- YouTube adds downloads and background playback to its Premium Lite plan
- It is the first update to the Premium Lite plan since its inception last year.
- Music fans will still have to upgrade, however, as ad-free music videos are still included in the Premium Plan.
YouTube locks tons of features behind the walls of its rather expensive Premium tier, but it’s now bringing some of them to its more affordable Premium Lite plan.
The platform announced on its blog that offline downloads and background playback are being integrated into YouTube Premium Lite and rolling out now. This is a huge improvement; When YouTube launched Premium Lite in March 2025, it offered ad-free viewing for most videos (with the exception of music videos and musical content) and not much else. Premium Lite subscribers also don’t get the benefit of YouTube Music.
Until now, the only way subscribers could watch all the videos ad-free was by signing up for the full-price YouTube Premium plan for $13.99/£12.99 (around AU$20) a month. While YouTube Premium Lite ($7.99/£7.99, or about AU$10 per month) is still missing features like fast forward, queue, and continue watching, downloads and background playback were the most requested features.
“Last year, we expanded our Premium Lite pilot to more markets and heard feedback about the desire to include these additional features in the service. We are excited about today’s update and to continue testing and creating products that better meet the needs of our users,” the YouTube team shared in their announcement.
In the future, the YouTube Premium Lite experience will give you an even greater taste of what the standard plan has to offer. For most people who just want to enjoy ad-free viewing and now the added benefits of downloads and background playback on most videos, YouTube Premium Lite will be the ideal choice, and the next step is to roll out a Premium Lite family plan to give households a more affordable alternative.
However, that’s not why I’m still more attracted to the standard YouTube Premium plan.
I’m nothing without YouTube music videos.
I’ve been considering a YouTube Premium subscription for quite some time now, and although I’ve approached it many times, for some reason I always back out. For the most part, YouTube Premium Lite is the ideal plan, but leaving out ad-free music videos is a kick in the teeth. That being said, I know exactly why YouTube does this.
When it comes to the best music streaming services, YouTube Music can’t compete with Spotify or Apple Music when it comes to features and popularity. However, it has an advantage over its competitors in one thing in particular: music videos.
I’ve tested Spotify’s music video ecosystem many times and despite being a subscriber for the last decade, I can see that it doesn’t even come close to what YouTube has to offer with music videos. It’s everywhere and the way the videos appear on the watch page is pretty unflattering. I’m not the only one who thinks this way, and Spotify music videos have been at the center of heated discussions since their inception.
I hate “listening to” music videos 🙁 from r/truespotify
I think I speak for many music fans when I say that, despite subscribing to audio streaming platforms other than YouTube Music, we still return to the standard YouTube app for visuals, whether music videos or live performances. So the fact that YouTube has identified and blocked this advantage is no surprise; It’s just frustrating to know that the Premium temptation is inevitable.
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