YouTube today unveiled YouTube Music, a streaming music service and app designed to compete with existing streaming music offerings like Apple Music and Spotify. YouTube Music is part of YouTube Red, the ad-free subscription service YouTube announced last month.
The new YouTube Music app is available for both iOS and Android devices, bringing the YouTube Music service to a wide range of smartphones and tablets. YouTube Music, which offers both songs and accompanying music videos, includes both an ad-supported free tier and a paid ad-free version that's tied to a user's YouTube Red subscription. YouTube Red costs $9.99 per month (or $12.99 in the iOS app to account for Apple's 30 percent cut), but users can sign up for a free14-day YouTube Music trial when downloading the app.
Paying for YouTube Music via YouTube Red allows listeners to and stream songs on-demand, create playlists, and listen without ads. Music can also be saved and listened to offline. Without a subscription, users can still listen to songs and watch videos, but the service will include ads.
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Like other streaming music services, YouTube Music lets users search for content, but it also includes curated lists of the top songs of the week and a section on music that's trending. It also has dedicated artist pages with additional album recommendations as a way to discover content, and it offers a music library that includes classic videos, concert footage, live recordings, and other content that's not available on other services.
The YouTube Music app for iOS can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)Google Music - Free music storage locker and player
Google Music All Access - music locker plus subscription streaming service like Apple Music
YouTube Key - Comes with GMAA, listen to music videos on YouTube
YouTube Music - Listen to music on YouTube in a separate app that behaves like Apple Music/Google Music/Spotify?
YouTube Red - Comes with GMAA, listen to YouTube videos in background, ad free, save for offline viewing
YouTube Gaming - Separate YouTube app that stream games and watch game streams like Twitch
YouTube Kids - Separate YouTube app that shows kid only shows
What the hell is going on over there at Google.
$12.99 if you buy it in the App Store, and $9.99 directly from Google? I thought Apple didn't allow this. Looks like Google is challenging this policy.
Spotify and Netflix do the same thing, if I'm not mistaken. The only rule that Apple has regarding this is that you can't have a link that goes from your app to your website from which you can buy the service.My humble advice: if you tire of a lot of music quickly, be more discerning with what you listen to.
LOL. Your "advice" is neither humble, nor wise. Seems like you're living in a world of binary decisions, and are making the (incorrect) assumption that your particular tastes and circumstances match everyone else's. I assure you, they do not.I generally only buy what I really like. How do you know what you will like? By cultivating your ear. There is a kernel to a piece of music that can tell you if it is inspired. Buy that and nothing else.
The problem with renting music is that it is not economical if you listen to a lot of the same excellent music repeatedly. You need to think of the big picture. Do you really want to pay $10 a month when you're 75 and know exactly what you want to listen to?
I'm good with my musical tastes and my exposure to new material; I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. I go to tons of live music shows and enjoy the tremendous library I now constantly have at my fingertips. And I'm spending less money on music now, than I did when my only option was to buy. Not that the difference matters to me, I don't consider $120/year a lot of money. I'm blessed to be in a position to be able to happily pay for things I appreciate.
My tremendous music library also isn't taking up tons of local storage space on my devices. It's easily accessible and shareable and I love the convenience and curation all of it provides.
Not to mention, it's a monthly decision that I can change at any time. I'm not signing a decades-long contract. So maybe I'll even buy an album I want to "keep..." if I feel like it. I assure you further, the landscape of the music industry will be a lot different when I'm 75 years old. I'm not concerned with that future right now. If I know "exactly what I want to listen to" and the cost-value proposition of a streaming music subscription no longer makes a lot of sense, well, at that point I'll cancel the subscription and buy the albums I wanted to listen to. Why not?
For the sake of reference, I'm subscribing to Apple Music now, after a few years with Spotify, and a few months sampling both Google and Amazon Music. But all of Google's bundling (specifically, YouTube Red) has me considering Google Music again... but I digress.
Here's some actual advice: don't assume your tastes and socioeconomic status are the standards to which others should base such decisions. We're all consumers and the fact that we have such choice, and competition, is a good thing. As to whether or not these plans are good for the artists, is another discussion entirely.
Carry on.