I've been having some weird issues over the last few days with not being able to search for things in YouTube when I'm logged in via SmartTube account.
So I decided to try accessing it directly. Well guess what? It looks like YouTube now requires age verification in AU.
Sorry Google... I'm not uploading my passport, drivers licence or govt id to watch your shit. I am however now very incentivized to use Tube archivist and Jellyfin, plus cron job to scrape your shit with gleeful abandon.
EDIT: Rather than removed about it, I did something and made Smarttube work without a google account. If that floats your boat, have at it. It supports direct import of your saved playlists via Google Takeout ZIP file, subscriptions etc without needing a youtube account.
Also, remember the excellent TubeArchivist exists if you want even more control.
The public TV normally has a homepage with news, documentaries, series and movies on demand for free (at least in the EU, use VPN or proxie if country restricted content) eg.RTVE in Spain or ARD/ZDF in Germany, same in Pluto TV which is free also a lot of free content in Rakuten TV. For music there is Bandcamp, https://www.internet-radio.com/, Pixabay (yes, it has also music, above free downloadable (all CC license) or also the FMA. Odysee also is growing a lot in last years with content creators which have emigrated from YT. Search content in your search engine, not in YT.
Certainly if you are looking for cat videos, clickbait shorts or AI slope, then there are really no alternatives to YT.
odysee looks just like youtube now, and not in a good way, I will have to look further into it again though
Only somewhat in the UI, Odysee is OpenSource and monetization for creators work in a different way, no ads, decentralized servers and the LBRY blockchain.