YouTube is preparing to launch its own subscription music service for mobile devices, according to a report in Billboard.
The unnamed service would offer music to compete with the likes of Pandora and Spotify; and would focus on music videos to compete with operations like Vevo.
It would offer free and paid tiers — a free version with access to all the music, and an expected $10/month paid version that caches videos in local memory for offline play and removes the ads.
The Verge points out Google isn't looking for big money in monthly subscription fees.
“The free version would allow users to listen on all platforms … with YouTube’s primary focus said to be on building its audience and selling ads.”
It's not clear if the service will have direct ties to Google Play Music All Access — Google's other music service.
Google does appear to be using the same licenses, though. 9to5Google reports the permissions it secured when it was setting up Google Play Music also extend to the new YouTube venture.
So, yes, that's two music services from the same parent company. Gizmodo explains.
“YouTube, which is already used to listen to music and watch music videos, [will] be asking users to pay for something they can get for free through YouTube and also asking for something that they might be already getting with its parent company Google.”
See? Simple! Billboard says the new service might arrive when YouTube refreshes its mobile app —
— which looks to be getting new features that would dovetail perfectly with a music service. Android Police reports on an early version of the app, which can keep running in the background and deliver audio even as users do other things with their phone.
Google says it plans to have its new music service out by the end of the year.
- See more at newsy.com.
