We have covered countless rumors over the past year about YouTube’s paid music streaming service and today it has been officially unveiled at last. The streaming service is called YouTube Music Key and Google is rolling it out gradually. At first it will be an invite-only process before a broader release which is slated to take place in early 2015.
Its not like YouTube Music Key will have an easy time against its rivals which includes the likes of Spotify and Beats Music. Google is hoping to get some eyeballs for this service by offering it free for the first six months before charging a promotional price of $7.99 per month. Once the broader launch takes place the subscription fee will go up to $9.99 which is at par with Spotify. Google Play Music subscribers will have access to YouTube Music Key as well.
Now this doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to listen to music for free on YouTube. That offering will be revamped as well but users will be able to listen to music and watch lyric/music videos through desktop and mobile like before. The subscription service will cater to those who want an ad-free experience as well as the ability to listen offline.
If it ever bothered you that the YouTube app can’t play music in the background while you’re in another app this pain will be eliminated by Music Key, since it brings that ability as well.
Over the next couple of weeks invites will be sent out to those who get to try the service in beta for free over the next six months. The first update will be pushed out for Android later this week, with the iOS app receiving an update later this month.