YouTube Introduces YouTube Music Streaming Service, YouTube Red Becomes YouTube Premium
Google's YouTube said on Wednesday it will launch a new music streaming service, YouTube Music, next week and unveil soon a premium service that will charge more for its original shows.
Coming on Tuesday, May 22, YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music. The mobile app and new desktop player will include official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube's catalog of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos that you can't find anywhere else - all organized and personalized.
YouTube Music search will also get some smart elements found in Google search: it works even if fans don't know exactly what they're looking for - it will try find it if they describe it (try "that hipster song with the whistling") or user just gives some lyrics (try "I make money moves").
YouTube Music's personalized home screen adapts to provide recommendations based on people's listening history, where they are and what they're doing.
The new ad-supported version of YouTube Music will be free, but Google is also launching YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives you background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience for $9.99 a month.
If you are a subscriber to Google Play Music, you get a YouTube Music Premium membership as part of your subscription each month. And if you use Google Play Music, you'll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always. To extend the features of YouTube Music Premium beyond the music app, Gogole will soon introducing YouTube Premium, the new name for YouTube Red subscription service. YouTube Premium includes ad-free, background and offline across all of YouTube, as well as access to all YouTube Originals. YouTube Premium will continue to provide an ad-free experience, background play, and downloads across the millions of videos on YouTube. But the price will be $11.99 for all new members. If you're already a YouTube Red (soon to be YouTube Premium) member, you'll still enjoy your current price.
Starting Tuesday, Google is rolling out the new YouTube Music experience in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea. It will expand more broadly in the coming weeks.