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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.
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.
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.
‘Dallas & Robo’ pairs a trucker and a robot to save the solar system
Earlier the month, YouTube announced a new Kat Dennings- and John Cena-led animated series for its Red, soon to be Premium, platform -- a buddy comedy from the company behind BoJack Horseman about a space trucker and a robot. In Dallas & Robo, the two travel together between different worlds, delivering goods and getting into trouble.
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.
‘Karate Kid’ lives on in a second season of YouTube’s ‘Cobra Kai’
YouTube Red's Karate Kid sequel, Cobra Kai, premiered earlier this month and it has already been renewed for a second season. The first episode has over 20 million views, according to YouTube, and the season currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, making the show a pretty big success for the subscription service. "This series had all of the right elements from the very beginning -- compelling characters, a storied rivalry and the talented original stars," Susanne Daniels, YouTube's global head of original content, said in a statement. "The way viewers have embraced the new twist on this beloved franchise has been nothing short of amazing."
John Cena’s animated comedy arrives on YouTube Red May 30th
YouTube Red's upcoming animated series Dallas & Robo is set to premiere on May 30th and it stars Kat Dennings (2 Broke Girls) and pro wrestler -- now actor -- John Cena. Dallas, played by Dennings, is a space trucker who teams up with Cena's Robo -- a cowboy hat-sporting AI robot. In the comedy, the two run into cannibal bikers and rival space truckers as they travel between different worlds on their flame-painted truck.
YouTube to follow Amazon by screening its movies inside theaters
Following YouTube's announcement last month that it intends to spend "hundreds of millions" on original content for Red, it's just unveiled plans for a YouTube-made movie that'll also be released in theaters. And unlike its previous effort, 2016's widely-regarded flop Lazer Team, this project has a serious name attached to it: Susan Sarandon.
YouTube reportedly plans to spend 'hundreds of millions' on Red originals
While Facebook and Netflix are (reportedly) spending billions on new programming, YouTube is said to be holding its investments at current levels. Google's video wing is only spending "a few hundred million" on original shows for Red this year according to Bloomberg's sources. Other details are scant, but unlike the competition, YouTube also has a live TV service that's expanding in reach. Google could just be taking a "wait and see" approach to its investments this year. There's also the chance that the reticence to invest stems from recent black eyes. Its biggest stars have been in the headlines pretty frequently lately and not for flattering reasons.
YouTube snags the rights to Eminem-produced satirical film ‘Bodied’
YouTube has acquired the rights to Eminem-produced Bodied, a satirical film that takes place within the Oakland hip-hop scene. It's co-written and directed by Joseph Kahn -- director of 2004's Torque as well as music videos for everyone from Taylor Swift to Eminem -- and follows a grad student who decides to jump into the rap battle scene. The student, played by Calum Worthy (Austin & Ally, American Vandal), is successful, which doesn't sit well with others in Oakland's underground hip-hop world.
YouTube makes a few of its Red Originals free for the holidays
When you're stuck taking care of kids this holiday season, you could either watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for the umpteenth time, or you could keep up with the times and turn to YouTube. The streaming giant has had a YouTube Kids offering for awhile now, but just for the holidays, it's offering up something new: Starting today through January 2nd, YouTube is making five of its family-friendly YouTube Red originals completely free for viewing on the YouTube Kids app. This is especially momentous because, according to YouTube, this is the first time it's made any of its YouTube Red series available for free in their entirety. The shows are as follows: DanTDM Creates a Big Scene, Hyperlinked, Kings of Atlantis, Fruit Ninja and We Are Savvy. And since you have a few weeks to watch these, you could conceivably binge-watch all of them before the new year without paying a dime. And hey, if your kids get hooked, that might persuade you to signup for YouTube Red proper after the promotion is over. Though the promotion has likely been in the planning stages for awhile now, it arrives at a time when YouTube probably wouldn't mind the positive publicity. It's recently had to clamp down on several child-exploitation YouTube channels, inappropriate content masquerading as child-friendly and it also pulled autocomplete search results with child abuse terminology. Recently, it's even hired over 10,000 people to help moderate content. At the same time, YouTube also wants to push its Red offering even further. It recently unveiled a whole spate of new Originals that include a high school basketball series with Lebron James and a Tinder dating comedy. At last check a few months ago, YouTube Red reported over 250 million views.
LeBron James is making a high school basketball series for YouTube
YouTube has already lined up a few big names for original shows on its Red subscription service, and now that includes sports superstars. LeBron James is executive producing Best Shot, an eight-episode documentary covering a high school basketball team mentored by former NBA player Jay Williams. It'll follow the students as they both pursue their hoop dreams and grapple with life challenges. Michael John Warren (best known for his documentaries on Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj) is directing.
YouTube Red's next show is a Tinder dating comedy
YouTube Red, the company's premium service, has a built up a stable of original programming, but for the most part they don't resemble traditional TV shows. Now, YouTube is trying a different tactic. The company has greenlighted Swipe Right, a comedy series starring Carly Craig (American Housewife), Deadline reports. It'll focus on one woman's mission to date her 252 Tinder matches -- and of course, for full hilarity, she'll get some help from her married sister and widowed mother (who's also dating online). It sounds like a typical comedy setup for the Tinder age, but it's also the sort of multi-generational comedy YouTube Red needs to appeal to more people.
Katy Perry's YouTube Red film distills her four-day livestream
If you missed Katy Perry's four-day livestream back in June, tune into YouTube Red on October 4th. The subscription service will broadcast a full-length special showing behind-the-scenes footage from the pop star's Witness World Wide livestream event. It will also show highlights of what went down during those four days. Perry did fun interviews, danced with the infamous left shark of NFL halftime fame, talked about the controversies that surround her and held round-table discussions about important issues with guests, including Anna Kendrick, America Ferrera, Caitlyn Jenner, RuPaul and Sia.
YouTube Music adds song and album downloads almost two years later
It's pretty surprising that Google is updating the YouTube Music app instead of scrapping it wholesale. Before the most recent update it mainly served as a way to cast tunes that don't exist on the Google Play Music app to a Chromecast Audio. With the new patch, though, it's getting a little more useful. Now you can download albums, playlists and individual songs to your mobile device instead of a random mixtape based on your listening history. Pretty cool, right? Time to stock up on some obscure remixes for this weekend's camping trip before you leave WiFi behind.
‘Karate Kid’ reboot no one asked for debuts on YouTube Red in 2018
Ralph Macchio and William Zabka are getting back together to reprise their roles as Karate Kid's Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence in a 10-episode TV series called Cobra Kai. Announced today, the series takes place three decades after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament of the original film. LaRusso, though successful, is finding life a little difficult without Mr. Miyagi to mentor him and a struggling Lawrence reopens the Cobra Kai dojo in an attempt to find some redemption. The two work out their issues through karate in the comedy's half-hour episodes.
Google Play Music and YouTube Red to merge into single service
YouTube Red and Google Play Music will eventually merge to create a new service. The move comes after months of speculation following Google's decision back in February to combine its YouTube and Play Music teams. According to The Verge, YouTube Music head Lyor Cohen said the company wanted to merge the services to help "educate consumers and bring in new subscribers". Google's complicated music offering currently spans three different apps. YouTube Music is a free app open to everyone but offers an enhanced experience if you're also signed up to YouTube Red, which gets rid of adverts on videos and lets you save them offline. People who sign up for YouTube Red also get access to Google Play Music, which is basically Google's version of Spotify. At the same time, people who sign up for Play Music will also get YouTube Red's benefits -- if you sign up for one, you get the other free.
Vimeo axes plans for its Netflix-esque subscription service
Last November, online streaming site Vimeo revealed that it was building a YouTube Red-like video subscription service to compete with Netflix and Hulu. On Monday however, The Hollywood Reporter learned that the company has effectively killed the plan and is already in the process of liquidating the development team.
YouTube's 2017 lineup of Red Originals includes six new shows
Other than its innovated VR180 format and YouTube TV expansion, Google's video streaming site found time to mention its subscription package during Vidcon 2017. For 2017 the YouTube Red Originals lineup has a mix of new series on the way including an eSports comedy from Dan Harmon (Community) called Good Game starring Game Grumps personalities Dan Avidan and Arin "Egoraptor" Hanson, and its first reality series, Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge. As far as renewals, we knew of a cancellation for PewDiePie's show, but one of Red's first shows, Foursome, will return for a third go-round, alongside four other returning series and one movie sequel. YouTube also finally dropped a number showing some of the activity on its service, saying its originals have notched "nearly" a quarter billion views. After the break, check out a quick teaser trailer for the new shows plus more details on all of them.
YouTube's live TV service is here
Google announced YouTube TV at the end of February, and now the live TV streaming service is ready to launch. It's available today on your phone and computer in five markets: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia. If you hadn't heard yet, the $35 monthly service offers live streams from all four major broadcast networks (CBS, Fox, NBC and ABC) and a host of other networks like ESPN, FX, the CW and many others. All told, YouTube TV is launching with 39 stations, but 10 more (including AMC, IFC and BBC America) will arrive soon.
