Google promoted YouTube Music greatly, making it the default music app in new Android phones

YouTube Music: everything you should know about the app. Source: unsplash.com

YouTube hosting service created a separate app for music lovers in 2015. The testing period revealed some flaws and YouTube Music was completely relaunched in 2018. It gained extreme popularity within a few years. In particular, Google promoted YouTube Music greatly, making it the default music app in new Android phones.

In February 2020, YouTube’s parent company Alphabet announced that there were more than 20 million subscribers to YouTube Music and YouTube Premium combined.

However, the service is available without any premium membership too. Hence, the total number of users has grown from fewer than 8 million active users at the end of 2017, to more than 77 million active users by the end of 2019, according to data from App Annie.

Today, when Google Play Music ceases operations, all the users will be redirected to YouTube Music as well.

With people in many countries still working from home and the increased online time, YouTube streaming service has all the chances to develop a loyal customer base this year.

YouTube Music features

The content presented in the app includes

• official songs (audio and video clips),
• albums,
• playlists,
• artist radios,
• remixes,
• records of live performances.

YouTube Music features. Source: unsplash.com

The users can enjoy unlimited music tracks with a high level of personalization. The advantages of the service are:

• the home screen with the playlists constantly updates to provide recommendations based on your listening habits (the more music you listen to, the more accurate recommendations you get),
• you can select your preferences from the list of the artists popular in your country,
• the app can use location tracking to modify your music suggestions according to the type of activity (different tracks will be proposed depending on whether you are in the gym, park, café or office),
• personalized playlists — Discover Mix, New Release Mix and Your Mix — help users enjoy the music they’ve never heard before,
• YouTube Music is now beginning to roll out built-in lyrics on Android and iOS so that you can sing along or even study foreign languages,
• the app is remarkably simple in layout and easy to use,
• you can manage your watchlist,
• songs can be shuffled or repeated as in any music player,
• you can share playlists by sending a link via email, messengers or sharing option for social networks like Facebook and Twitter,
• YouTube Music users on iOS devices can see a preview of any music videos for a few seconds without any audio. If you want to continue viewing the video after the preview, you can tap to play it. You can also turn off the preview mode, or choose to only play previews while on Wi-Fi.

The Premium subscription gives more privileges that are really worth the money:

• no ads in-between the music videos,
• ability to switch between the audio-only and video modes,
• the app will continue working on the background,
• you can download music for offline listening. If you set up an Offline Mixtape, YouTube Music will automatically download content for you based on your previous listening history,
• if you’re a YouTube Music Premium or a YouTube Premium member, you get access to your paid membership benefits and your music library in the YouTube Music app, even if you travel to a country/region where YouTube Music isn’t available.

How much does it cost?

How much does it cost? Source: unsplash.com

If you are a first-time subscriber, you have a right for a free trial period.

The free trials are available to those who haven’t participated in a trial for YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium, YouTube Red or Google Play Music before, and never had a membership for one of these services.

The free trial usually lasts for 1 month. It can be extended as a part of promotion as it happened last year with the Samsung Galaxy S10 owners. They had free access to the premium version of the YouTube services for the whole 4 months.

Once the trial period is over, the fees differ from country to country.

USA

You can buy a YouTube Music Premium subscription for $9.99 per month for one user and $14.99 per month for a family plan. Students are subject to the discount and can pay only $4.99 under the student plan.

UK

YouTube Music’s monthly cost is now just ￡4.99 for students, down from ￡9.99 for the ordinary users. The family plan costs ￡14.99.

India

This country enjoys some of the lowest rates for the service. YouTube Music Premium here costs users only 99 rupees per month ($1.42).

Europe

Here the pricing policies also differ. For instance, the basic plan for Lithuanian citizens costs 6.99EUR, while in Poland the price is cheaper – around 4.44EUR.

On average, the monthly fees for the premium music access range from $3 to $10.

The family plan allows to add five family members (six accounts total) that are older than 12 and live in the same location where you do.

As the account holder, or family manager, you’ll create a Google family group.

As a family member, you can use your own Google Account (not a G Suite one) to access any kind of the YouTube paid membership. Your personal library, subscriptions, and recommendations won’t be shared across accounts.

Family plans are currently not available in Iceland, Israel, Slovenia, South Korea, or Venezuela.

The student plan benefits can be generally applied for no longer than 4 years. Every year, a subscriber has to prove their being a student with a valid student ID. The procedure will vary depending on the region.

YouTube Music Premium vs YouTube Premium

YouTube Music Premium vs YouTube Premium. Source: unsplash.com

If you’re interested in the paid membership, you shall not spare a few bucks and splurge on the full YouTube Premium account.

Across all the countries, the difference in fees is not significant, especially compared to the additional benefits.

• YouTube Premium includes the YouTube Music Premium features,
• All the content in both video and music streaming apps is ad-free,
• You get access to YouTube Originals shows,
• If you haven’t found a song (music video) in YouTube Music, the app can redirect you to the ordinary YouTube content, etc.

Availability

The app is available in more than 70 countries.

It works on Android phones and tablets running version 4.4 or above; iPhones and iPads running iOS 7 or above; and on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge for desktop interfaces.

As for the content presented, it might be the biggest catalog of professional, semi-professional, and amateur music available in the world.

How to transfer Google Play music to YouTube music

This May, Google officially announced the pending closure of the Google Play Music service. Although there’s no final date of the app no longer supported, it will allegedly happen by the end of the year.

Nevertheless, for the time being, users will continue to have access to both services. They will receive emails with detailed instructions on how to transfer the content from one app to the other quite soon.

How to transfer Google Play music to YouTube music. Source: stocksnap.io

The process of getting your Google Play music libraries, personal taste preferences, music history and playlists to YouTube Music is quite easy:

1. Download the YouTube Music app.
2. Tap on your profile picture to choose Settings – Transfer.
3. Click on the transfer option and then Transfer from Google Play Music. The Transfer confirmation button will appear in the lower right corner.
4. You’ll get an email and notifications when your music library transfer is complete and your music is in the “Library” tab.
5. You can transfer as often as you like until Google Play Music is no longer available.
6. Stations you’ve added to your Google Play Music library can now be found under Playlists in the YouTube Music app.
7. The uploaded content should be in the Library under the Uploads Tab.

There’s also a separate website created for this purpose. However, it’s rolling out gradually, so not all the customers may be able to transfer their libraries with this link at the moment.

Please note that while all of your uploads and purchases will be transferred, certain songs or albums may not transfer due to rights or licensing issues.

At the same time, if you added music to Google Play Music and it disappeared due to rights or licensing, it may reappear in YouTube Music.

To migrate your music, you may need to create a YouTube channel if you do not already have one and you want to transfer your playlists.

This transfer process is not supported in Venezuela and Belarus.

For most Google Play Music subscribers, the monthly rate and billing details, including the billing date, will remain the same and transfer to YouTube Music.

In some cases, Google may need you to confirm your billing information before it can finish the transfer. If so, they’ll inform you with an email about how to complete the confirmation.

For subscribers in Croatia, Serbia, and other regions where local currency rates fluctuate, your subscription price may be slightly different than you were previously paying.

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