £11.99) per month.
The Benefits of Premium
If you’re thinking of subscribing to YouTube Premium, it does have a host of features to consider. Here’s a list of the service’s current benefits:
- Ad-free viewing: You can view everything on the site without any ads. You also get ad-free viewing on any platform you sign in to with your Google account, including the web, smartphones, Roku, or any other streaming devices.
- YouTube originals: You get access to original content, primarily from high-profile creators, along with some tv shows, documentaries, and movies.
- Background play: If you’re on mobile, the audio from the video you’re viewing will continue to play even if you’re outside the app or your phone display is closed. On Android, you can also view videos picture-in-picture while you use other apps on your phone.
- Download videos: You can download videos or playlists to watch offline on your smartphone or tablet.
- YouTube Music Premium: You get access to this service and all the features that come with it, as well.
Google might add additional features to Premium in the future, so stay tuned!
Is YouTube Premium a viable cable alternative?
YouTube Premium is a subscription-based service that provides ad-free access to all YouTube content. It covers the main YouTube website and app as well as YouTube Music. When you sign in to YouTube Premium, you can also watch YouTube Originals.
How to Sign Up for YouTube Premium
To sign up for YouTube Premium, you need a Google account. If you don’t have an account, you can create one when you sign up for YouTube Premium.
YouTube Premium includes a free trial period, but you need to provide billing information. YouTube won’t charge you until the free trial expires (if you don’t cancel first).
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Navigate to YouTube.com/premium in a web browser and select Try It Free.
To provide multiple family members with YouTube Premium, select save money with a family or student plan.
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Log in to the Google account for which you want to set up YouTube Premium.
If you don’t have a Google account, select Use another account to set one up.
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Enter your payment information, then select Start Trial.
YouTube Premium Family and Student Plans
A YouTube Premium subscription applies only to a single account. If you have multiple YouTube accounts, only the one you sign up with gets YouTube Premium benefits.
If you want to extend your YouTube Premium benefits to more than one person, YouTube offers a family plan. This plan costs about 50 percent more than the basic one. It enables up to six accounts to access all the benefits and extra content that comes with YouTube Premium.
What Do You Get With YouTube.com Premium?
YouTube Premium grew out of previous Google services like YouTube Red and Google Play Music All Access. It includes all the features and benefits that were available from those services. Here are the main benefits that come with YouTube Premium:
- Ad-free videos: All videos on YouTube are available without ads. Don’t worry about shorting your favorite creators, though. When you watch a video on a channel that would typically run ads, they get part of your YouTube Premium subscription fee.
- Offline videos: With a tap of a button, you can save videos to watch later, even when you aren’t on the internet.
- Background play: This feature allows you to play YouTube videos in the background on a mobile device, which is useful for listening to music while using other apps.
- YouTube Music Premium: Accessible through a web browser at music.youtube.com (and the YouTube Music mobile app), this service provides an easy way to listen to your favorite music, watch videos from your favorite groups, and discover new music, all without ads.
- YouTube Originals: This content originated with YouTube Red. It includes original movies and series from popular YouTubers and mainstream stars.
- YouTube Kids: The YouTube Kids app gets an ad-free experience and access to offline play.
What Are YouTube Originals?
YouTube Originals are series and movies you’ll only find on YouTube. The original slate of YouTube Originals showcased breakout YouTube stars. It has expanded to include a variety of reality shows and scripted programming, including the critically-acclaimed Karate Kid sequel series Kobra Kai.
Are YouTube downloaders legal?
What’s the Difference Between YouTube Premium and YouTube TV?
YouTube Premium is YouTube without ads plus extra content and features. YouTube TV is a direct cable alternative. These are separate services, and signing up for one does not give you access to the other.
Both YouTube Premium and YouTube TV give you access to YouTube Originals. However, YouTube TV subscribers still watch ads on regular YouTube videos and can’t access other YouTube Premium benefits.
If you sign up for YouTube Premium and YouTube TV with the same email address, you can log in to YouTube TV and watch YouTube videos ad-free. This way, you don’t have to jump back and forth between YouTube TV and the regular YouTube site. However, that’s the extent of the integration between the two services.
Is YouTube Premium a Cable Replacement?
YouTube Premium isn’t a direct replacement for cable in the same way TV streaming services like YouTube TV, Sling TV, and Hulu with Live TV are. It doesn’t have live television channels, so you can’t use it to watch the shows that air on cable or satellite television.
If you don’t watch a lot of regular television and enjoy the content that’s available on YouTube, that’s a different story. Since YouTube Premium provides both YouTube content and YouTube Originals ad-free, it might be a viable replacement for cable as a primary source of entertainment and news.
How to Watch Original Shows on YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium is YouTube without ads. If you know how to use YouTube, you’ll figure out YouTube Premium. If you’re interested in checking out some YouTube Originals, here’s how to do it:
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Go to YouTube.com and select Sign In to log in to your YouTube Premium account.
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Select Originals on the left side.
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Scroll down to find the series or movie you want to watch. Select Play All to queue the entire series or select an individual episode to watch it.
What Is Background Play?
Background play is a YouTube Premium feature available on the YouTube mobile app. Without YouTube Premium, video playback stops as soon as you leave the YouTube app to use another app.
This feature allows videos to continue playing, either in a picture-in-picture thumbnail or in the background. Here’s how to make use of background play:
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Launch the YouTube app and log in to the Google account with a YouTube Premium subscription, then search for a video and play it.
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Tap the Home button on the device to return to the phone’s home screen.
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The video appears in a thumbnail form. Drag the thumbnail where you want it, or tap the X to remove it.
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Open the system tray to pause or stop the video.
Playing a video in background play mode is useful for listening to podcasts, music, and playlists without leaving the YouTube app open. You can open other apps and lock your phone, and the video continues to play.
How to Download Videos and Music With YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium allows you to download and store videos for playback when you don’t have access to the internet. This feature is only available on the YouTube and YouTube Music apps. It doesn’t allow you to download videos from the YouTube website freely. Here’s how to download videos from the YouTube app:
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Open a video you want to download in the YouTube app and select Download under the playback window.
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Choose the video quality you want, then tap OK.
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Go to the Library tab and tap Downloads to view the video once it finishes downloading.
For the most part, you can watch downloaded videos whenever you want, but there are some restrictions:
- You can only watch a downloaded video when signed in to the YouTube app with your YouTube Premium account.
- You need to connect to the internet at least once every 30 days, or you lose access to your downloaded videos until you reconnect.
What Happened to YouTube Red?
YouTube Premium replaced YouTube Red in 2018. It includes the same benefits as YouTube Red, like ad-free videos, and some new features. YouTube Red subscribers were automatically migrated to YouTube Premium when it launched.
How to Get YouTube Premium at a Discount
Enjoying an ad-free YouTube experience is a wonderful idea, and it is possible if you subscribe to YouTube Premium.
But if the monthly fee for your location is too steep, follow these steps to get a discount on your YouTube Premium membership. You’ll need a VPN service first.
- Login to your Google account (or create a separate Google account just for your premium subscription).
- If you don’t already have one, get a VPN. We recommend NordVPN.
- Go to Youtube Premium and verify the pricing appears in Argentinian pesos.
- Click Try It Free.
- Fill in your card information. You can use your regular card or find a fee-free card and avoid currency conversion fees.
- In the address section, use a street, city, and postcode in Argentina (or whatever country you selected). You can search for addresses in Google or use a random address generator (find out how in the article below!).
- Click Buy.
What is Included with a YouTube Premium Subscription?
Before we dig in, here’s what you get when you subscribe to YouTube Premium.
- Ad-free YouTube experience – sort of. YouTube eliminates all YouTube distributed ads (e.g. the annoying ones that play before your video starts). However, even with Premium, you still will see ads, commercials, and sponsored content embedded in the videos and live channels (which YouTube doesn’t have a hand in distributing).
- Download videos for offline viewing – only possible when you have a YouTube Premium subscription.
- Background play – useful when you use YouTube to play your favorite songs while you use other apps or your device is locked.
- Access to YouTube Originals – movies, shows, and features from a variety of genres, that you can’t stream elsewhere
- YouTube Music Premium subscription – a music streaming service similar to Spotify Premium, you get no ads, can download and play offline, and listen to music when your device is locked.
If you watch YouTube a lot, the paid subscription makes sense. However, for occasional users who subscribe to other streaming music services (Amazon Music, Spotify), some of the YouTube Premium benefits may not be of that much value.
How Much Does a YouTube Premium Subscription Cost?
YouTube prices its premium service by location. And in this case, not every country is equal.
Is Premium Worth It?
It depends on how often you use the service. If you frequently use the mobile app, background play and offline downloading are fantastic features to have. With so many YouTube channels now hosting long-form content, the option to listen to lengthy videos when you’re not in the app is handy. It’s great for listening while you drive or cook dinner.
If you most often watch YouTube from your desktop, the utility is definitely in the ad-blocking. Video ad revenues have been falling lately, which has led creators to put even more ads in their content. If you want to watch videos uninterrupted while still supporting those who make them, Premium is the only way to do so.
One thing to consider, though, is the Originals library is relatively small. If you’re not interested in watching Premium content from creators, you’ll probably find the selection pretty lackluster.
In fact, YouTube Premium subscriptions can range from downright cheap (Argentina and India) to very expensive (the United Kingdom and Switzerland).
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