I’m not sure what to think about the price. I can’t really imagine life without a search engine, even though I was alive for a couple of decades before search engines existed. I pay $400/month for my car, but my search engine arguably gives me more value (I am lucky not to need to drive a lot). I wouldn’t pay $400/month for a search engine. But $5-10 to have a degree of freedom from the tracking and results that aren’t just trying to get my money? I am intrigued.
I had google play music. Then it became youtube music with youtube premium. They just raised the price on my family subscription by 40%. I considered leaving for spotify, where at least I’d be able to share playlists with all my friends, or apple music because I’m an iphone person now, I guess.
But the ad-free, full-featured youtube is the thing that is keeping me. I won’t save significant money by switching, but I’ll be giving up something I really get some value out of.
If they change their pricing so that it is significantly cheaper for me to use another service and premium youtube isn’t just a bonus I get for paying for my music, I may reconsider. But for now, the package is unbeatable even at the new higher price.
I guess google will just have to suck less if they want us to keep using it.