YouTube has confirmed that they are removing background playback on videos unless... you pay for YouTube Premium. What a strange feature to paywall...

@DeepHumor Charging for background playback is a blatant money grab. It’s about extracting more from users who already pay for a service that should be standard. This monopoly BS needs to stop. People shouldn’t be forced to pay just to listen in the background.

@DevOffScript @DeepHumor What are they paying? This is for non-premium customers. Do you mean watching ads?

@DevOffScript @DeepHumor Also they could save money, by using a different resolution in the small window playback, or stream no video when fully in the background. Both of those will reduce the bandwidth and thus their cost, compared to a full screen video stream in full resolution.