YouTube Music

YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. 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 people
Launch dateNovember 12, 2015 (2015-11-12)
Platform(s)
Availability100 countries; mostly in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, and in parts of Africa and Asia (see full list)[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 The service superseded Google Play Music as Google's main brand for music streaming on December 1, 2020.

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 Nest smart speakers) on April 18, 2019, with feature-limited ad-supported playback available for non-subscribers in only a limited number of countries.[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 initially operated in parallel with Google Play Music, but the latter was shut down in December 2020.[12] Product manager Elias Roman stated in 2018 that they aimed to reach feature parity with Google Play Music before migrating users to it, but as of 2021 this has not been achieved.[13][14][15]

In September 2019, YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music in the core Google Mobile Services bundle distributed on new Android devices.[16][17] In May 2020, an update was released to allow imports from Google Play Music, including purchased music, playlists, cloud libraries, and recommendations.[18] The service still contains regressions over Google Play Music, including no online music store functionality (cannot purchase songs), and a YouTube Music Premium subscription being required in order to cast cloud library speakers to Google Nest smart speakers. Google stated that they planned to address this and other "gaps" in features between the services before Play Music is shut down, however, at the time of the shutdown most feature gaps had not been addressed.[19][20]

A "pre-save" feature for upcoming releases was added in May 2020.[21]

Subscriptions

The free tier plays songs in its music video version where applicable. The premium tier plays official tracks of the album, unless the user searches for the music video version. YouTube Music Premium and YouTube 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
YouTube Music Premium None Unlimited Available Available 256 kbit/s
YouTube Premium None Unlimited Available Available 256 kbit/s

YouTube Music 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
Countries in which YouTube Music is available

The service is available in 100 countries: American Samoa, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, 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, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay and Venezuela.[22][23][24][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. "Info about the Google Play Music phase-out". Google. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  13. "YouTube Music will eventually get Google Play Music's best features, including user uploads". The Verge. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  14. Amadeo, Ron (2020-08-04). "Google Music shutdown starts this month, music deleted in December". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  15. Amadeo, Ron (2020-06-24). "With YouTube Music, Google is holding my speakers for ransom". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  16. Welch, Chris (2019-09-27). "YouTube Music will now come preinstalled on Android devices". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  17. "YouTube Music will be preinstalled on Android 10 and new Android 9 devices". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
  18. Welch, Chris (2020-05-12). "YouTube Music can finally import your library and uploads from Google Play Music". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  19. Amadeo, Ron (2020-08-04). "Google Music shutdown starts this month, music deleted in December". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  20. Amadeo, Ron (2020-06-24). "With YouTube Music, Google is holding my speakers for ransom". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2020-09-11.
  21. Al-Heeti, Abrar. "YouTube Music now lets you pre-save albums". CNET. Retrieved 2020-06-12.
  22. "System requirements & availability". Google Support. Google. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  23. Ivan (14 November 2018). "YouTube Premium and Music Premium expand to seven new countries". GSMArena. Retrieved 17 November 2018.
  24. "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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