Australia among first five countries to get new YouTube Music service next week
Australia will be one of five countries to get YouTube’s new music streaming service.
Although it had the working title of Remix, it launches as YouTube Music next Tuesday, May 22.
The other four countries in which it is taking on Spotify and Apple Music are the US, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea.
YouTube Music product manager Elias Roman said: “The days of jumping back and forth between multiple music apps and YouTube are over.
“Whether you want to listen, watch or discover, it’s all here.”
YouTube Music will combine millions of “official” tracks and albums with rarities, remixes, performances, covers and music videos uploaded by YouTube’s users.
The service claims the uploaded content will not be found anywhere else.
The platform will also offer personalised recommendations based on users’ personalised history.
Roman expanded: “YouTube Music’s personalized home screen dynamically adapts to provide recommendations based on people’s listening history, where they are and what they’re doing.
“At the airport? We’ll recommend something relaxing before the flight. Entering the gym? We’ll suggest some beats to get the heart-rate going.”
Like Spotify it provides two options for users: the free ad-funded version and the premium subscriptions costing $9.99 per month.
The five countries already have YouTube Red. It will be rebranded YouTube Premium.
The subs rate remains the same for current paying customers but new ones coming aboard YouTube Premium also get YouTube Music and YouTube Originals for $11.99 a month.
Google Play and YouTube Red reportedly have a total of 7 million subscribers.
The new service will replace Google Play Music.
Google Play Music subscribers will automatically move to YouTube Music, without losing their playlists, purchases and uploads.
Roman reminded us: “More than 1 billion music fans come to YouTube each month to be part of music culture and discover new music.”
The latest announcement comes just after YouTube added songwriting credits to half a billion videos.