Following the phasing out of legacy pricing for YouTube Premium subscribers that began in January in the U.S., the Google-owned streaming service is now doing the same in Europe and elsewhere. Long-time subscribers with pricing plans dating back to discontinued services Google Play Music and YouTube Red will begin paying the equivalent of the current $13.99 per month price starting in January 2025. The price increase encompasses both YouTube Premium, which is ad-free and includes YouTube Music, as well as YouTube’s standalone plans. Concurrently, the streaming giant is also rolling out a controls redesign for iOS and Android.

“We’re updating the price for YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium for new and current subscribers in Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Kuwait, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Puerto Rico, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Uruguay, and Turkey,” YouTube Communications Manager Paul Pennington explained in The Verge.

As with the U.S. price increase, “members who signed up originally via Google Play and received early adopter pricing will get three additional months at their current price,” The Verge confirmed.

Android Police reports that in Europe, the price increase “appears to be more aggressive,” amounting to “a massive 61 percent increase” with the Premium family plan rising to €20.99 from the previous €12.99 monthly rate. In other foreign territories the increase hovered just below 50 percent.

The U.S. rate hike for what it now known as YouTube Premium “went up to $9.99, though early adopters continued enjoying their service’s features for $7.99” per month, Android Police writes.

Meanwhile, YouTube has been implementing a mobile update including “a redesigned miniplayer, a revamped settings menu, and perhaps most notably, a complete overhaul of the playback speed controls,” per PhoneArena.

The changes, which began surfacing in October, features a compact slider to adjust playback speeds appearing at the bottom of mobile screens.

“This slider allows for adjustments in .5 increments, providing much greater precision and control over video playback,” PhoneArena notes, adding that those who prefer preset speeds can still use the standard 0.25x, 1.0x (Normal), 1.25x, 1.5x, and 2.0x.

“The combination of the slider and presets gives users the flexibility to fine-tune their viewing experience,” PhoneArena adds, explaining that the improvement “offers a level of customization that was previously missing.”

Another UI change in YouTube Music sees “the design of the three-dot overflow menu” on the mobile interface conforming “to match the look of the main YouTube app,” 9to5Google points out, suggesting the adjustment helps “modernize things.”

Related:
YouTube Viewers Guzzled 84 Million Hours of Presidential Election Day News, Fortune, 11/6/24
I Ditched Spotify for YouTube Music Last Year and I Don’t Regret It, Android Authority, 11/1/24
Android Users Spot a TikTok-Style Swipe on YouTube’s Horizontal Videos, Mashable, 11/11/24