Google starts charging more for YouTube Premium and Music
We've had a good run, but Google is finally increasing the prices of YouTube Premium and YouTube Music. While the latter's price increase was expected since most competitors in the music-streaming business like Spotify and Apple Music have already raised prices, but the former stings a little bit more, as it seemingly comes out of the blue.
The news was first reported by the folks at 9to5Google who spotted the changes on YouTube's landing pages for its Premium and Music services. It's important to note that Google has not publicly announced the increase in prices, so it's unclear whether this event will stay under the radar, or something more formal will be sent out at a later date.
We have reached out to Google for clarification, as the company does tend to run tests. Hopefully, these price increases will be one of them. Doing a quick glance at some other regions, it doesn't look like prices have increased, but there are many regions to check, so f you've seen price increases this month, let us know in the comments.
Source: 9to5Google
What's also unclear for now is how those currently subscribed to the services will be affected. 9to5Google reports that prices have not increased for their own plans, which means that those subscribed could be grandfathered into pricing when they originally signed up for the service.
As far as the perks of what you get when you pay for YouTube Premium, users are able to download videos for offline viewing, remove ads from the platform, gain access to background play, and also gain access to YouTube Music. A newer perk of the service is also increased streaming quality from the usual 1080p to 1080p Premium.
While not a bad set of features, raising the price by $2 could have a big impact for some. Again, just to get clarification, we've reached out to Google to see whether these price increases are permanent, how those with older plans will be affected, and whether this is region specific. We'll update this post once we here back.
Source: XDA Developers
