See this comment https://lemmy.world/comment/1840042

I think live sports is really the only reason most people pay for TV anymore. The rest of the content is available online on one of the 3,000 streaming platforms.

I think I’ve seen news rumors that they’re testing an ad-free YouTube-only plan that doesn’t include YouTube Music. (edit: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/2/22605455/youtube-premium-lite-pilot-benelux-nordics-experiment-ad-free-subscription)

But the reason you’re seeing $18.99/mo is because of the Apple tax. Go to https://www.youtube.com/premium to see the actual price.

This is one thing that Lemmy REALLY needs to work on. The hobby- and topic-specific communities need to grow. Lemmy is currently dominated by like 5-10 communities, which is fine, but it really falls short of the experience I had on Reddit in that regard.

Just FYI, Tildes is run by one (1) dude with a full time job and a family. From what I read, the guy refers to himself as the God of Tildes or something to that effect which I think tells you everything you need to know about how it’s managed.

Don’t expect it to ever reach the popularity or capacity of Lemmy or Reddit.