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YouTube Music

Screenshot of a user's home page in 2024
Developer	YouTube
Key people	Neal Mohan (YouTube CEO) T. Jay Fowler (Director of Product Management) Lyor Cohen (Global Head of YouTube & Music)
Type	Music and Video Streaming
Launch date	November 12, 2015; 9 years ago (2015-11-12)
Platform(s)	Android iOS ChromeOS Wear OS Google Nest Sonos Android TV Android Auto WatchOS Web audioOS Tesla
Members	100 million paid subscribers (including YouTube Premium; as of January 2024)
Availability	119 countries and territories; mostly in the Americas, Europe and Oceania, and in parts of Africa and Asia (see full list)
Website	music.youtube.com

YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by the American video platform YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The service is designed with a user interface that allows users to explore songs and music videos on YouTube based on genres, playlists, and recommendations. In April 2023, the service expanded its offerings to include support for podcasts.

YouTube Music also features a premium tier that provides several benefits to subscribers. These include ad-free playback, the ability to play audio in the background, and the option to download songs for offline listening. These benefits are also available to subscribers of YouTube Premium. On December 1, 2020, YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music as Google's primary brand for music streaming.

History

The YouTube Music app was unveiled in October 2015 and released the following month; its release came alongside the unveiling of YouTube Premium (originally called 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 was designed for users who primarily consume music through YouTube.

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 the 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 continued to be available as part of the existing YouTube Premium service and to Google Play Music All Access subscribers. The YouTube Music subscription was 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.

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.

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.

On July 8, 2024, YouTube Music was updated in Canada to prevent background play unless the users subscribe to YouTube Music or YouTube Premium, bringing it to the same experience in most countries.

In July 2024, YouTube Music became available on Tesla cars.

Features

The availability of music includes many releases from mainstream artists and extends to any video categorized as music on the YouTube service.

YouTube Music initially operated parallel with Google Play Music, but the latter was shut down in December 2020. 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 2024 this has not been achieved.

In September 2019, YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music in the core Google Mobile Services bundle distributed on new Android devices. In May 2020, an update was released to allow imports from Google Play Music, including purchased music, playlists, cloud libraries, and recommendations. 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 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.

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

In February 2023, YouTube Music launched Radio Builder, a free and from anywhere accessible web service for both paying subscribers and free users with iOS or Android devices. It allows users to create a custom radio station, selecting up to 30 artists with an option to hear only their songs or from comparable musicians.

In April 2023, podcasts were added to the service, initially for users in the US only with a worldwide rollout planned at later date. Google Podcasts was shut down worldwide in June 2024 with YouTube Music replacing it.

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 can 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.

The free tier's audio quality supports up to 128 kbit/s, in AAC and OPUS audio formats, while 256 kbit/s AAC is only available to premium tier subscribers. In July 2024, YouTube rolled out an additional high quality option, 256 kbit/s OPUS, to premium tier subscribers.

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

As of March 2024, YouTube Music is available in most of the Americas, Europe and Oceania, as well as parts of Africa and Asia, with a total availability in 119 markets. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google indefinitely suspended all of its all payment and subscription-based services in the country, including YouTube Music.

See also

• Comparison of music streaming services
• List of podcast clients
• YouTube Premium

References

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External links

• Official website
• Official web player

• Music streaming services
• YouTube
• 2015 software
• Mobile software distribution platforms
• Mobile software
• Android (operating system) software
• IOS software
• Android Auto software