YouTube Premium users in Singapore latest to be hit with subscription fee hikes

SINGAPORE – Subscribers to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium in Singapore are the latest to be hit with price hikes, some as high as 56 per cent, following similar moves in other countries.

In a notice sent to current subscribers of the service on Sept 21, YouTube said the prices were increased in order to “continue delivering great service and features”.

“We don’t make these decisions lightly, and this update will allow us to continue to improve Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube,” it said.

With the hike, a family plan subscription to YouTube Premium, which allows for up to five accounts to receive the service simultaneously, now costs $27.98 a month. This is a nearly 56 per cent increase, up from $17.98 when the YouTube Premium service was

launched in Singapore in November 2019

.

Individual subscriptions now cost $13.98 a month, up from $11.98 in November 2019.

Users who subscribe to YouTube Premium via Apple’s iOS App Store, who have had to pay more than other subscribers to the service since its launch in Singapore in 2019, now have to pay $17.98 a month for individual subscriptions and $36.98 a month for family subscriptions.

This is up from the $15.98 and $22.98 that iOS users had to pay in November 2019 – an increase of nearly 13 per cent and 61 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, YouTube Music Premium, which allows ad-free access to the music streaming service, saw an increase of $1 for individual subscriptions to $10.98, and $3 for family plan subscriptions to $17.98.

For iOS users, individual YouTube Music Premium subscriptions were up $3 to $12.98, while the fee for family subscriptions increased by $5 to $19.98.

The YouTube Premium service on the video-streaming platform allows subscribers to watch videos without advertisements interrupting them, download videos to watch while offline, continue playing videos in the background, and have ad-free access to its music streaming arm YouTube Music.

The Straits Times has contacted YouTube for more information.

The fee hikes have ruffled feathers, with some YouTube Premium users saying in Reddit’s r/singapore community that they would cancel their subscriptions.

While some YouTube Premium subscribers whom ST spoke to expressed unhappiness with the increase in fees, they said they will likely not cancel their subscriptions due to the convenience they offer.

Graphic designer Leon Lee, 33, said such a move was inevitable, and conceded that as an individual plan subscriber who watches YouTube every day, the increase “isn’t too bad”.

“The rise in subscription fees for streaming services is something we probably have to live with, since one-time purchases are mostly a thing of the past,” said Mr Lee.

Describing the price increase as “ridiculous”, child development case worker Zane Chan said that he had initially switched from an individual subscription to a family plan to share the benefits with his family.

Mr Chan, 30, also holds subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Spotify, Netflix and Disney+, all of which have also seen price increases in the past two years.

“It’s getting really hard to afford multiple subscriptions, and I might have to explore other alternatives, because it is getting harder to justify the convenience when the prices just keep going up.”

In February, YouTube Premium reported that it had crossed the 100 million subscriber mark across more than 100 countries, and thanked its subscribers for their support.

In 2023, YouTube increased prices for its premium service in several countries including the United States, which saw its first increase at the time following the launch of YouTube Premium in 2018, according to lifestyle news website Variety. Other countries that saw a spike in prices in 2023 were Argentina, Australia, Austria, Chile, Germany, Poland and Turkey.

The Star reported in November 2023 that YouTube had increased fees for Malaysian subscribers in May that year by RM7 (S$2), while Australians saw a A$10 (S$9), or 43 per cent, price jump for family plans. In August, India’s family plan subscription fee increased by 110 rupees (S$2), or 58 per cent. Since mid-2023, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Spotify have increased the prices of their subscription plans in Singapore, mirroring similar moves worldwide by

Apple

, Amazon and Disney+.