Almost everyone with a smartphone, tablet, or laptop has used YouTube at some point. Some of us probably use it multiple times a week — if not once a day. Since its launch in 2014, YouTube Premium has only grown bigger and better. YouTube subsequently introduced a YouTube Premium Family Plan. What does this plan cost? What does it entail? Is it worth subscribing to in the first place? Let’s break it all down.
YouTube Specs
| Founded | February 14th, 2005 |
| Premium launched | November 14th, 2014 |
| Service | Online video platform |
| Parent company | Google LLC (2006- ) |
| Founders | Chad Hurley Steve Chen Jawed Karim |
| Key figures | Neal Mohan (CEO) Matt Halprin (VP) Chad Hurley (Advisor) |
| Active users | 2.5 billion (2022) |
| Subscribers | 80 million (2022) |
| YouTube Premium Individual Plan | $13.99 (monthly) $139.99 (annually) |
| YouTube Premium Student Plan | $7.99 (monthly) |
| YouTube Premium Family Plan | $22.99 (monthly) |
The History of YouTube
Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim — three former PayPal employees — had a problem. It was tough to share videos online. The three had already worked on a revolutionary new way to transfer money with others over the Internet, but why should they stop there? Together, they founded YouTube in 2005. YouTube allows people to upload and share personal videos with the world.
Google came on board in 2006, purchasing the site for a whopping $1.65 billion. With the search engine’s backing, YouTube rapidly grew and became an online hub for viral videos, music videos, and original content. This growth and evolution were further amplified with the establishment of YouTube’s partner program in 2007. This effectively incentivized the creation and uploading of YouTube videos by sharing ad revenue generated by popular uploads.
Original content creation subsequently exploded on YouTube. More than 15 years since the partner program’s launch, YouTube has become the #1 video streaming website. With over two billion active users monthly and more than a billion hours of video content streamed daily, YouTube is synonymous with internet video. Their subscription service, YouTube Premium, hopes to capitalize on this popularity with a few key incentives — including ad-free, offline, or background viewing, music streaming, and more.
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Benefits Of YouTube Premium Subscriptions
Moving away from YouTube’s origins and original purpose, let’s talk about YouTube Premium Plans and what they offer subscribers. You can choose from four plans: YouTube Premium Individual Plan, the YouTube Premium Student Plan, and the YouTube Premium Family Plan. Benefits may differ from one subscription tier to the next. Let’s take a look at the benefits of each below.
YouTube Premium Individual Plan
| Price | $13.99 (monthly) $139.99 (annually) |
| Benefits | Get 1 month of membership free Ad-free videos Download videos for offline viewing Play videos in the background Ad-free and offline play on the YouTube Music app Ad-free and offline play on the YouTube Kids app |
YouTube Premium Student Plan
| Price | $7.99 (monthly) |
| Benefits | Get 3 months membership free Discounted membership Ad-free videos Download videos for offline viewing Play videos in the background Ad-free and offline play on the YouTube Music app Ad-free and offline play on YouTube Kids app |
YouTube Premium Family Plan
| Price | $22.99 (monthly) |
| Benefits | Get 3 months membership free Discounted membership for up to five users Ability to age-restrict users’ viewing Personalized accounts Ad-free videos Download videos for offline viewing Play videos in the background Ad-free and offline play on YouTube Music app Ad-free and offline play on YouTube Kids app |
History of YouTube Premium (Including YouTube Premium Family Plan)
YouTube Premium is the subscription service side of YouTube. Providing subscribers with enticing bonus features, YouTube Premium removes ads from all videos. Premium also allows you to download videos (or even entire playlists of videos) for offline viewing. Plus, you can minimize or close out of the YouTube website or app while continuing to enjoy the audio from the video playing. In addition to these big features, you can enjoy similar features for the YouTube Music and YouTube Kids apps.
YouTube Premium is an offshoot of YouTube Red. This was YouTube’s attempt at competing with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and the like. It featured exclusive original content from some of YouTube’s top creators and legitimate studios (including the hit series Kobra Kai, which has since moved to Netflix). YouTube launched Red in November of 2014, but it didn’t take long for Google to realize that this attempt at a streaming service wouldn’t work. The company then rebranded Red as YouTube Premium in 2018.
YouTube Premium has been a much bigger hit than YouTube Red ever was. A lot of it has to do with the fundamental differences between their business models. Red was meant to turn a free video streaming site into a paid one, which would never go over well with users. On the other hand, Premium merely added attractive features (such as ad-free and offline viewing) to draw in subscribers without ever putting any content behind a paywall. Instead of creating a new revenue stream, YouTube Premium diversified an existing revenue stream.
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Pros And Cons Of YouTube Premium Family Plan
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Up to five YouTube Premium subscriptions at a fraction of the cost | Only the primary account holder can make adjust account settings |
| Five personalized accounts for $22.99 | Not much exclusive content since YouTube Red’s shutdown |
| Ad-free videos and music with the option to download for offline streaming | YouTube Music pales in comparison to Spotify or Apple Music |
| Access to ad-free YouTube Music and YouTube Kids |
Is The YouTube Premium Family Plan Worth It?
So, should you sign up for YouTube Premium Family Plan, or skip it? Ultimately, the answer to this question depends on a few key things. The first is how often you’ll use YouTube, and the second, whether you have an existing subscription. How many people are in your household? If you and your family don’t use YouTube often or only a few people are under your roof, the YouTube Premium Family Plan might not be worth it. This is especially true if you already have a subscription to a music streamer.
By and large, YouTube Premium doesn’t have many subscribers. They all but halted the production of all original series since transitioning from YouTube Red. We doubt you’d want to spend $25 monthly, so you and your family can stop watching videos without 5-second ads. Investing in a YouTube Premium Family Plan makes perfect sense if ads are an issue. If not, save yourself the $275 a year and click “Skip Ads” when prompted.
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