YouTube to Launch New Streaming Music Service: YouTube Music

While Google has been busy readying itself for GDPR, YouTube has been busy refining its new music streaming service, YouTube Music. According to a

Subscription News: YouTube to Launch New Streaming Music Service: YouTube Music

Source: YouTube

While Google has been busy readying itself for GDPR, YouTube has been busy refining its new music streaming service, YouTube Music. According to a May 16 blog post, YouTube explained that YouTube Music is a reimagined mobile app and desktop player with thousands of playlists, including official versions of millions of songs, albums, artist radio, music videos, covers and more. Rollout of the new services began May 22, ‘making the world of music easier to explore and more personalized than ever.’

‘Whether you want to listen, watch or discover, it’s all here,’ said Elias Roman, product manager for YouTube Music.

YouTube Music utilizes a freemium business model, available for free in an ad-supported version and a premium version for $9.99 a month. The premium version allows subscribers to access background listening and downloads and is ad-free.

So what does this mean for YouTube Red and Google Play Music subscribers? YouTube says subscribers based in the U.S., Australia, South Korea, New Zealand and Mexico will get the same features they already have for the same price. Google Play Music subscribers in all other countries will get access to YouTube Music Premium once it is available, and they will be able to access any purchased music, uploads and playlists like before.

Subscription News: YouTube to Launch New Streaming Music Service: YouTube Music

Source: YouTube

In a recent article ‘Google Tries, Tries Again with New YouTube Music Service,’ Forbes points out that Google has struggled to come up with a streaming music platform that can rival competitors like Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora. It has tried various versions under the YouTube brand (Music Key, and YouTube Premium which includes YouTube Red) and Google Play Music under the Google brand, none of which have been particularly successful.

It looks like YouTube is trying to make sense of the streaming music market and to offer a product that’s easier to understand and which includes features – music, video, discoverability, playlists – that subscribers are willing to pay for. According to Forbes, record labels don’t love the paltry payouts they get from the ad revenue share for free users. The revenue share they get from paid subscribers pays better, says Forbes.

Writer Bill Rosenblatt said the biggest issue with the new YouTube Music is human curation, or lack thereof. He points out that both Spotify and Apple Music have invested heavily to make playlist curation easier. YouTube isn’t there yet.

Subscription News: YouTube to Launch New Streaming Music Service: YouTube Music

Source: YouTube

According to Tubefilter, YouTube Red isn’t going away. In fact, it has been renamed YouTube Premium and the price will go up to $12 a month for new users. Existing users will be grandfathered in at $10 a month. The ‘new’ service will include existing features like YouTube Originals, as well as access to the new YouTube Music service.

Insider Take:

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that YouTube’s streaming music offerings are confusing, particularly when you toss Google Play Music into the mix. YouTube may be able to woo existing free users to the premium service, and it may be able to retain existing Google Play Music subscribers, I find it hard to see why new users would try the service. What YouTube Music really needs to do is to make a clear differentiation between it and other premium streaming music services and offer a free trial or some other promotion to get music lovers to try it. Satisfied with my current streaming music subscription, I can’t see a reason to try YouTube Music. Maybe YouTube will prove me wrong.

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