The highly anticipated YouTube premium price increase 2023 has been officially announced, leading to changes in subscription costs for various services offered by the platform. In the US, the cost of YouTube Premium has raised by $2 to $13.99 per month from its previous pricing. In line with the revised cost, Google’s signup page for the service has been quietly modified, as originally noted by 9to5Google. In addition to the monthly price hike, YouTube Premium’s yearly subscription fee is also going up by $20 to $139.99.
The cost of YouTube Music, which is a music streaming service offered separately or as part of a Premium membership, has also gone up in the US. As with the price changes we’ve seen for Tidal, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, it will now cost $10.99 per month.
Spotify is a prominent exception because it continues to charge $9.99 a month, but CEO Daniel Ek recently said the service is “ready to raise prices“—indicating a comparable hike would not be far off.
YouTube premium price Increase 2023: US users receive email notifications
Gibby reaffirmed that most current customers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium would experience pricing increases starting with the following payment cycle and that they may anticipate receiving an email confirming the change. The price rise for individual users comes after news of a comparable pricing hike for family plan customers to YouTube Premium in October.
Additionally subject to the price rise are existing $9.99 YouTube Red members. When Google last increased the cost of an ad-free YouTube subscription as part of the rebranding from “YouTube Red” to “YouTube Premium” in 2018, it still permitted former YouTube Red users to pay the previous monthly rate. Before the price rise takes effect, such members will receive an additional three months at their present cost.
Although Google isn’t confirming it, it doesn’t appear that there are any current plans to raise fees in other nations by the same percentage. According to YouTube’s Gibby, “We re-evaluate our pricing on an ongoing basis as conditions change in nations all over the world.” “Any future price increases will be first and foremost communicated directly to existing members, providing a minimum of 30 days before any price increases take effect.”
The video streaming platform’s functionality has been enhanced by YouTube Premium. Subscribers get access to ad-free YouTube videos as well as the option to download them for offline viewing. Additionally, users may listen to a video’s audio while using other applications or with their phone’s screen off thanks to background playback capability. More recently, Google added a higher-quality 1080p streaming option to YouTube Premium on a few different devices. Importantly, subscribing stops Google’s relentless pestering.
YouTube spokesperson makes an announcement
Regarding this pricing shift, Google made no public announcements. The first to discover it was 9to5Google, who obtained the following response from a YouTube representative:
We’re updating the price for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium subscribers in the US to continue delivering great service and features. We believe this new price reflects the value of YouTube Premium which allows subscribers to enjoy ad-free YouTube with background and offline play and uninterrupted access to over 100M songs with the YouTube Music app.
Over the last year, Google has been on a drive to decrease costs, which has resulted in price rises for the majority of its commercial services. The price of YouTube Premium family plans increased by 27% in October. In March, prices for Google Workspace plans increased by 20%, and YouTube TV saw a price increase of 12%. A lot of storage rates were increased in April by Google Cloud, an AWS rival.
Google One, the premium storage option for individual Google customers, is the main holdout. The firm did make an attempt to reduce storage costs when it placed unexpected file restrictions on Google Drive, disrupting the production sets of many paying businesses, but the company subsequently undid the modifications.
Read more:
- Solid Point AI can be your ultimate YouTube companion: Here is how
- YouTube Stable Volume might be quietly balancing your videos
- YouTube will not allow viewing videos with ad blockers
Featured image credit: Unsplash.
