• fubo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    185
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    A Google spokesperson told Motherboard in a statement at the time of the unionization that it had “no objection to these Cognizant workers electing to form a union,” but that it would not bargain with them. “We are not a joint employer as we simply do not control their employment terms or working conditions—this matter is between the workers and their employer, Cognizant,” the spokesperson said.

    NLRB seems to disagree. This will be an interesting case, I suspect …

    • plz1@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      181
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      So Google, like Amazon, is trying to play the “they work for a subcontractor that only supports us, so it’s their fault, not ours” card. I really want to see the NLRB smack this pattern down hard and set an example for all the other companies to try to avoid unionization by way of not directly hiring people.

      • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        83
        ·
        1 year ago

        NLRB changed their criteria for what is considered co-employment last month, widely broadening the definitions used to determine this status. Essentially, if a company has significant control (not just exclusive control) over any of a worker’s employment status or conditions, then they are considered a co-employer now. It used to be that a company needed exclusive or overriding control over another company’s employees to be considered a co-employer.

        I’m certain we are going to see more lawsuits and legal challenges from employees because of this. I’m pretty certain there already are lawsuits from some other Google contractors over this exact thing; they are providing a case that Google is their co-employer due to the control they have over every aspect of their work.

        • plz1@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          31
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s excellent news, especially for the employees of Amazon subcontractors handling warehouse and delivery operations.

      • The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Doesn’t appear so, seems Google is okay with them unionizing. According to a ruling from a while back Google is required to bargain with the union just as much as cognizant is but it appears cognizant is the one which is unwilling to bargain with the workers. Google’s track record with workers leads me to believe that they have no issue with workers unionizing.

        • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          What planet are you living on? Did you read the article? Or even the headline? Google is constantly union busting, and this article explicitly states that Google is refusing to bargain with the bargaining unit, despite court rulings that they are required to.

          The only reason why they say they dont care about these people unionizing is because they fully intend on ignoring the union. They believe they can appeal the decision that they are required to bargain and win.

          • The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah I read this article and other sources on the subject that give more details. Google has said they support them organizing but it’s not up to them. As far as I’m aware Google is the only tech giant that has an employee workers union

            • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              Well you absolutely know wrong lmao the Alphabet Workers Union is not recognized by NLRB, and Amazon’s Workers Union is. Apple also has some unionization, as do several video game developers and support companies.

              Google has said they support them unionizing because they think it will not affect them at all. Maybe go look into the handful of people who have attempted to formally unionize at Google and see how they have all been fired. Then try and tell me Google supports unionization.

              • The_Mixer_Dude@lemmus.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                Amazon Warehouse and delivery drivers unionizing is not similar to the situation that the YouTube Music workers are dealing with and aren’t the same as what the Alphabet union is but I’m glad you feel like undermining alphabet users achieving what they have but you are fully into recognizing two Apple retail stores barely passing and neglecting to mention their constant Union busting and propaganda. Thanks for supporting workers!

                • CheezyWeezle@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Two things: for one, I work at Google and am part of the AWU, so fuck you.

                  And for two, please explain exactly how amazon unionization is so fundamentally different from AWU unionization? Is it because AWU seeks to represent workers from every contractor/vendor alongside actual full time Googlers? Or what?

    • gibmiser@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      71
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Megacorps can get fucked. Pay your employees well or deal with the consequences.

    • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I want to, but I can’t shake off the feeling that Google does have a point here: it’s like requiring Amazon to bargain with DHL’s drivers. It’s kind of not their issue: they pay DHL for their services and DHL commissions their employees to do particular tasks.

      • Blooper@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, I think that’s the reasonable argument Google’s lawyers and PR will use - but your example kind of demonstrates why that argument falls flat. The service DHL is providing to Amazon is logistics and shipping. This is an established, well-regulated industry all its own.

        Meanwhile, at Google, this contractor’s services are listed in the article:

        ensuring music content is available and approved for YouTube Music’s 80 million subscribers worldwide

        That sounds an awful lot like running the service to me. These employees perform key YouTube-specific work on an ongoing basis. For all intents and purposes, they work for Google, in Google’s offices, on Google’s systems, but their paycheck comes from Cognizant. The services being rendered aren’t on the level of “you make the widget and we’ll transport it to stores around the country because we’re a shipping company”. This is more like “we employ people for you, but provide a flimsy air gap so you don’t have to treat them like actual employees. We sell legally plausible deniability as a service.”

        • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          ensuring music content is available and approved for YouTube Music’s 80 million subscribers worldwide

          this could really mean anything from running the entire service to merely scraping lyrics. and since it’s a group of 49 people, I wanna say it’s probably something along the lines of the latter. but yeah, your point in general stands.

          • Blooper@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 year ago

            Absolutely fair. But as one of those IT dudes who used to be a contractor but now work for the same megacorp I was contracting for - I wouldn’t bet on it being super menial stuff. I love my job and my employer, but it’s very well understood that the agencies are essentially a cover for some fairly serious labor law violations.

        • SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, apparently working as a contractor apparently involves a middleman, a ‘pimp’, if you will, that brings nothing to the contractor, the person doing the labour, but instead just serves to make it easy for the company in need of services to skirt labor laws. Even unionized, what are you going to do, strike against the one with which you do the actual contracting by not attending the monthly check-ins with PimpCo and refusing to submit your timesheets?

          I wonder, however, shouldn’t not doing the work cause a breach of contract between the company requesting the service and the middleman and thus cost the middleman some valuable business?

          • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Your last paragraph is the actual value of a unionized strike as a subcontractor.
            If your employees strike, you can’t fulfill your business obligations, and so you get pressured by the people you have a contract with.

            The activity that skirts labor law is individual contractors, who are often indistinguishable from employees except for tax status and are much more often taken advantage of.

            A contracting company is just a company agreeing to do business with another, and doing so via it’s employees. It’s basically identical to a auto parts manufacturer selling parts to a car company. A Ford parts supplier is largely just a middleman for managing the production of parts to keep Ford from having to manage that process itself. Ford can’t renegotiate those employees contracts, even though their work is directly to a spec dictated by Ford.

    • Aux@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Google will simply find a different contractor company. Problem solved.

  • negativeyoda@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    129
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m very much pro-union, but meanwhile artists and creators who made that content in the first place are getting fucked by everyone

    • ivanafterall@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      79
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      A YouTube creators’ strike isn’t an impossible notion. It’d just have to be led by a couple of big names, like a Mr. Beast type.

      • 3laws@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        51
        ·
        1 year ago

        Mr Beast is the result of the trendy gen Z libertarian millionaire pipeline. He will never unionize nor support strikes.

        • JackbyDev@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          27
          ·
          1 year ago

          There’s been enough creators that have had enough problems with YouTube that maybe something could happen. I’m not putting money on it or anything but it wouldn’t be that crazy.

        • psud@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          They could argue for

          • a greater share of the value
          • more certainty about being allowed to stay on the platform

          Pretty much like anyone’s top two asks. More money, more security.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          arrow-down
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          No, it is not all upside. What has more value. Content people want to watch somehow. Or an empty “platform” that slurps up most of the gains.

          I’m not saying there is no value inherent to platform’s. Merely pointing out the disingenuous nature of that argument.

            • Eldritch@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              6
              arrow-down
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              An empty platform has little value. Hundreds have gotten shut down for this very reason.

              Content by and large makes the platform. Not the other way round. Yet the platform soaks up the lions share of the benefit. Leaving most who aren’t whales to see nothing at all. This is the problem google is very complicit with. I’m all for them making enough to sustain the service. I just think they owe far more than they are giving, to the content that made them.

              Nebula is great. And is trundling along just fine. It could use some more promotion and love sure. But it’s goals aren’t the same as a behemoth like Google’s. Who’s talents aren’t in creating content, but promoting it.

                • Eldritch@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Creators would exist without the platform. They always have. But the platform definitely does bring value. The problem is that for a while now, greedy corporations have slowly been pushing the balance so that they received most of the benefit of everyone else’s work. It’s an overarching problem of capitalism that we need to deal with. But have been putting off for 50 to 60 years.

        • pavnilschanda@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Going with what is happening in the SAG/AFTRA strike, perhaps the big names shouldn’t join the strike because they would come across as entitled, but they are more than welcome to donate towards the strike.

    • Eldritch@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      Artists, techies, and socialists need to come together. To build a platform focused on sustainability ultimately. Devoid of profit for the sake of profit. And more focused on meeting the needs of their members. No overpriced CEO or board of directors. Or layers of redundant management. Once the service costs are covered. Anything after that could be split somewhat proportionally within strict limits.

        • Eldritch@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          A lot of the basic pieces are in place. Torrenting/peer tube for distribution. Modern day royalty free codecs. Realistically the two biggest hurdles are how to monetize responsibly, and bringing people in. It’s something that in one shape or form will always require some small donation of time and resources. And it’s easier to convince someone to join a Ponzi scheme telling them you will make them wealthy. Than it is to get someone to join guaranteeing that you’ll never make them wealthy but you will try to make them secure in their lives.

    • foggy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      This is a good thread and good comment to throw this up on:

      https://youtu.be/PJSTFzhs1O4?si=3SalhKn7wN6dgUpP

      Benn Jordan, perhaps better known as “The Flashbulb” as an EDM artist, has an excellent YouTube channel. This video dives into some details on how we could get artists paid, and stop getting our art jerked around by corporations. For less than we pay to not get free healthcare healthcare, you could have access to all copyright content, ad free, and artists would be better compensated.

      It’s an idea worth spreading.

    • ToucheGoodSir@lemy.lol
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Anyone able to chime in on fileshare or w/e the crypto is that gives artists a cut per play? Has been a while since I’ve heard of it.

  • ilex@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    113
    ·
    1 year ago

    The article became increasingly redundant as it continued. The crux seems to be Google isn’t their employer. These workers work for a subcontractor, Cognizant. Cognizant performs services for YouTube Music.

    Cognizant is refusing to bargain citing the ongoing relevant litigation* between its employees and Google.

    • I’m not sure what the legal process is called for union claims.

    Some of the employees are striking for 1 day.

    • hobovision@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      71
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s redundant because there’s basically a circular argument that G and C are using to not respond to the workers. Workers want to C negotiate with G on the terms of their work with G but C says they can’t because they’re just contracting with G. Then G says the workers can’t negotiate with G because they work for C. Both companies point the finger at the other as to why they can’t help and just give nothing back to the workers.

      • newDayRocks@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        1 year ago

        The article is confusing but it sounds like the union wants both C and G at the table, but C and G both agree that C should be the employer and G doesn’t need to join the talks. So C is saying, if you really want G to join, you’ll have to wait until the appeals are finished.

        I’m guessing the union doesn’t want to negotiate with C, have C go to G with the terms and G refuse and just causing endless delays in a game of telephone bargaining.

      • Waltzy@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Seems fairly obvious that they need to negotiate with their direct employer.

    • Aurix@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      One idea of subcontractors is to split and delegate societal responsibility to others to appear to be clean. Surely the law is focused on Cognizant here, but the responsibility lies fully on Google, including their ability to intervene.

  • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    104
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    What’s to stop every single corporation from leveraging third party contractor companies just to escape union bargaining? Cognizant seems like a company that basically exists for this reason. Both Amazon and Google play this game and it’s infuriating.

    • Muddybulldog@mylemmy.win
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      70
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Nothing. It’s one of the alluring aspects of using third-parties. You pay a flat fee, people do work. You avoid all the overhead of HR, benefits, workers compensation and unemployment insurance. If you want someone gone there’s no process, you simply tell the third party that Joe doesn’t need to come back to work, ever, and you’re done.

      Amazon and Google are not alone in this practice, nor is it exclusive to Fortune 500 companies.

      • Wrench@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        1 year ago

        I work as a contractor dev for fortune 500s. It’s wide spread. Handful of full timers, padded with contractors.

        Brain drain is a real problem, but it also means there’s a culture of FTE being willing to jump through corporate hoops and on call hours, because they want to keep the FTE position instead of finding a new job every 1.5 years (in California where there are max contract lengths)

      • snooggums@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Worst case you pay out what is left on the contract, but since you drove costs down it is cheaper than firing a regular worker!

      • ToucheGoodSir@lemy.lol
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        Hopefully people turn out in 2024 and stop us going down the 1930s Germany route… my mother recently moved to Pennsylvania from a deep red state, and was saying that due to Bidens “corruption”, she didnt think she would vote in 2024. Upon further questioning, my hyper conservative fundemantalist Christian uncle had been sending her news.

        Hope my arguments convinced her otherwise, she detests Trump & the Republicans. Her vote DOES matter now. Have her set up with a variety of news websites & Firefox/ublock origin etc, and not “Townhall” garbage.

        • prole@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Depending on where in PA, it might be just as red as where she came from. If she’s not near Pittsburgh, or basically bordering NJ, then she’s probably in good ol Pennsyltucky.

          That state really should be broken into three states, it’s way too large and it’s already divided geographically.

        • slurpeesoforion@startrek.website
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s a shame that calling Uncle Tommy out for being the dumb ass he’s always been is so frowned upon, even if it’s to avoid fascism.

    • prole@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is what laws and regulations are for. If we had a functioning government…

    • drathvedro@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Nothing, and they do just that. No labor laws apply to contractors and it’s practically the only way some of them can earn a decent wage, so striking is futile - they’ll just switch to other contractors.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well, now you have contract bargaining with your contracting company, and those companies aren’t immune from their workers becoming disgruntled and unionizing.

      • Sendbeer@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        37
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, if you do a fair amount of YouTube and want to support the creators without queuing up a bunch of ads it’s a pretty good deal.

    • Nath@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      54
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      $10 a month to have basically every song ever and never have to worry about YouTube ads. Yes, I use it.

      • ramirezmike@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        37
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        hah, this was me with Grooveshark.

        and then I lost everything when it shut down.

        and then me again with Google play music. “upload your music, we’ll keep it for you”

        and then I lost everything when it shut down.

        “oh it’s ok, you can just use [new service], it’s better anyway”

        it just isn’t the same, you lose stuff everytime. I don’t think it’s worth it.

        • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          29
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          and then me again with Google play music. “upload your music, we’ll keep it for you”

          and then I lost everything when it shut down.

          There was a long period where you could transfer your GPM uploads to YTM.

          It worked perfectly for me - all my previously uploaded music is in my Library under “Uploads”.

          • 9point6@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            You can still upload up to 100,000 tracks, I believe.

            Though I’ve not personally tried to do a bulk upload since before it changed from GPM, so I don’t know if there’s still library import tools available to help with that

              • ramirezmike@programming.dev
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                I had albums with missing songs, a few albums wouldn’t transfer. I had versions of songs that were different.

                I didn’t lose everything but there was enough that I cared about that I no longer want to trust a system where I don’t actually own the music

          • ramirezmike@programming.dev
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            12
            ·
            1 year ago

            this hit me hard on multiple levels. There was a lot of live performances and remixes on Grooveshark that just don’t exist anymore.

            But, I also lived where they were headquartered. They had started a “Grooveshark university” for local programmers to learn the ropes and it was really cool. I was self-taught but learned a lot from that experience. Such a shame

            • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              I actually met employees from the company at a conference years ago and knew people that worked there off and on. It was a pretty toxic environment and the management was basically a frat party. The office had an in-house chef for a while before they had to tighten the purse strings due to the multitude of lawsuits they were getting hit with (most of which I learned came from Sony BMG). Their team of lawyers basically worked around the clock. They also underpaid devs but had an array of talent from every level that allowed people to cut their teeth and work on some cool UI.

              I used to have a ton of stuff on Grooveshark and had stuff shared to me (and vice versa) from others. It was a cool UI even if it was a little clunky at times. Great place to find obscure stuff.

        • Elderos@lemmings.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          There’s apps to sync your stuff when you move to another platform. It won’t be perfectand certain features on certain apps are paywalled, but you should get a fairly acceptable copy of your content after using a service like this.

          • orca@orcas.enjoying.yachts
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            I used a tool that synced my Spotify playlists to Apple Music. It worked surprisingly well. I signed up the one time, moved everything over, and then made sure to cancel the service.

        • jeanofthedead@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          There are export options for many music subscription services now, as well as apps like TuneMyMusic, Playlisty, etc. which can transfer your library and services between services.

      • lobut@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I also get to Download videos for my flights or commute. I’m also in a big house. Family plan for 5 of us is ridiculous value to me.

      • ilex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Your mileage may vary coming up in December. The $10 crew in the US will see a 40% increase at or near the end of the year. Grandfathering is going away.

        This brings the cost of Google’s video/music service to match Amazon’s video/music service. Are those services of the same quality?

        Soundcloud ($10) Is the real competitor to YT-Music in my book. Both benefit from user-generated and user-uploaded content. While there is crossover, I have found more tracks on Soundcloud that aren’t on YT than the other way around.

        • Nath@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          If by “savvy”, you mean flubbing your location to somewhere in the developing world where that’s the price point, I refuse to do that. I have no issue pretending to be in say, Germany and taking up a 75% off deal. But I won’t put myself somewhere where the regular $10-$15 price point is genuinely out of range of the locals.

          If too many people fake their location to these places, the Googles and Steams of the world will stop giving those nations lower prices. I won’t have my own selfishness take something away from thousands of people.

    • 𝚝𝚛𝚔@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      33
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      YouTube Music is a much better option than Spotify, in my opinion.

      On top of the music you get ad-free YouTube.

      I also upload any music I buy via Bandcamp or physical CD so I can listen to it anywhere. No one else offers that as far as I know.

      Just make sure you use the unofficial YouTube Music desktop app (http://ytmdesktop.app/) if you’re on a PC because using it in a browser sucks.

      • jcit878@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        in theory i agree, but i could not stand the UI when i tried youtube premium, compared to spotify which is just seamless

        • whereisk@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Not sure if you were referring to YT Music by YT Premium. But YT Music is a different interface specifically for music.

          • jcit878@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            5
            ·
            1 year ago

            I think its the same thing here, you pay for premium it gives you access to YT music

            • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              they are talking about User Interface, it’s different for YouTube (the one for video) and YouTube Music (the one for music). Premium subscription can be shared between the two services, that’s correct

        • asudox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Try InnerTune or ViMusic. They’re based on YouTube Music. Both can be found in F-Droid

    • ShortFuse@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      6 family members for $15 a month and no YouTube ads. Also that money was basically paid for by Google Rewards. The Web App is good too. I don’t have to deal with CEF/Electron or any install really.

      • Kethal@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        The Web site says $24 for 5 members. Is it different per location? How do you pay less?

        • ShortFuse@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yeah, sorry that was bumped up recently though I was grandfathered for a long while. But that was the impetus for getting it back when it was just GPM.

          It’s 6 actually (1+ 5 other members). My uncle basically paid for half of it.

          It’s $22.99 for me now which includes YouTube Premium. Just YouTube Music (for 6) is $16.99. Individual $10.99 and Student $5.49.

          • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 year ago

            also pricing varies heavily by region. Family subscription is $6 and student is $2.50 where I live (Poland). But we also got 70% price cut when LJ introduced regional pricing for Sync ad-free because we are poor in general as an economy

    • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 year ago

      I don’t use YouTube Music but I love using YouTube for my music. Tons of songs on there that just aren’t on either YouTube music or other services like Spotify.

      • Xey@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        You can listen to just the music that’s on YouTube via YouTube music. That’s one of the main reasons why I’m using YouTube music.

        • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah. You can search for and add any YouTube video to a playlist for YMusic. I do this all the time with various Indies, remixes, and foreign artists that are hard to find otherwise.

        • JiraiyaIsNoLyah@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          Yeah, I switced to YouTube music when Google Play music went away because that’s where I stored all of my music at. But The category is massive, especially for niche songs and you can choose to watch the video or just listen to the song, Also with a lot of the songs you can look at the lyrics in real time while the music’s playing and that’s kind of nice. Also ad free YT is nice.

        • WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Did they change it? The last time I tried it said a bunch of my songs weren’t available on YouTube music and I couldn’t use it cause of that.

    • Dawn@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      1 year ago

      For me, every other music app is missing alot of the songs I want to listen to (Cover songs, and remixes are the big 2) and they are only available on yt music.

      • jayandp@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Same + foreign artists. Lots of J-Rock artists that are hard to find on Western music services, let alone other countries. Only stuff like K-Pop I can find consistently on Western music services just because of how in demand it is.

      • ilex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Soundcloud might be an alternative worth looking into. For the music I tend to search for, I find I’m more likely to find it on Soundcloud, and it can take years to migrate from SC to YTM.

        While YTM and SC were both $10, putting up with the worse platform was a reasonable price for no YT ads. Now that the grandfathering is ending and the price is jumping to $14, for US folks, I’m feeling the pressure to migrate.

          • ilex@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Well, its most of the normal music and then a bunch of pirated music. It’s like YT music but with a better “Start Radio” button.

    • rhsJack@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Totally. I was already in the ecosystem so it was only natural I go to Music when it was available. Is it better than Spotify? Shrug. Just different.

      • ilex@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        Spotify has invested significant $$ in upgrading their platform.

        YTM lets you access user-uploaded content. With that comes more in the way of remixes and Indy artists. The platform itself is pretty dogshit, though.

    • Companion1666@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      YouTube Premium is so cheap, man. ₱159 (close to $3) per month. I gave up and exported my Spotify data for YouTube.

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Revanced, yeah. Still sucks when you’re looking for an album and all of the songs are from the official channel except for one that some schlub uploaded which repeats the previous track as an intro, has the levels maxed across all channels and sounds like it was recorded with a USB lapel mic in a paper bag

    • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I do because I pay next to nothing for a family membership, I can access YouTube covers and music normally unaccessible in my region (yeah, that happens!) and it works with Android Auto which my father needs (otherwise I would simply use Revanced). Also could never learn Spotify, it’s so counter-intuitive to me

    • 👁️👄👁️@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I just don’t pay for it lmao. Apps like InnerTune are great, rips them as mp3s and can use YouTube music radio system and lyrics.

    • Fisch@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      A lot of FOSS music streaming apps (like ViMusic) use YT Music because you can access it for free. Doesn’t make them any tho.

    • dylanTheDeveloper@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Ever since Google destroyed Google Music i switched to Spotifly because at the time YouTube music couldn’t tell the difference between memes and music plus alot of my playlist was unavailable

    • Oaksey@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      1 year ago

      YTM: you have a vague hint of network reception, just wait for me to fail loading what I want to load before I consider letting you play your downloaded music.

    • figaro@lemdro.id
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Could you explain why you don’t like it?

      I actually love the fact that all of the underground, unknown, not officially published music I’ve liked on YouTube is there with all my other music, including the stuff I’ve uploaded myself.

      • legion@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Put a large collection of albums into your “Library”.

        Now try to pull up a list of a single artist’s albums within your Library.

        The “Library” management is so remedial that it’s basically a joke. It can’t measure up to iTunes from 20 years ago. It’s completely unusable for a serious music collection.

        It may be fine for people that just listen to singles and playlists, but every other music service can do that too, while also offering complete functionality elsewhere.

        YouTube Music is a half-baked, half-complete product. It’s inexplicable that it exists when they literally just needed to do nothing but rebrand Google Play Music.

        • KidsTryThisAtHome@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I completely agree, I miss gpm so much. There’s a lot wrong with it, especially if you have a big collection like you said, but another incredibly annoying thing is the radio for songs, bands, and even genres always seem to come back to the same stuff. I don’t find new music on ytm like I did in gpm

  • Willard Herman@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    66
    arrow-down
    15
    ·
    1 year ago

    Time to stop using Gmail and YouTube. I had already avoided go░gle search for months now.

    Over the last three or four months I had deleted all my FaceBook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram accounts. And this made me want to avoid go░gle search.

    • 601error@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Been using DuckDuckGo for a month or two. It’s mostly good enough for me.

        • madprocessor@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 year ago

          DDG is my default and a very good engine, however, it does struggle with search results in my native language.

        • asudox@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          You should. It uses Bing for its searches. So you are censored to oblivion.

          • dangblingus@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            What’s being censored? You have control over safesearch, and searching phrases verbatim returns all sites where that phrase exists.

          • 601error@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Gonna need to see a legit source on that that doesn’t read like right-wing nutjobbery or Russian botnik drivel.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      DuckDuckGo is fine for some things, but if you want to do a search with a specific phrase in quotes, it doesn’t recognize it. I hate having to go back to Google for some searches, but sometimes it’s just better. I wish it wasn’t, but it is.

      DuckDuckGo’s image search also leaves a lot to be desired.

      • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I tried switching to DDG and then Qwant and sadly they both suck for some searches. For example neither could successfully find anything more specific than the home page on my country’s government websites. Perhaps Bing, but, again, it’s Microsoft?

      • PurplePropagule@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        I use duckduckgo but just throw in the google bang if I need specific functionality. Usually DDG is fine for me usually but it’s convenient to be able to switch quickly.

      • dangblingus@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        You don’t need to do the quote thing in DDG. You can literally just search the quote, and maybe the domain it was hosted on. You will find what you’re looking for. DDG even has business profile widgets like google search does. I don’t even miss google search at all.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t think you understand what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a search phrase that is partially in quotes for an exact match and partially not for an inexact match. Google handles that, DDG does not.

        • averyfalken@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Oh most definitely. I’m still waiting for a desktop app on Linux for drive but I pay them abually and totally worth it for what I pay.

          They do have free email options for those who prefer

          • lastweakness@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Well, they aren’t even replying to whether the community-developed rclone backend breaks TOS, so don’t expect much… but yeah, i pay for Proton and they’re good for what they are.

          • Polar@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            Oh sweet summer child, you’ll be waiting a while. Pull up a chair. Let me tell you a story about how I’ve been waiting years, with an S, for the Android app remake that they keep pushing back.

            At least iOS users get to enjoy it…

    • dangblingus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 year ago

      Start your own email server!! Download all of your favorite channels! Sub to your fav youtubers patreons! If you need music, use Spotify until you amass a collection of digital/physical music! Use FireFox! Google does not need to have any grip on our digital lifestyles.

  • moriarty@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    51
    ·
    1 year ago

    A Cognizant spokesperson told Motherboard in an email, “We have received the Alphabet Workers Union’s request for a Cognizant bargaining representative. The request put forward was for both Cognizant and Google to bargain. While we respect our associates’ rights to unionize, we firmly believe Cognizant is the sole employer of our associates. While the joint employer ruling remains unresolved, we cannot bargain at this time.”

    “Google refuses to just admit that they are our employer, and then Cognizant is just using Google’s legal appeals as a scapegoat,” Marschner said. “That, honestly, is exactly why we filed for joint employer status in the first place. We knew that if we just tried to engage in collective bargaining with Cognizant, that’s exactly what they would do.”

    wut

    • yeather@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      Google has a shell company, Cognizant, that hires and subcontracts people to Google. When the workers unionize, they’re unionizing against cognizant, not Google. The workers are trying to say otherwise, will more than likely need a court case to sort it out.

      • 0110010001100010@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        36
        ·
        1 year ago

        Cognizant is very much NOT a Google shell company, they are a third-party contractor with business in healthcare, tech, energy, insurance, education, etc.

        • yeather@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          My bad, I was thinking of Amazon and their delivery “companies”

      • seiryth@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        1 year ago

        This isn’t right. Cognizant are a well known systems integrator. In Australia alone recently they bought out some of the best local SIs just to get presence - contino and Servian, with a rumoured third (versent) on the way…

        Theyre a body shop looking to grow their born in the cloud generstion of engineers.

  • Shadywack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    I get the technicality of all this, but this could be a watershed moment. Businesses like to contract people out to move liability and cut corners in their obligations to the workers. The bottom line is that its cheaper and easier to fire whatever contractors you don’t like for any reason, and artificially push their salaries/wages down.

    Look at Fedex Ground, Amazon drivers, etc. Google is now firmly in the role of the bad guy here, with Sundar Pichai making 220+ million dollars with much of it on the backs of layoffs and ethnically bankrupt business practices. I honestly think the ramifications of this in a positive way for the workers is tantamount to the formation of the UAW itself with their sitting strikes. They sat at the machines and forcibly halted production.

    That needs to happen here, and all you scabs, fuck you. You can just piss off.

  • greavous@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I can’t believe I’m saying it but but I’m with Google here. They are sub-cons so negotiation would surely go through their employer who is cognizant. I’m a sub-contractor, I’m not gonna go to the client and ask for a raise, I’m gonna go to my employer. Maybe it’s different in different regions but if I asked the client for a raise in the uk they would probably just laugh at me.

    • ilikekeyboards@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Outsourcing in Europe is heavily scrutinised and regulated due to companies kept choosing to depend on third party agencies do they don’t have to do with strikes and unions.

    • Betazed@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah thinking about it more, you’re definitely right. I’ve only ever been a W-2 employee (United States) so I know nothing about this kind of thing. If they are employees of another company, they should bargain with them instead, and force them (via strike if required) to negotiate a new contract with Google. I’m very pro worker and support striking to get results but you have to make sure you’re targeting the right business to get the results you want.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        You missed the plot. They found a loophole and are probably conspiring to halt the Union. One company says they have to wait for the other to negotiate, the other company says they won’t negotiate because they are not their employees. The whole process enters into a permanent delay, workers get fucked by both companies for months. This is a tale as old as unions have existed. It’s one of the reasons why in most sane countries, unrestricted outsourcing is not allowed and outsourcing in general is heavily regulated. It’s one of the most common tools companies use to abuse workers and avoid responsibilities.

        • njordomir@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          And in that time, they’ll set up a new shit call center under new shit management under a new shitty partner/reseller/vendor and just close that first contract down entirely.

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      You are 100% correct, so it is especially funny seeing that almost 1/4 of the people downvoted you for no good reason. Holy fuck this site has a huge percentage of utterly clueless Lemmings.

  • expatriado@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    arrow-down
    6
    ·
    1 year ago

    could they put bring the dislike count back on the demands? and make so video posters can’t delete comments, so we can call bullshit when needed? that would be nice

    • BigDaddySlim@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      ·
      1 year ago

      No they have bigger priorities, like retroactively demonitizing and removing videos that used to be just fine under the new ruse of “making everything more kid friendly” when we all know it’s to make it more advertiser friendly

      • Brudder Aaron@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        ·
        1 year ago

        If only there were an app… suited for kids that google could use… One that would give them the limitations and safety they want from people and not ruin the whole site while still chasing those kid viewers.

        If only such a thing existed.

    • Neve8028@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      make so video posters can’t delete comments

      That would be a complete trainwreck. There are already loads of spam accounts but it would be so much worse if creators couldn’t filter them out.