UPDATE: 2023/07/20 07:12 EST BY TIMI CANTISANO
Comment from YouTube
According to Google, prices are indeed being updated in the United States for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music, with a company spokesperson stating:
“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.”
According to YouTube, the new pricing will also apply to current subscribers as well, with the change occurring on the next billing cycle. Legacy subscribers, ones that have been with the service since 2018 will get a grace period of three months, after which, they will see an increase to the new rates. Current subscribers will also receive an email, informing them of the price updates.
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. YouTube Premium is going up to $13.99 per month, while YouTube Music is increasing to $10.99 per month. 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.
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 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.