YouTube Red becoming YouTube Premium; YouTube Music coming May 22nd
Google has announced that its YouTube Red subscription program will be retooled into YouTube Premium. In addition, a new subscription service dedicated to music (aptly named YouTube Music) will also roll out starting on May 22nd.
In its official announcement blog post, YouTube Premium is set to include all of YouTube's Red features (ad-free video streaming, offline playback, and background video playing on mobile devices) as well as additional original shows and movies, as well as YouTube Music.
YouTube Music, according to its separate announcement blog post, will get a dedicated mobile app and desktop player for playing back the music content on YouTube. According to YouTube, that content includes "thousands of playlists, the official versions of millions of songs, albums, artist radio and more, in addition to all the music videos people expect" on top of the remixes and covers that can be found on the video streaming site.
In terms of pricing, existing YouTube Red subscribers will automatically be upgraded to YouTube Premium at no extra charge ($9.99 USD monthly). However, for those who do not subscribe by YouTube Premium's launch, YouTube Music will take YouTube Red's place in the pricing structure, with YouTube Premium for new subscribers being more expensive than for those that previously had YouTube Red subscriptions ($11.99 USD monthly). This makes YouTube Music's pricing fall in line with competitors such as Apple Music and Spotify.
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YouTube is a video-sharing website, the site allows users to upload, view, and share videos.