YouTube may be the streaming originator. Before anyone would use Spotify or Apple Music, YouTube was the go-to spot for streaming music. The video service has already found ways to capitalize off its enormous user base through advertisements, but YouTube struggled in retaining subscribers that would pay for their services. YouTube Music is aiming to change that.
According to Variety, the new subscription service features three tiers. The first tier is ad-supported, meaning that subscribers can listen to music for free. The second tier of the music service costs $9.99. The third tier is called YouTube Premium, which is just a replacement for YouTube Red, which costs $12. YouTube Music will replace Google Play Music as the primary player on Android devices. The new music app is set to include the official versions of millions of songs, thousands of playlists, studio albums, music videos, and artist radio. The first five countries to receive the new subscription service are U.S., Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea. Canada and 13 European countries will receive the service at an undisclosed date. YouTube Music will have one large advantage over its competitors, it already has a massive catalog of non-musical content. Offical episodes of television shows, music videos, vlog series, lyric videos, interviews and more are already available on the site.
YouTube Music launches on Tuesday and will feature time-based recommendations and predictive behavior to customize every users' experience.