this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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I'm going to be super-mega-controversial here, and tell you all how I removed ads on YouTube:
YouTube Premium.
Yes, I realize it's not very common to pay for the services we use these days, but I watch enough YouTube that I though it'd be neat. It is. No ads, except the direct sponsors of the people I actually watch. I only wish that this would make them not also sell my data, and track the shit out me, and all that jazz. I'd like to be the customer, if you'd let me, Alphabet.
Nah fuck that, those are the most annoying of all the ads. Very very very rarely does a content creator actually incorporate those in the video well, it's just jarring and annoying and I won't pay money to suffer those shitty ads.
Sponsorblock is unfortunately just as mandatory as uBlock these days. That said I won't critique video creators for doing what they need to do to get paid, my critique is leveled squarely at the system itself for making their only recourse for payment "produce propaganda for capitalists".
The "ads" they're talking about are the ones placed directly in the video by the creators themselves. YouTube doesn't control those and no ad blocker can get rid of them. To do that you'd need a vastly more sophisticated kind of ad blocker that actually watches the video and understands the content enough to decide what part of it is a sponsored message. We may be getting close to having that kind of technology but it would take a pretty big step up from something like CharGPT.
SponsorBlock blocks those types of ads and works great
Why let you choose one when you can be both customer and product!?
Understandably a few bucks for the hours of content I stream is justifiable, and if it were some other service I might, Im thinking on getting nebula, but google can go to hell. If they didnt want the burden of youtube they could have not bought it out, and not beat out the competition until they were the only game in town. Likewise Im salty that simple background and multitasking features are locked behind a paywall on a phone.
On top of that even the successful creators are kept afloat more by patreon and sponsor reads than they are youtubes ad services, and the algorithm and content blocker and lack of human support for creators means they regularly get screwed with age restrictions and copyright takedowns.
Im normally pretty understanding about companies needing to make a buck and be profitable and needing ads(though internet ads are non curated random scammy garbage) but I will continue to leech off of youtube until they finally block it.
I paid for premium for years. And then they fucking doubled the price.
I've been paying for a family plan for Google's music streaming service for years. It has long included YouTube premium so the six family members I have on the plan don't see YouTube ads. I guess it's good that creators get a somewhat bigger cut of money from us, but honestly if I didn't use the music streaming service, I'd be in the same boat as everyone else - desperately looking for a better way to block ads.