YouTube Music was an app that was teased last month with the debut of YouTube Red, and now anyone can give the music-centric app a try.
YouTube Music is now available on Android and iOS. As you might’ve guessed by its name, YouTube Music aims to make finding and listening to tunes on YouTube easier, sort of like how YouTube Gaming is all about watching video games. The app can create a station of music videos that it thinks you’ll enjoy, or you can watch/listen to genre-specific stations. There are also YouTube Music Today lists, like a “The Daily 40” list that’ll play popular tracks and an “On the rise” list for upcoming songs and artists.
Another feature of YouTube Music is to help you find different versions of tracks that you listen to. For example, you can check out the video for a regular version of an artist’s songs and then hit up the Explore section for other versions, like tour videos and covers.
If you use YouTube Music with a YouTube Red subscription, you’ll get ad-free streaming, the ability to play music in the background while your screen is off, and support for saving music for offline listening. There’s also an audio mode that’ll play music without loading video. A subscription to YouTube Red costs $9.99 per month ($12.99 if you sign up through an iOS app).
If you use YouTube as your main source for listening to music, then YouTube Music looks like a pretty solid app. It’s focused on music and can give you recommendations for music that you might like as well as point you toward what’s hot. And if you pony up $10 for a YouTube Red sub, you can even get ad-free videos, audio-only playback, and background and offline playback, making YouTube Music into a pretty fully-featured music streaming service.
You can snag YouTube Red for Android and iOS at the links below. When you sign in to the app, you’ll get a free 14-day YouTube Red trial. If you’d prefer a longer trial, you can sign up through YouTube Red for a 1-month trial.
