This is one of those things that I go against the Lemmy hivemind on. I cut out pretty much every streaming service and sail the high seas for most of my media.But I consider YouTube Premium worth the cost.

I got grandfathered into it when Google Music shut down and I really haven't felt the need to change anything. YouTube music is better than Spotify. I don't have to constantly play the whack-a-mole game of ad blockers that will inevitably break during a YouTube update. I don't have to rely on finicky software to get videos to play in the background with my phone screen off.

Look, I get it. All these features used to be offered for free without ads. I think that more than anything is why people are so rabidly against premium, because they feel like they had that stuff stolen from them. But YouTube is a service, not a right. You were never guaranteed those features permanently. The cost of Premium is miniscule compared to the benefits I get from it. I use YouTube a LOT. Weather for how to videos, or ASMR, or background music, or documentaries, or podcasts. I like knowing that no matter where I use it, from my computer to my phone to the random smart TV in a hotel that I cast to, I'm not going to see any ads.

All this is based on the current services offered at the current price. If and when they start making those services shittier or increase the cost, then I will seek alternatives; but not before.

EDIT: I love all the many replies going "Yea but you could just use this program combined with this plugin on your locally hosted server. Just use these 3 different pieces of software. Have you tried Squootle? Just use Squootle and SEvR, bro. If you use Squootle you can download the video, recompress it, and play it from any desktop running Windows 7."