Google’s YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are now official

If something’s not broken and doesn’t need fixing, trust Google to provide a solution. The firm did this with its messaging services — now boasting more than five actual messaging apps — and now, Google Play Music is seemingly suffering the same fate.

The company on Thursday announced a new music service, the free-but-ad-supported YouTube Music that lumps in music streaming and YouTube’s host of videos and bespoke audio tracks.

There’s also a paid tier, which costs US$9.99, and gives users access to ad-free YouTube Music. For US$2 more, you can add ad-free “YouTube Premium” on top of that too, for a YouTube experience sans ads and access to Originals.

YouTube Premium is basically the new YouTube Red, by the way.

Screens of the YouTube Music though look great.

Adopting Spotify’s all-black-errythang aesthetic, it’s clean and commanded by AI savvy. Google Assistant reportedly plays a larger role in the app’s discovery abilities, while music and playlist recommendations will be made based on your location.

The service isn’t coming to South Africa anytime soon. Google’s initial list of countries does not include any on the African continent. But that does mean Google Play Music, for now, will remain unaffected.

But it’s hard to imagine Google keeping two streaming music services alive concurrently beyond the turn of the decade.

Feature image: Google/YouTube