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🦉 WE READ 771 OWNER COMMENTS
YouTube Music Premium: what owners actually say
Owners value background playback and the bundled music library, but resentment over Google's pricing, bundling, and ad-blocker hostility runs deep
What owners complain about
- Price seen as excessive COMMON
Users call out roughly $400/year for YouTube Premium and note it costs more than Netflix while Google 'doesn't even make any of its own content.' Several consider it pure greed.
- Background playback paywalled COMMON
Multiple users are angry that screen-off / background listening — considered a baseline feature of any music app — is locked behind a subscription. One user discovered the free trial included it and felt misled.
- Forced video pane reopening FEW
On macOS the app repeatedly re-expands the video section after the user collapses it, forcing the visual player when they only want audio.
- YouTube and Music should be separate SOME
Paying users explicitly want Google to decouple YouTube Premium from YouTube Music rather than bundling them together.
- Distrust of future enshittification SOME
Several users predict ads will eventually appear inside Premium, requiring yet another tier on top. The term 'enshittification' is used repeatedly.
What owners love
- Background playback when it works
Owners who do pay consistently highlight screen-off and background listening as the killer feature, especially on Android where it replaced kernel hacks and Xposed workarounds.
- Included with YouTube Premium
Users who already subscribed to YT Premium discovered Music was bundled, eliminating the need for a separate Spotify-style subscription.
- Unique library depth
Owners point out YouTube Music has unlisted tracks, remixes, and full official music videos that other streaming services lack, making it 'better than the rest by a mile' for certain catalog.
- Free tier exists
Commenters note the service doesn't force a paid subscription — a free option is available, unlike some competitors.
Surprising patterns
- Several Premium subscribers didn't realize YouTube Music was included in their existing plan — the bundling is invisible enough that people were paying for separate music services unnecessarily.
- Owners are actively using uBlock Origin as their primary 'YouTube Premium alternative' and treating the ad-blocker-versus-Google dynamic as a personal war, not just a technical workaround.
- The animated loading screen (DJ crocodile) generated actual positive reactions from some users who thought it 'looked sick,' counter to the broader UI criticism.
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Anyone unwilling to pay Google directly or who resents bundled pricing — these users will feel nickel-and-dimed and will likely gravitate to ad-blocking or alternative services instead.
Synthesised from 771 real owner comments across 5 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →