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YouTube Music reaches 50 million premium subscribers, driven by emerging markets and Gen Z
It was definitely worth killing Google Play Music, right? Right?
Google's introduction of the branded YouTube Music service, and its cold-blooded murder shutdown of the older Google Play Music service, hasn't been all that smooth. But apparently it's been profitable. Google's Global Head of Music for YouTube, Lyor Cohen, says that the service now has 50 million subscribers across the various options.
Google is now pushing its subscription services on its hardware store
One place to subscribe to them all
Google is an advertising business first and foremost, though over the last few years, the company has introduced many paid services: YouTube Premium, Google One, Fi, and Stadia Pro come to mind, among many others. There's never been a central hub where you could find Google's subscription offers, but that's now a thing of the past: You can see all of the company's paid services in one place on the Google Store.
YouTube Music on Android Auto now supports uploaded song playback for free users
Plus there's a queue now to see what's up next
After years of good times and good tunes, Google Play Music is officially dead. YouTube Music is the new home for Google's streaming aspirations, but it still has a ways to go before reaching feature parity with the departed GPM. Thankfully, the YouTube Music experience on Android Auto is getting a few new upgrades that help to bridge the gap — including more functionality for free users.
YouTube Music now lets free users download playlists containing uploaded songs
Uploads get a little bit closer to being first class citizens
YouTube Music has been picking up features like crazy over the past few months. Google's latest music streaming effort has added support for asking Assistant to play personal playlists, viewing lyrics on the web, and even an improved Android TV experience. The latest change to the platform sees free users gaining the ability to download uploaded songs contained in playlists.
YouTube Premium and Music now available in Nigeria, Turks and Caicos Islands, Venezuela
The services are now available in 80 countries
YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium is now available in 80 countries. The programs reached that milestone by becoming available in Nigeria, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Venezuela.
YouTube launched YouTube Premium and YouTube Music in India last March, and while at the time users could only subscribe to a monthly plan, Google today announced that customers in India can prepay for the services one or three months at a time, with no subscription required.
Student pricing is a perk offered by many services who want to hook up young users and give them a way to pay within their financial reach. YouTube already offers it for its Music Premium and Premium plans in many countries, and now it's expanding that to 14 more.
Continuing its expansion across the globe, YouTube's paid Premium membership is making its way to my neck of the woods. The service is now available in eight new countries in the Middle East, most of which are in the GCC area. If you live around here, you probably didn't expect Premium to come to us this "soon" after its international launch, so the news is a nice late-night surprise.
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- While a lot of Google services start out as US exclusives, many ultimately expand their reach internationally. But the nature of that expansion can vary wildly, and while some offerings are quick to find global support, others spread at a far more reserved pace. A couple months back we saw the first, early steps Google was taking to bring YouTube Premium discounts to students in more countries. Now that access is seriously expanding, with availability extending to students in an additional 20 countries:
Until today, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium plans offered special pricing for students, though only in the USA. But now, the reduced cost option is available in eight new countries.
It's been a bit over a year since YouTube Premium and Music Premium first launched. Since then, the music streaming service and ad-free YouTube subscription have expanded to more and more countries, from South America to Asia and Europe. This May, 7 European nations were added and now 13 more are joining them.
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Google's move from Play Music to YouTube Music is still unresolved — especially since the final transition of libraries and uploaded content between the two still hasn't happened — but the latter is picking up a new feature to help with offline playback. "Smart Downloads," as it's called, will pull down up to 500 songs that you've "liked" via that button, intelligently selecting and downloading them over Wi-Fi for later enjoyment.
Little by little, Google's been making YouTube Premium and YouTube Music available to more and more users. Sometimes that means making the services available on new devices, or offering discounts to lower the barrier to entry. But a lot of the time, it's just about rolling them out to new countries. So far this year we've seen expansion into India, South Africa, and Latin America, and today that trend continues with a push further into Europe.
Google has a unique position with YouTube Music, since YouTube itself is home to countless music-related videos. Indian users can now join in on the fun, with both YouTube Music and Premium officially launching in the country.
YouTube's paid offerings are expanding to more and more countries. After an initial launch in the US in June, they have now reached over 25 nations worldwide and don't seem to be slowing down.
It's been a volatile time for Google's streaming services. YouTube Red was rebranded as YouTube Premium in May and YouTube Music Premium was launched, which lacked some features found on Google Play Music. The product team held an AMA to calm some of the anger behind it all. Amid the confusion, it’s possible users might have subscribed to memberships with the same services. To help customers sort out their subscription mess and save some money, Google posted a YouTube Help document detailing the various feature sets and steps to take for remedying duplicate music accounts.
YouTube Premium and Music Premium are continuing their slow global expansion — though to be honest, they seem to be doing it at a rate faster than Google Play Music ever did. The latest addition is one of the world's largest countries in both surface and population, Brazil.
In February, we posted a teardown that revealed audio quality controls for YouTube Music Premium much like those in Google Play Music. The settings remained inaccessible, however, until an app update on Friday, Sept. 21st. YouTube Music Premium users can now set the quality for audio downloads for both wifi and mobile data. These controls mirror the options available in Play Music, which have been available for nearly two years.
If there's any constant in the Android Police tips inbox I can rely on, it's that our Dutch readers are the most enthusiastic of the bunch. Any new feature launches in the country and we're bound to get inundated with emails, but this time, it's not just The Netherlands that should be happy, three other countries in Europe are getting YouTube Premium as well.
The Lenovo Smart Display is officially on sale, and Google is offering a perk for anyone who purchases either the 8" or 10" model of the Assistant with a screen: a free three-month trial of YouTube Premium (formerly Red). However, as is normally the case with these things, there's fine print to mind. And it's worth noting that this deal isn't anything that we haven't seen before.
The switch from Google Play Music to YouTube Music hasn't been a very smooth one. Google is still ironing out the kinks, and one of the features that fell by the wayside was support for the new service on Google Home. See, even though YouTube Music has started rolling out in many countries, it can't be set as a music provider on Assistant or Home speakers in most of them. Only the US, Australia, and Mexico supported it until a couple of days ago, but the UK is joining them now.