YouTube Music rolls out 'Samples' feature: A TikTok-inspired short-form video feed for personalized music discovery

YouTube Music has introduced a new feature called "Samples," a short-form video feed similar to TikTok that offers personalized video clips of recommended songs, artists, and music videos. Users can navigate through the feed, powered by YouTube's library of official music videos and live performances, by swiping vertically.

The YouTube's Director of Product Management highlighted the increasing popularity of music discovery through short-form videos, especially among younger audiences. It stands as the second most popular mode of music discovery, following recommendations from friends and family. The Samples feed aims to promote user engagement by encouraging them to watch full music videos or live performances, add songs to their collection, share them, create playlists, visit album pages, start radio stations, or create Shorts (which have recently introduced new collaborative features and other enhancements).

The feed provides a variety of music tailored to user preferences and serves as a platform to introduce new content, but the platform also intends to incorporate short-form discovery into other areas of the app beyond the Samples feed. The Samples feature is currently being rolled out globally to YouTube Music users on both iOS and Android, so stay tuned to try out this new functionality and see if it truly manages to enhance your experience.