585
Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube
(www.popsci.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
If you use premium, the creators still get paid by YouTube for your views. If you use an ad blocker, they don't get any money from your views.
When you see an ad on YouTube, the creator gets 55% of the revenue and YouTube gets the remaining 45%.
If I want to support the creator, I would rather donate directly or subscribe to the person's Patreon. YT Premium just gives no extra features for Youtube itself so could not justify paying.
For some reason I doubt that's a common practice with people hellbent on not seeing ads and not paying for the service.
Color me surprised if I'm wrong about that.
I use youtube music everyday as well as downloading videos on my phone to play without wifi. So maybe I do use some premium features, which may make me biased.
I don't subscribe to anyone, but have donated to the authors I like, just as I did to the FOSS projects I use. One blogger even has a site where you can tie your donation to a specific video of his.
And for Youtube Music - RiMusic does just what you described but does not require a Google account or a recurring payment.