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(Updated: 18:30)
NO SOONER THAN it agreed a deal with one of the representative of 20,000 indie music labels, YouTube has revealed the details of its new music subscription service.
The service, called YouTube Music Key, is being launched as an invite-only beta and will be available on the main site, under a dedicated music tab, and as an iOS and Android app.
Both free and paid services will include high-quality audio tracks and will allow users to find and listen to full albums as well as back catalogue.
Those paying for it can play music videos without ads and can continue playing songs and videos in the background and when the device is locked.
The service also offers playlists based on moods and genres, tying in with its acquisition of Songza.
While the music homepage is launching globally, the beta of YouTube Music Key is being initially launched in seven countries, Ireland being one of them. Markets like the US, Spain, Italy, Finland, Portugal and Ireland were chosen because of the popularity of music in these areas.
YouTube has been working on such a service for many months now, having been held up by negotiations with music labels over content deals.
Recently its CEO Susan Wojcicki revealed it was working on a subscription service where ads would be disabled. She revealed that half of all YouTube views now come from mobile devices and that time spent watching videos was growing at a rate of 50% year-on-year.
Its biggest competitor in the field is Spotify which currently has 50 million active users with 12.5 million paying for the premium version.
The service will cost €9.99 per month, but those invited to the beta are offered the first six months free followed by a promotional price of €7.99 per month.
The cost will also include a subscription to Google Play Music, which currently has more than 30 million songs in its collection.
[Originally published 18:00]
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Wonder if this was behind Taylor Swift removing her songs from Spotify last week. Looking for a better deal.
Adblocker, Youtube and beer. Music sorted.
Remember when MTV cost 9.99 p/m? No, neither do I
That’s not really a valid point. YouTube is also free but features ads….. just as the case has been with television for decades.
Remember when MTV actually played music? No neither do I….
I may be wrong but the reason why they launched in Ireland is to have another tax cut on the service… Basing all their European income and funnelling through the Irish base..
Whats the point in this if someone is paying for Google All Access Music, Which is also owner by google ???
Not everyone will subscribe to Google’s music service so they’ll be counting on more people subscribing to YouTube as it’s a much better known service. They are simple trying to catch a bigger audience.
Ah i see the article has been updated 6:30 with more information on google all access inclusion. Well researched :P
It’s great and all but considering how Google has been rolling stuff it on Europe and more specifically Ireland it’s unlikely we’ll see this before the end of 2015
Google acquired YouTube for 1.65billion… yet Google is probably the first search engine people use to search “YouTube to mp3″. I wonder will YouTube try blocking out these 3rd party websites. i dont see the point in paying for a service ad free,anytime,anywhere when anyone can easily download the song in mp3 format for other websites or just block ads on YouTube. either way its free.
How do you block you tube adds?
I dont think they’ll be visual ads, but aural ads merged into the audio stream. Like the radio. So not much ad block can help you with there.
Music streaming though means you don’t have to worry about using up memory on your phone. Plus you don’t have to be constantly updating your mp3 device with new music, you just have to stream it. I used to scoff at music streaming until I started using Spotify and found lots of new music through it.
Cheers lads
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