[badpun]

> The real issue IMO is that users do not understand that ads pay for their apps. Because it does not make any sense. No one wants to be shown something he does not find interesting or important, even if they say that they will. So if you believe people should watch, read, or listen to your ads, you've been living in a bubble.

It's either watch some ads, or work slightly harder to make slightly more money, to afford a subscribtion (or forgo some other pleasure, and reallocate that money to subscribtion instead). Both options are unpleasant, but of the two, majority of people seem to prefer ads.

[badpun]

To the downvoters: YouTube has been, for a couple years now, conducting a natural experiment that my confirms my claim. People can either buy a subscribtion or suffer the ads. Most prefer the ads.

[JohnFen]

I don't think that's a good experiment, though. Regardless of people's overall preference on this, I would expect the existing YouTube audience to mostly stay with the ad-supported stuff, because that's what they're used to with YouTube and people who really, really hate ads weren't using YouTube to begin with. All of that makes YouTube users a biased sample.

A more valid experiment would require all users to be new to the platform.

[ztrww]

> weren't using YouTube to begin with

Or using it with an ad blocker