YouTube to launch music streaming, but not in Africa

“YouTube was made for video, not just music. On Tuesday, May 22, we’ll be changing that by introducing YouTube Music, a new music streaming service made for music with the magic of YouTube: making the world of music easier to explore and more personalised than ever,” YouTube said.

YouTube Music will only be available in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico from Tuesday. In the coming weeks, the service will be launched in the UK, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

YouTube has not announced any plans to roll out the service in Africa. However, it is likely that African users who want to access the service will go the proxy route as they did with Spotify before it was officially launched in South Africa this year.

YouTube Music will offer playlists, albums, official releases and music videos. The service will also include remixes, covers, live versions and 'deep cuts', which will be directed to devoted fans.

“YouTube Music search works even if fans don’t know exactly what they’re looking for, we’ll find it if they describe it, while the personalised home screen dynamically adapts to provide recommendations based on people’s listening history, where they are and what they’re doing,” YouTube said.

What’s the cost?

YouTube Music will offer a free ad-support service. Paid membership for YouTube music premium will cost subscribers $9.99 per month. The Premium service offers background play and downloads all without the hassle of advertisements.

Users with a Google Music subscriptions from YouTube's parent company Google will be able to enjoy YouTube Music under the same subscription.

YouTube users who pay for YouTube Red, which will be replaced by YouTube Premium, will pay the same amount as before. However, if they want to add YouTube Music they will have pay an additional $2.

"The days of jumping back and forth between multiple music apps and YouTube are over. Whether you want to listen, watch or discover, it’s all here," YouTube said.