Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is moving the goal posts and completely arbitrary. There are many services that are ad supported and have a paid version without the ads. For some reason, free and ad free YouTube seems like a birthright to so many people.
Notably, there's no need to move the goalposts, as they remain unmet; the original premise was > a modest fee for a non-tracking, ad-free, non-enshittified YouTube And YT Premium is [x] modest fee - I could argue that either way (is $14/mo really "modest"?), but let's allow it [ ] non-tracking - not that I'm aware of [~] ad-free - partially; right now YT itself won't add more ads, so you're just left with the ads tha…
-Start your YT video (from iOS app) -Swipe up to have the floating player while it plays. -Swipe down from top center to bring down your notifications bar. The video will automatically pause but you’ll have the large play button right there. -Hit play -while still on the notification bar screen, and while the audio starts playing again: Swipe down from the top right corner to bring up your control center. - now turn off your screen and audio should still play.
This has been working for me for a while. Don’t recall where i first came across it but it’s been a few years now.
I don’t use it often because I have streaming services with higher audio quality but it’s nice to not worry about accidentally tapping the screen while listening to YT. Esp if you wanna keep the phone in your pocket. Also saves battery juice.
Cheers.