YouTube Music App Launched by Google for Finding Music Videos
YouTube’s standalone music streaming app has arrived. Google launched YouTube Music App, the music complement to its new video subscription service YouTube Red. The app is available now for iOS and Android.
YouTube Music is all about discovery. If you search for an artist, track or album, the app will surface everything from official music videos to popular covers and remixes to concert videos.
And, like any good music app, you can create playlists, listen to personalized “stations,” and get recommendations in the app’s home tab. YouTube Music is free but paying for a $9.99/month YouTube Red subscription buys you quite a few extra features, like offline listening, the ability to switch between video and audio-only streams and the option to listen to tracks and videos in the background while in other apps. It also gets rid of the ads free users will hear when using the app.
Google is likely hoping YouTube Music will help drive people toward its new YouTube Red subscription service, which launched last month. A YouTube Red subscription also comes with on-demand access to Google Play Music — that’s Google’s other music streaming service — and those who already subscribe to Play Music will be able to use YouTube Music’s premium features.
It’s unclear whether a new service built around music videos, which most people are already used to getting for free, will help YouTube Red gain traction but the app should be a welcome addition to YouTube’s many music-loving users. To help promote the new service, the company is giving new users access to the premium features for free for the first 14 days.