Key Facts

• The author, Sanuj Bhatia, a freelance tech journalist, has been using YouTube Premium for years and continues to subscribe to the service despite recent price increases, including a $4 per month rise in the US.
• The author cites ad-free viewing, background playback, and YouTube Music as primary reasons for subscribing to YouTube Premium, with the latter being included at no extra cost, effectively providing two subscriptions for the price of one.
• YouTube Premium offers additional features such as offline downloads, Jump Ahead, which uses AI to skip less interesting parts of a video, and access to experimental YouTube features before others.
• The author suggests that one of the best ways to justify the cost of YouTube Premium is through Google's AI plans, such as Google AI Pro, which includes YouTube Premium Lite for $20 per month, or Google AI Ultra, which includes the full YouTube Premium subscription for $100 per month.
• The author uses YouTube for at least an hour and a half every day, often listening to podcasts and long-form discussions, and finds features like background playback essential for uninterrupted listening.