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YouTube Music

A new music streaming service from YouTube

Visit YouTube Music

Overview

What YouTube Music does

YouTube Music is a music streaming service that provides personalized recommendations, official albums, music videos, live performances, and remixes.

What people use it for

  • Music streaming
  • Video watching
  • Discovery

Related searches

The honest half

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about YouTube Music.

  • Free tier includes unskippable ads which interrupts music listening
  • User-uploaded content creates inconsistent audio quality and metadata compared to official releases
  • Limited music discovery and recommendation features compared to Spotify's AI-powered algorithms

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of YouTube Music

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

  • YouTube Music logo
    YouTube Music    vs
    Spotify logo
    Spotify

    Spotify: Market-leading music streaming service with superior music discovery algorithms and artist tools.

  • YouTube Music logo
    YouTube Music    vs
    Apple Music logo
    Apple Music

    Apple Music: Premium music streaming integrated with Apple ecosystem offering lossless audio and exclusive content.

Pricing

What YouTube Music costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Free

Free

  • Ad-supported listening
  • Music videos

Premium

$11.99 /mo

  • Ad-free
  • Offline downloads
  • Background playback

Family

$18.99 /mo

  • Up to 6 accounts
  • Parental controls

Student

$5.99 /mo

  • Ad-free
  • YouTube Premium included

Capabilities

Features

  • Music streaming

    Music streaming capability

  • Music videos

    Music videos capability

  • Live performances

    Live performances capability

  • Personalization

    Personalization capability

  • Google services

    Integration with Google services

  • Smart speakers

    Integration with Smart speakers

  • Android Auto

    Integration with Android Auto

  • Google account security

    Google account security security feature

  • Family controls

    Family controls security feature

  • Web support

    Available on web

  • Ios support

    Available on ios

  • Android support

    Available on android

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

How much does YouTube Music Premium cost?

YouTube Music Premium costs $11.99 per month for individual subscriptions, $18.99 per month for family plans (up to 6 accounts), and $5.99 per month for students.

Source
Does YouTube Music have a free tier?

Yes, YouTube Music offers a free version with access to music and music videos but includes occasional unskippable ads. Free users can create playlists and discover music but lack premium features like offline downloads.

Source
What makes YouTube Music different from other streaming services?

YouTube Music uniquely provides access to official songs, music videos, live performances, remixes, and user-uploaded content not available on other platforms. Users can seamlessly switch between audio and official music videos.

Source

Behind it

Who makes YouTube Music

Company
Google LLC
Based in
San Bruno, CA
Founders
Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim

Timeline

YouTube Music over time

  1. Launch2020-01-01

    Google Music and YouTube Music merge to form YouTube Music Premium

    Source
  2. Launch2015-01-01

    YouTube Music app unveiled

    Source
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Keep looking

Where to go from YouTube Music

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for YouTube Music, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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