YouTube Music launches Explore tab for mobile users

The full version of the Explore tab service, which is now available, lets users easily find singles, playlists and albums available on the home screen. YouTube Music started rolling out the service in March and looks similar to Spotify’s interface. The streaming platform also contains music videos listed by moods like ‘chill’ and ‘focus’.

The YouTube Music Explore tab update also includes an in-app song lyrics feature, which has been in beta for about six months. In March, YouTube owner Google began delivering static lyrics on its app through LyricFind.

Explore replaces Hotlist, which has been a part of YouTube Music since the last relaunch. Explore is focused on helping users discover new music and find playlists while Hotlist reflected the initial video-heavy focus by highlighting what was trending on YouTube.

Google has been bolstering its music streaming platform before it makes Google Play Music (GPM), which was launched in 2011, redundant. With the latter service’s expected removal this year, YouTube Music is now the focus for music delivery.

YouTube Music has replaced GPM as the default music player on Android devices, which helped boost the platform to the top of the ‘most-downloaded’ apps charts.

However, YouTube Music still lags considerably behind music streaming leader Spotify, in terms of paying users.

The streaming platform reported more than 20 million paying subscribers last year, while Spotify recently posted more than 130 million in its quarter one earnings. The Swedish company expects to grow this number to between 143 and 153 million premium subscribers by the end of 2020.