When I tried YouTube’s Premium service, I realized what a mess the regular version is. Ads block the videos you actually want to watch, and stop and start seemingly at random. All this nonsense goes away immediately when you sign up for Premium, formerly called YouTube Red. Finally, YouTube behaves like a regular streaming service.

For $12 a month, YouTube Premium is ad-free and also comes with a host of upgrades, including the ability to play videos in the background, downloadable content, and access to a huge library of music and video content. I thought it was a great deal, but sometimes overwhelming and a bit redundant if you’re already subscribed to other streaming services.

One feature that comes with Premium that seems like a minor upgrade but really isn’t is the ability to play videos in the background. Often times I’ll be watching a video and want to switch to email or word processing, but the video just… stops. This is unacceptable in 2020 and that’s all fixed with Premium.

But do upgrades like this justify Premium’s $12-a-month price tag? It seems like a small enough price to pay, less than the cost of a single movie ticket back when that was a thing. But as the coronavirus pandemic continues, my credit card bill is piling up with streaming charges. HBO, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix: the list grows with every alarming headline I need to escape from. Streaming subscriptions are like mice eating cheese. Each bite seems small, but when you wake up one morning, all the cheese is gone.