“Game changing” YouTube Music launches in US

YouTube has launched its long awaited dedicated Music app in America (for the time being), and it’s instantly been hailed a game changer in technology and music circles. It’s a hybrid platform that is unlike anything out there.

YouTube after all is already the world’s largest video portal, in effect the largest music streaming service and the second largest search engine. Compare its 1 billion users against Spotify’s 75 million users or Apple Music’s 15 million.

Americans can download it both at the Google Play store and the iOS App Store and is free for the first 14 days. It offers a $10 a month subscription version, which strips out ads and provides access to Google Play.

YouTube says the app is geared towards making discovering music on YouTube “easier than ever”.

The whole experience is personalised, based on what YouTube registers the user likes, and what its algorithm thinks they will like based on their browsing.

The journey starts off with a choice of two stations playing what YouTube deems their two most favourite styles based on past listening habits. The Explore feature allows access to every element on YouTube of that song – live version, home made fan rendition, lyrics, remixes, and cover versions, and more songs by the artist doing the cover.

The Trending tab provides categories like The Daily 40 or On The Rise, collated from the larger YouTube community.

“We want The Daily 40 to be the place you go to know what everyone else is watching and talking about and sharing,” said T. Jay Fowler, Head of Music Products at YouTube, the one time record store worker who went on to set up MOG. “If a song is blowing up on YouTube, this is where you’d find out about it.”

Aside from recommending tracks, it will also help users create personalised stations based on taste.

Analysts are especially excited about YouTube users because they are totally engage with the platform. They watch, they share, and they make “response” videos and remixes.

Larry Miller, Professor of Music Business at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development told one US media outlet expects YouTube Music to swamp the other services.

“YouTube is already the world’s largest on-demand streaming service by far,” Miller opined. “In other words, put every other service in the world in a bathtub, and you won’t begin to fill the bottom with respect to the size of YouTube’s on-demand streaming service.”

Over the years YouTube and Google are estimated to have made $3 billion for the music industry. Not only has it given free promotion to music but that translates into concert ticket and merchandising sales and downloads volume. Now YouTube Music allows labels, publishers and artists new ways to make money through a cut from ads or subscription fees.