You know that YouTube, primarily a video viewing and sharing service, has become bigger than itself when people start using it listen to music more than just to watch. It seems that YouTube plans to capitalize on this latest user trend by launching a subscription-based music service soon.
YouTube has amassed a not insignificant amount of music videos over the years. Users these days turn YouTube into a sort of jukebox, searching for their favorite artist or song and listening, if not watching, to them. Sources close to the matter are saying that YouTube is planning on making that activity an official YouTube thing with a premium music service later this year.
According to these sources, there will be both free and paid tiers to the service. Surprisingly, the free tier is said to already give unlimited access to full tracks, making it a bit hard to imagine what the benefits of a paid subscription would be. A “no ads” feature immediately comes to mind.
Of course, Google would not comment to confirm or deny rumors. But it is not hard to imagine YouTube going down that road in the near future as it already has a lot of the necessary pieces in place, including licenses from various artists and studios. Moreover, last September, Google elaborated on offline viewing for YouTube, which sounds like a good fit for a subscription service feature.
SOURCE: Billboard
