YouTube Music and Premium launched

YouTube has announced YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, two new services to complement its growing video-streaming platform.

YouTube Music, as it literally means, is the service’s own take of music streaming, aiming to take on top music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. It not only touts of official music from hundreds of thousands of musicians around the world, but also covers, remixes, live performances, and videos that are said to be exclusive to the platform, along with a search function that the company touts to work even when you provide very vague descriptions of. It will have its own dedicated app both on mobile and desktop platforms — places where both Spotify and Apple Music thrive. An ad-supported free version will be available with an option to upgrade to a premium plan.

YouTube’s new Premium service, on the other hand, is more of a perked-up YouTube Red containing original content, ad-free playback, offline download, and background play while you browse on the service’s platform. YouTube Music will be included in the new Premium plan, and new shows coming from different countries are said to be on their way.

The YouTube Music Premium will be available for USD9.99 (~Php525) while adding in YouTube Premium to the mix will cost USD11.99 (~Php630) and will launch in select countries — current YouTube Red countries United States, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and South Korea with the addition of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom — with more markets being planned to open this year.

Source: YouTube