YouTube

YouTube Premium isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, it’s just trying to smooth it out.

At its core, this is still the same YouTube we all know: cooking tutorials, fitness classes, conspiracy theories, deep-dive documentaries, and rabbit holes that somehow end with a 40-minute video on how pencils are made. But with Premium, all of that comes without ads. No five-second skippables, no mid-roll interruptions, and definitely no hour-long ads that hijack your video while you’re mowing the lawn.

And that alone is kind of magical.

It’s not just the absence of ads that makes it worthwhile. Premium quietly adds little conveniences that, if you use YouTube daily, start to feel essential. Background play means I can listen to long-form content with my screen off or while doomscrolling Twitter. Offline downloads mean I can queue up a batch of videos and take them on a flight, or out of the country, without burning data. The inclusion of YouTube Music adds access to over 100 million songs, ad-free, downloadable, and streamable even on a locked screen. It’s not Spotify, but it holds its own, especially if you already watch a lot of music videos on YouTube anyway.

There are also perks like access to YouTube Kids (also ad-free), early experiments (like AI tools and UI tweaks), and even a casual games tab with familiar picks like Angry Birds and The Daily Crossword. It’s a weird mix, but it works.

Downsides? Sure. The original programming feels like a leftover relic from the YouTube Red days, forgettable shows that rarely match Netflix or Disney+ in quality or consistency. And the family plan pricing isn’t exactly generous; sharing Premium with someone else basically means paying double unless you commit to the full family tier.

But if you’re someone who watches YouTube for hours each day, for music, background podcasts, or just to learn new things, it’s kind of a no-brainer. You save time, reduce friction, and actually support the creators you love more directly than with ads.

It’s not the flashiest subscription out there. But YouTube Premium might just be the most useful one.