# YouTube Music

YouTube Music is a music streaming service developed by the American video platform YouTube, a subsidiary of Alphabet's Google. The service is designed with an interface that allows users to simultaneously explore music audios and music videos from YouTube-based genres, playlists and recommendations. On December 1, 2020, YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music as Google's primary brand for music streaming. In April 2023, the service expanded its offerings to include support for podcasts shortly before Google Podcasts was shut down.
YouTube Music also features a premium tier that provides several benefits to paying subscribers. These include ad-free playback, the ability to play audio in the background, and the option to download songs for offline listening. These benefits are also bundled with, and available to, subscribers of YouTube Premium.

## History

The YouTube Music app was unveiled in October 2015 and released the following month; its release came alongside the unveiling of YouTube Premium (originally called YouTube Red), a larger subscription service that covers the entirety of the YouTube platform, including the Music app. Although redundant to Google's existing Google Play Music All Access subscription service, the app was designed for users who primarily consume music through YouTube.
On May 17, 2018, YouTube announced a new version of the YouTube Music service, including a web-based desktop player and redesigned mobile app, more dynamic recommendations based on various factors, and the use of Google artificial intelligence technology to search songs based on lyrics and descriptions. In addition, YouTube Music became a separate subscription service (positioned as a more direct competitor to Apple Music and Spotify), offering ad-free and background/audio-only streaming, and downloading for offline playback, for music content on YouTube. The service's benefits continued to be available as part of the existing YouTube Premium service and to Google Play Music All Access subscribers. The YouTube Music subscription was priced in line with its competitors at US$9.99 per-month; the price of YouTube Premium was concurrently increased to $11.99 for new subscribers.
In 2018, YouTube Music reached multiple sponsorship agreements with Dick Clark Productions to serve as a partner for its television specials Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve and the American Music Awards.
YouTube Music became available on Google Assistant smart speakers (including Google Nest smart speakers) on April 18, 2019, with feature-limited ad-supported playback available for non-subscribers in only a limited number of countries.
On July 8, 2024, YouTube Music was updated in Canada to prevent background play unless the user subscribes to YouTube Music or YouTube Premium, bringing it to the same experience in most countries.
In July 2024, YouTube Music became available on Tesla cars.

## Features

The availability of music includes many releases from mainstream artists and extends to any video categorized as music on the YouTube service.
YouTube Music initially operated parallel with Google Play Music, but the latter was shut down in December 2020. Product manager Elias Roman stated in 2018 that they aimed to reach feature parity with Google Play Music before migrating users to it, but as of 2024 this has not been achieved.
In September 2019, YouTube Music replaced Google Play Music in the core Google Mobile Services bundle distributed on new Android devices. In May 2020, an update was released to allow imports from Google Play Music, including purchased music, playlists, cloud libraries, and recommendations. The service still contains regressions over Google Play Music, including no online music store functionality (cannot purchase songs), and a YouTube Music Premium subscription being required to cast cloud library speakers to Google Nest smart speakers. Google claimed that they planned to address this and other "gaps" in features between the services before Play Music was shut down. However, at the time of the shutdown, most feature gaps had not been addressed.
A "pre-save" feature for upcoming releases was added in May 2020.
In February 2023, YouTube Music launched Radio Builder, a free and from anywhere accessible web service for both paying subscribers and free users with iOS or Android devices. It allows users to create a custom radio station, selecting up to 30 artists with an option to hear only their songs or from comparable musicians.
In April 2023, podcasts were added to the service, initially for users in the US only with a worldwide rollout planned at a later date. Google Podcasts was shut down worldwide in June 2024 with YouTube Music replacing it.

### Subscriptions

The free tier plays songs in its music video version where applicable. The premium tier plays official tracks of the album unless the user searches for the music video version. YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium subscribers can switch to an audio-only mode that can play in the background while the application is not in use. The free tier does not allow audio-only mode with background playback as it displays video advertisements.
The free tier's audio quality supports up to 128 kbit/s, in AAC and OPUS audio formats, while 256 kbit/s AAC is only available to premium tier subscribers. In July 2024, YouTube rolled out an additional high quality option, 256 kbit/s OPUS, to premium tier subscribers.
YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium plans are available in individual and family variants. A family plan allows up to six family members from the same household to access plan features. Eligible students can obtain a discount on an individual plan.
| Subscription tiers | Ads | Skipping and scrubbing | Offline mode | Background playback | Audio quality |
| Free | Yes | Unlimited | Podcast only | Podcast only | 32, 48, 64, 128 kbit/s OPUS 32, 48 kbit/s HE-AAC, 128 kbit/s AAC |
| Music Premium | No | Unlimited | Available | Available | All free tier qualities, including 256 kbit/s AAC & OPUS |
| Premium | No | Unlimited | Available | Available | All free tier qualities, including 256 kbit/s AAC & OPUS |

## Geographic availability

As of March 2024, YouTube Music is available in most of the Americas, Europe and Oceania, as well as parts of Africa and Asia, with a total availability in 119 markets. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Google indefinitely suspended all of its all payment and subscription-based services in the country, including YouTube Music.
History of expansion :
| Date | Countries/regions |
| May 22, 2018 | Australia Mexico New Zealand South Korea (paid only) United States |
| June 18, 2018 | Austria Canada Finland France Germany Ireland Italy Norway Russia (suspended on March 10, 2022 until further notice) Spain Sweden United Kingdom |
| August 29, 2018 | Belgium Netherlands Denmark Luxembourg |
| September 26, 2018 | Brazil |
| November 14, 2018 | Chile Colombia Japan Peru Portugal Switzerland Ukraine |
| March 13, 2019 | Argentina Bolivia Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Guatemala Honduras India Nicaragua Panama Paraguay South Africa Uruguay |
| May 16, 2019 | Bulgaria Cyprus Czech Republic Hungary North Macedonia Poland Romania |
| July 17, 2019 | Bosnia & Herzegovina Croatia Estonia Greece Iceland Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Malta Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Turkey |
| September 11, 2019 | Bahrain Israel Kuwait Lebanon Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates |
| November 6, 2019 | Hong Kong Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Taiwan Thailand |
| March 10, 2020 | Nigeria Turks and Caicos Islands Venezuela |
| June 10, 2020 | American Samoa Aruba Belarus Bermuda Cayman Islands Egypt French Guiana French Polynesia Guadeloupe Guam Northern Mariana Islands Papua New Guinea Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands |
| April 12, 2023 | Vietnam |
| August 2, 2023 | Bangladesh Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka |
| December 5, 2023 | Algeria Cambodia Georgia Ghana Iraq Jordan Kenya Laos Senegal Tunisia |
| March 14, 2024 | Azerbaijan Jamaica Kazakhstan Libya Morocco Réunion Tanzania Uganda Yemen Zimbabwe |