Based on recent reports, YouTube is actively restricting access to Premium accounts created through VPNs and cracking down on users accessing Premium content across different regions. According to user discussions, YouTube now detects and blocks VPN connections when attempting to stream Premium content[1][2].
Some key impacts:
- Users report being unable to play YouTube Music through Sonos speakers when using a VPN, with the service becoming accessible only after bypassing VPN connections[1:1]
- Premium subscribers attempting to access content from different regions than their subscription face connection errors and service disruptions
- The restrictions appear to be part of YouTube’s broader strategy to enforce regional content licensing and subscription terms
The crackdown coincides with YouTube’s increased focus on Premium subscriptions, including showing longer unskippable ads to free users in 2025 to drive Premium adoption[3].
Sure would be nice to have privacy rights of any kind
In 2025 it sounds funny…
Any type of inalienable rights, really.
That’s on all of you for using that shit and paying for it. Just fucking download the videos and watch them offline. Or use newpipe/freetube.
Don’t give google any money.
Or just use a simple adblocker
Or even better, a private frontend. There are plenty. Even on ios, download the Unwatched app.
Yea, I occasionally get a little notice trying to tell me about why I would be seeing interruptions. But I don’t have any interuptions since I don’t see ads. The fake buffering doesn’t actually bother me.
Amen
Congrats, so now you get no money instead.
If the price difference is about physical location of CDNs, and them being cheaper in those countries, then why not just restrict premium specifically to those servers?
I don’t see why else to even have different pricing otherwise.I’ve been weighing my music streaming options lately. I tried Apple Music, but its catalog is limited, and the app is slow and unpolished. I dislike Spotify’s privacy policies, just like YouTube premium, but if I wanted a great music selection and had to compromise on privacy, YT Premium with a separate login and VPN would be the answer.
After this bullshit move I’ll go back to using a NewPipe fork on Android or FreeTube on my desktop. This company’s greed is bottomless.
Why can’t a paid service protect your privacy these days? It wants to have its cake and eat it too; Google will sell you a spendy subscription while ruthlessly tracking and data mining you into oblivion. Gotta bring in another 100 billion for shareholders I guess.
It wants to have its cake and eat it too
It wants you to pay for its cake and feed it to itself.
You only get to taste the remains of icing that stays on your fingers.
And even that, it will have spit onMoney is power. It’s not about money, it’s about power. Hail the kings.
My issue with Apple Music is the interface which I agree is slow and unpolished…which just seems crazy to me since they really should have the best UI experience. I refuse to support Spotify. Anyone got recommendations on alternatives? I’m debating trying out Tidal or Deezer.
There’s also qobuz, which, in case you want to boycott the US works because they are French afaik.
I’m confused by both of you saying Apple Music’s UI is unpolished — compared to what? Spotify always looked trashy to me. Tidal sucks and Deezer was my favorite before Apple had lossless and HiFi but its UI was always clunky too.
The minute Apple supported lossless and HiFi it was game over.
For me, it’s that the Apple UI is so unintuitive. I thought Spotify was fine before I uninstalled it. Going back and forth between playlists and songs or other playlists is a lot harder in Apple Music. My Apple Watch had a more seamless control of Spotify as well which is super odd to me. I had Spotify premium before ditching it for Apple Music so I found the UI pretty straightforward. It operated as I expected a music interface to operate. None of this is worth going back to Spotify but I do find it weird that apple is harder to navigate since they had such a head start in developing music players. Following and getting new music updates from artists was super easy on Spotify, following label and distributors along with their playlists was easy. Maybe Spotify has changed over the past 4-5 years I’m not sure as I haven’t used it since the whole Joe Rogan thing.
Is there anything worth watching on Netflix any more?
I was in on the $6.99 forever until it wasn’t. Then the content became pretty spartan apart from Stranger Things. I haven’t had it for a long time.
How much is it these days? $20? $30?
I don’t know if its content overall that’s taken such a dive over the years that I basically stopped consuming TV shows, film and music, or if it’s fundamentally crippling depression and existential angst brought on by the onslaught of global fascism. Feels like we’re all flies spastically circling the drain.
Producing instead of consuming helps. Not the world, but the angst.
I wonder if all these new “protect the kids” age verification laws play a part in this. Not sure what YouTube’s/Google’s liability would be in allowing, for instance, UK users to just VPN around there “Online Safety Act” requirement(s). I’m sure they could play dumb for a bit, but eventually some jackass is going to hear about what people are doing and get Google to explain why VPN traffic is way UP and UK traffic is way DOWN, and “think of the children!”.
They play a part in the sense that they give Google an excuse to crack down on privacy.
Your probability of remaining anonymous with Google is already slim, but trying to remain anonymous while also using their services has to be near impossible. They are one of the largest advertisers on the Internet, and they have the reach and tech to fingerprint almost everyone.
And it’s also hard for a company to protect profits (remember in the US – capitalism > civil liberties) and comply with all these new regulations if your users are all hiding their locations via VPN.
Social media platforms face huge fines under UK’s new digital safety laws
Also have the ruling of their antitrust case coming up:
Alphabet’s Google (GOOGL) Likely to Avoid Breakup, But Antitrust Remedies Could Hit Core Revenue
Lol I’ll just keep using an ad blocker and the invidious alternative frontend for YouTube
