YouTube Music

YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by YouTube; it provides a tailored interface for the service oriented towards music streaming, allowing users to browse through songs and music videos on YouTube based on genres, playlists, and recommendations.

YouTube Music
Screenshot of YouTube Music on the web
DeveloperYouTube
Key PeopleSusan Wojcicki (YouTube CEO)
T. Jay Fowler (Director of product, Music)
Lyor Cohen (YouTube Global Head of Music)
Launch dateNovember 12, 2015 (2015-11-12)
Platform(s)
Availability95 countries; mostly in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, and in parts of Africa and Asia.[1][2][3][4]
Websitemusic.youtube.com

The service also offers a premium tier, which enables ad-free playback, audio-only background playback, and downloading songs for offline playback. These subscription benefits are also offered to subscribers of Google Play Music and YouTube Premium. The service will eventually supplant Google Play Music as Google's main brand for music streaming and purchase.

History

The YouTube Music app was unveiled in October 2015 and released the following month; its release came alongside the unveiling of YouTube Red, a larger subscription service that covers the entirety of the YouTube platform, including the Music app. Although redundant to Google's existing Google Play Music All Access subscription service, the app is designed for users who primarily consume music through YouTube.[5][6]

On May 17, 2018, YouTube announced a new version of the YouTube Music service, including a web-based desktop player and redesigned mobile app, more dynamic recommendations based on various factors, and use of Google artificial intelligence technology to search songs based on lyrics and descriptions. In addition, YouTube Music became a separate subscription service (positioned as a more direct competitor to Apple Music and Spotify), offering ad-free and background/audio-only streaming, and downloading for offline playback, for music content on YouTube. The service's benefits will continue to be available as part of the existing YouTube Premium (formerly YouTube Red) service, and to Google Play Music All Access subscribers. The YouTube Music subscription is priced in line with its competitors at US$9.99 per-month; the price of YouTube Premium was concurrently increased to $11.99 for new subscribers.[7][8]

In 2018, YouTube Music reached multiple sponsorship agreements with Dick Clark Productions to serve as a partner for its television specials Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and the American Music Awards.[9][10]

YouTube Music became available on Google Assistant smart speakers (including Google Home) on April 18, 2019, with feature-limited ad-supported playback available for non-subscribers.[11]

Features

The availability of music includes many of the releases from mainstream artists and extends to any video categorized as music on the YouTube service.

YouTube Music will initially operate in parallel with Google Play Music, but product manager Elias Roman stated that Google Play Music users will eventually be migrated to the app after it reaches feature parity with Google Play Music (including the addition of features such as music purchases and a cloud-based library for user-provided music). YouTube Music product manager T. Jay Fowler stated that collections, playlists and preferences would be migrated.[12]

Beginning in September 2019, Google Play Music is replaced by YouTube Music in the core Google mobile services bundle distributed on new Android devices.[13][14] In May 2020, an update was released to allow imports from Google Play Music, including purchased music, playlists, cloud libraries, and recommendations.[15]

On May 25, 2020, YouTube Music lets users pre-save albums before they are released.[16]

Subscriptions

The free tier usually plays songs in its versions of music video where applicable. The premium tier plays official tracks of the album, unless the user searches for the music video version. YouTube Music Premium subscribers are able to switch to an audio-only mode that can play in the background while the application is not in use. The free tier does not allow audio-only mode with background playback as it displays video advertisements.[6]

Subscription Ads Skipping and Scrubbing Offline Mode Background playback Audio quality
Free Ad-Supported Unlimited YouTube Go only Unavailable 128 kbit/s
Premium None Unlimited Available Available 256 kbit/s
YouTube Premium None Unlimited Available Available 256 kbit/s

The Premium and YouTube Premium plans are available in individual and family variants. A family plan allows up to six family members from the same household to access plan features. Eligible students can obtain a discount on an individual plan.

Geographic availability

The service is available in 95 countries: American Samoa, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Moldova, Malta, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Thailand, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Venezuela.[17][18][19][4]

See also

References
  1. Deahl, Dani (June 18, 2018). "YouTube Music and YouTube Premium officially launch in US, Canada, UK, and other countries". The Verge. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  2. Gao, Richard (June 18, 2018). "YouTube Premium and Music launch today in 17 countries, including Canada and 11 European countries". Android Police. Retrieved June 18, 2018.
  3. "Paid memberships available locations - YouTube Help". support.google.com. Retrieved 2019-07-17.
  4. https://m.gsmarena.com/youtube_premium_and_music_now_available_in_14_more_countries_-news-43692.php
  5. "Exclusive: An inside look at the new ad-free YouTube Red". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  6. "YouTube Music isn't perfect, but it's still heaven for music nerds". Engadget. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
  7. "New YouTube Music Premium costs $9.99 monthly, add $2 to get all Red perks". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2018-05-18.
  8. "Google announces YouTube Music and YouTube Premium". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-05-17.
  9. Spangler, Todd (2018-08-22). "YouTube Music Signs American Music Awards Two-Year Title Sponsorship Deal". Variety. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  10. Hayes, Dade (2018-11-13). "YouTube Music And Dick Clark Productions Extend Partnership For 'New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest'". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
  11. "YouTube Music is now free with ads on Google Home devices". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
  12. "YouTube Music will eventually get Google Play Music's best features, including user uploads". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  13. Welch, Chris (2019-09-27). "YouTube Music will now come preinstalled on Android devices". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  14. "YouTube Music will be preinstalled on Android 10 and new Android 9 devices". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  15. Welch, Chris (2020-05-12). "YouTube Music can finally import your library and uploads from Google Play Music". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  16. Al-Heeti, Abrar. "YouTube Music now lets you pre-save albums". CNET. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  17. "System requirements & availability". Google Support. Google. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  18. Ivan (14 November 2018). "YouTube Premium and Music Premium expand to seven new countries". GSMArena. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  19. "YouTube Premium and Music expand to 8 new countries in the Middle East". Android Central. 2019-09-11. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
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