Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Original YouTube Music Key beta testers paying $7.99/month are finally being bumped to $12.99/month for YouTube Premium.
- This ends nearly a decade-long period of grandfathered pricing left unchanged since 2014.
- Emails received by long-time customers from Google confirm the change will take effect on their next billing cycle.
YouTube Premium has seen several price hikes since its announcement, but the service kept honoring older rates that it initially offered to early adopters. In 2014, beta testers of YouTube’s “Music Key” streaming service paid $7.99 monthly. If you’ve continued paying that amount throughout these years, the party is finally ending, as YouTube is raising its prices for more grandfathered users.
YouTube Music Key was launched in November 2014. It offered ad-free music, offline and background playback, and more for $9.99 per month. If you joined during the beta period, you had to pay only $7.99 monthly.
A few years later, in 2018, Google relaunched YouTube Music. Music Key users were upgraded to YouTube Premium at their original pricing, even though YouTube Premium cost $11.99 a month then. 2023 saw a price increase across the board, and even $9.99 Music Key users had to start paying the full price of $13.99 for YouTube Premium. However, early adopters at $7.99 remained grandfathered in for some reason.
9to5Google spotted various user reports indicating that even these $7.99 grandfathered users are being bumped up to $12.99 a month, a whopping ~61% increase. Google is sending emails to affected users, mentioning that the changes will take effect on their next billing date.
This is the second round of grandfathered rates going away, and it remains to be seen if any older users are still left behind on their legacy rates after this. Note that the new price is still discounted, as YouTube Premium costs $13.99 per month in the US, going up to $22.99 for Family plans.
Are you a grandfathered user who has received the price rise email? Are you continuing with YouTube? Let us know in the comments below!
