By Natalie DeCoste

Consumers on a tight budget because of all the streaming subscriptions they subscribe to are in for a treat as Google’s YouTube is piloting a more affordable option to their YouTube Premium service.

YouTube is now offering “Premium Lite” which will give YouTube users ad-free viewing without all the other features of the more expensive premium service. The lite version will give only the ad-free feature compared to YouTube Premium’s other features like offline downloads and background playback.

The new plan will cost users  €6.99, or $8.32, per month, the same price as the company’s student tier, whereas the normal price for the company’s premium service is €11.99, or $14.26. According to a spokesperson for YouTube, the service is currently be tested in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

The plan will offer the ad-free experience across multiple devices including mobile, desktop and TVs. Also not included in the new service appears to be any of the free incentives parent company Google has sometimes offered including such as Google Stadia.

Those familiar with YouTube’s premium service speculate that the new lite version seems to all boil down to unbundling the music features of YouTube Premium. YouTube Premium has always been bundled with YouTube Music, the two services even debuted at the same event.

The lite version’s exclusion of YouTube Music likely means that Google has likely designed the new service to not trigger additional payments to music companies. Ron Amadeo of ARS Technica speculated that features such as background and offline playback probably each count as “music service features.” The music services features would likely require Google to give music companies more than just the ad revenue from videos. Without having to give music companies a cut, Google can lower the monthly fee to consumers.

For users who are truly out for an ad-free experience, but can go without the rest of YouTube Premium’s offerings, may be tempted by the new lite version. However, consumers should be weary of the offer as it costs around 60 % of the price of a regular YouTube Premium subscription, while only offering around a quarter of its benefits.