YouTube’s new music subscription service, a potential competitor to Spotify, will launch on Tuesday, May 22.
YouTube also plans to introduce YouTube Premium, the new name for the YouTube Red subscription service.
In the words of Youtube: “YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music: official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube’s tremendous catalog of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos that you can’t find anywhere else – all simply organized and personalized. For the first time, all the ways music moves you can be found in one place.”
YouTube Music initially launches only in five markets, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea. Youtube said it will add more countries “soon”, including Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. The service will simply be called YouTube Music.
There will be two versions of new service, an ad-supported version and YouTube Music Premium, for $9.99 a month. Google Play Music will receive a YouTube Music Premium membership as part of their subscription.
The newly announced YouTube Premium will include ad-free, background and offline across all of YouTube, as well as access to all YouTube Originals including Cobra Kai, Step Up: High Water and Youth & Consequences. YouTube Premium will continue to be an ad-free experience, background play, and downloads across the millions of videos on YouTube. Because it includes the brand new YouTube Music service, the price will be $11.99 for all new members. Current YouTube Red (soon to be YouTube Premium) members will (at least for the time being) pay the current price.
