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YouTube Music puts more focus on personalized playlists
A new activity bar has filters for mood-centered playlists.
Streaming now accounts for 80 percent of the US music market
Streaming has completely reshaped the face of the music industry over the last decade, with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music proving to be overwhelmingly popular with music fans. The Recording Industry Association of America has revealed some stats that underline the mammoth sea change. The organization says streaming accounts for 80 percent of the US music market, compared with seven percent in 2010. Streaming subscriptions rose from about 1.5 million to around 61 million between 2010 and the first half of 2019, according to the RIAA.
YouTube Music counters Spotify with its own 'Discover Mix'
Google might not have as many YouTube Music subscribers as Spotify, but it has way more software engineers. It's now applying some of those smarts to better compete against its rival with a new automated playlist called "Discover Mix," spotted by 9 to 5 Google and some Reddit users. It's very similar in concept to Spotify's "Discover Weekly," in that it helps you find new songs and artists in line with your taste and listening history.
YouTube and Universal Music Group are remastering old music videos
YouTube is perhaps the single biggest public repository of music videos, but many are bit outdated, with visuals and audio designed for old TVs with single speakers, and others that could use a bit of an upgrade too. Many videos from major artists will soon look and sound much better though, as YouTube and Universal Music Group are remastering almost 1,000 of them "to the highest possible standards."
Sonos now works with YouTube Music
If you've been looking for an easier way to play weird covers of "7 Rings" through your Sonos speakers, today's your lucky day -- YouTube Music subscribers can now stream tunes directly through the Sonos app. You'll find your saved music in your library, and you can browse playlists, albums, songs and artist radio stations. There are also sections for recommendations, new releases and YouTube charts.
YouTube Music offers charts for the hottest songs and videos
If you thought YouTube's music video charts would be a logical fit for YouTube Music, you guessed correctly. The streaming media giant is rolling YouTube Charts into its Music service as playlists that you can find either on the app's home screen or through a search. If you want to listen to the most popular or trendiest songs, they should be a short hop away. All 29 YouTube countries will have both global and local versions of the top 100 songs and top 100 videos, and you'll also find a local-only top 20 trending list.
YouTube Music and Premium now offer student discounts
If YouTube Music is going to compete with Spotify and Apple Music on price, it's going to need discounts for the student set. Thankfully, they've just turned up -- you can now subscribe to a $5 per month YouTube Music Premium plans as well as a corresponding $7 YouTube Premium plan ($6 if you sign up before January 31st). So long as you're a full-time student at an accredited US college or university, you can listen or watch to your heart's content without stretching your budget past the breaking point.
Outage pulls the plug on YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music
For about the last half hour, YouTube has been mostly unusable and inaccessible. According to the company's Twitter account, "We're working on resolving this and will let you know once fixed." There's no word on what is causing the error, but we've seen it from all locations and across every device we've tried. YouTube, YouTube TV and YouTube Music are all impacted, and while pages have begun loading again, actually trying to watch a video is still throwing up the error message shown above. Update (10:45 PM ET): YouTube and associated services appear to be working again, although we haven't received any official word from the team yet. Update 2 (11 PM ET): YouTube confirmed the issue is resolved, although there's no word on what caused the outage.
YouTube Music is about to get a lot better
YouTube Music launched in May to mixed reviews. Even though its song catalog matches Apple Music and Spotify's (in addition to millions of videos pulled from YouTube) it arrived missing some essential features. Something as simple as sorting out your saved albums alphabetically, for example, isn't an option. You also can't browse by genre or easily see new albums from the week. But Google, which will replace Play Music with YouTube Music, is aware of these shortcomings and plans to address them soon.
Android's Clock will wake you up with tunes from Spotify
Android users' morning ritual might get a bit more musical. A new update to the Google Clock app adds an integration with Spotify so you can wake up with your favorite track or playlist rather than a droning alarm. As TechCrunch points out, this will work with any handset running Android Lollipop and doesn't even require a Spotify Premium account to use. The update begins rolling out this week.
Four problems YouTube Music will face in the UK
The worst-kept secret in music is out, and Google has now released YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in 11 more countries. But despite being in the streaming music game for quite a while, the company is almost going to have to start fresh in several places, including the UK. So here are four of the major challenges that the company faces as it looks for its second chance to make a first impression.
YouTube Music and Premium come to Canada and the UK
As expected, Google has announced that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium will continue its global rollout, coming to 11 more countries. The list of nations now able to take advantage of the two platforms has swelled to include the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Spain.
Spotify hip-hop programming head leaves for YouTube
YouTube's latest streaming music initiative may be off to a rough start, but it's determined to step up its game. The service has confirmed months-long rumors that it hired Spotify's hip-hop programming head Tuma Basa (pictured at left) to become its urban music director. The music industry veteran will use his "deep knowledge" to help connect "artists and fans," according to YouTube's music lead Lyor Cohen (shown at right).
YouTube Music arrives late to the party with room for improvement
A massive number of people use YouTube not just for videos, but as a de facto music-streaming service, not unlike Spotify. YouTube is well aware of this, which is why the company has been trying to make music an official part of its paid offerings for nearly four years now. This week, YouTube Music launched in early access, and it's the closest the company has come yet to building a proper Spotify or Apple Music competitor. Google's launch strategy behind YouTube Music and what's now called YouTube Premium has been confusing, but now that the service is rolling out to the masses, it's time to see how it stacks up to other streaming-music options. After spending a few days with YouTube Music, it's clear that there's potential here, but that a ton of work needs to be done before it's on par with the established players.
YouTube’s 'Artist on the Rise' program spotlights new music stars
There are few better ways to win points with your music-loving friends than being the first to find a great new artist. It's easier to find emerging names through streaming rather than by trawling through the latest release section at a record store. Most of the major services highlight new stars with curated playlists, documentaries and prominent placement, and YouTube's delving deeper into the action with its Artist on the Rise program.
Google's music- and video-streaming strategy is a mess
Today Google announced a major shake-up of its music- and video-streaming services. That should be cause for celebration, since the company's offerings are a convoluted mess right now. There's Google Play Music, a Spotify rival with a robust "locker" system for streaming your personal library. In a handful of countries you can also download YouTube Music, a free app that includes music videos and live-concert footage. It's ad supported, but you can unlock a premium version if you subscribe to YouTube Red, which also comes with a free Play Music subscription.
YouTube Music subscriptions shake up Google Play Music and YouTube Red
YouTube execs have finally announced the long-awaited revamp for YouTube Music that they say will eventually replace Google Play Music. In interviews with Recode, CNET and USA Today, they revealed the new YouTube Music will soft-launch next Tuesday with a $10 subscription packages (you can sign up now for updates right here). Similar to its previous iteration, the focus here will be on personalization that tries to learn what music you like, but this time it's pushing music videos to the background in favor of audio. The personalization will naturally tie into Google Assistant AI, and pull from a subscriber's YouTube history to serve up suggestions. Google Play Music will remain for now, but the plan is to "close gaps" between services like YouTube Music's lack of a music locker for users to upload their tunes before GPM goes away at some unspecified point in the future -- YouTube exec T. Jay Fowler told USA Today it could be as far away as 2019. Meanwhile, the YouTube Red section will transition into YouTube Premium -- a paywalled, ad-free video experience available only as a $2 add-on for YouTube Music. That means accessing originals YouTube is spending "hundreds of millions" on like Cobra Kai, will mean shelling out $12 per month. Update: YouTube officially announced the changes here, confirming its Music Premium service will launch May 22nd at a $10 per month price. Google Play Music subscribers will get access as part of their membership automatically and the blog post said that (for now) "nothing will change -- you'll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music just like always." It also touts the new app's personalized home screen that "dynamically adapts" to your preferences, history, current time and location (just like Google Play Music). You can still use YouTube Music for free, but Premium enables background listening, downloads for offline and removes the ads. The new service arrives Tuesday in U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea.
YouTube's revamped music charts focus on what's hot right now
YouTube hasn't been shy about wanting to be a cornerstone of the music industry, and that now includes one of the staples of the business: the charts. The video giant has launched revamped charts in 44 territories, headlined by a brand new "trending" section. The fresh area shows which music videos and songs are hot both worldwide and in given regions based on activity at multiple points in the day, with the option to play them all if you want a sense of the cultural zeitgeist.
YouTube music app gets a streamlined now playing screen
With YouTube Remix on the horizon and Google Play Music on its way out (not to mention Google I/O next week), it's not a surprise that YouTube Music, the app that the company rolled out in 2015, is getting a bit of a refresh. Originally spotted by Redditor c2fifield, the redesign includes some streamlined changes to the "now playing" interface as well as the queue lists below it. Only some users are seeing this new update, so be patient.
YouTube music head says company pays higher royalties than Spotify in US
Making a living from streaming royalties is tough for music artists, and YouTube has had one of the worst reputations in the music industry for a while. Even Lyor Cohen, the current head of YouTube Music, knows that many are skeptical about the service's ability to pay out a legitimate rate. Cohen wrote a blog post on Thursday to explain why he thinks that YouTube deserves another chance, and that his company is the highest paying music streaming service out there.
