YouTube’s paid service Music Key is Spotify for music videos and it only costs $8

By Malarie Gokey Published November 12, 2014

Spotify made paying for unlimited music popular. Now YouTube hopes to do the same for music videos with its new service Music Key. The idea is to get people paying to watch music videos instead of stream them for free. Currently, Music Key is an invite-only beta and those who sign up to test the service will have access to the service for six months at no cost, before they have to fork over $8 a month. YouTube added that the final price will be $10 a month, but it hopes to get more users on the bandwagon by offering a lower introductory price.

YouTube plans to convert its millions of users to the premium subscription service by offering a bunch of goodies that will make many music streaming fans excited. Those who subscribe to Music key will have access to the 30 million tracks in the Google Play Music library, ad-free music videos, background playback, and offline caching, so that you can view videos and listen to music even when your Internet connection cuts out.

Recommended Videos

With Music Key, you’ll also be able to listen to entire albums in high-quality audio from the YouTube app. There will also be playlists available for your listening pleasure that are organized by theme and artist. YouTube will also give you recommendations based on your listening history to help you find new artists you might enjoy.

Most of the same features will be available to normal YouTube users, but they’ll have to deal with ads. YouTube is hoping that offline playback and the end of ads will be enough to convince people to pay for Music Key. After all, if it worked for Spotify, why not for YouTube? YouTube says its offering invites to its biggest music fans and creators, but that anyone who’s interested in testing out the beta can sign up on the new, Music Key website.

The decision to add a paid subscription service to YouTube seems to have been in the works for at least a year. Earlier reports mentioned that YouTube was mulling the idea over and signing deals with record labels to make it work. Indie artists put up a fight for a time, but it seems that they caved recently, giving YouTube full authority to push ahead with its plans.

Former Mobile Editor

As DT's Mobile Editor, Malarie runs the Mobile and Wearables sections, which cover smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and…

Topics

Phones

Galaxy Z Fold 8: Everything we know

Samsung's boldest foldable redesign yet is now official, with a lighter build, a genuinely useful cover screen, and pricing that undercuts the pricier Fold 8 Ultra.

Symbol, Electronics, Mobile Phone

For most of its existence, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold has solved one problem while creating another. The book-style foldable has let buyers carry a tablet-sized screen in their pocket without actually carrying a tablet. But, through no fault of its own, that came at the cost of a cover screen so tall and narrow that using it one-handed felt unnatural and uncomfortable.

Viewing content on the inner screen came with giant black bars at the top and bottom, too. Samsung has now fixed that with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, and it's official: shorter, wider, passport-shaped, and a cover screen you can actually type on without contorting your fingers.

Phones

Samsung’s next tracker may look better while becoming harder to actually attach

Samsung may redesign the SmartTag right into an AirTag annoyance

Samsung Galaxy SmartTag 2 in Black and White variants

Samsung appears ready to redesign its Galaxy SmartTag again. This time, the makeover could come at the expense of one of the SmartTag 2’s most practical advantages. SamMobile's latest report has shared the supposed design of the upcoming Galaxy SmartTag 3.

The smart tracker can be seen with a compact squircle-shaped body that resembles Samsung's recent One UI icons and the shape used around newer Galaxy Watch displays. In comparison, the current SmartTag 2 looks a lot different, with a longer pill-shaped body dominated by a big integrated loop at one end. The leaked SmartTag 3 diagram does away with that loop entirely.

Phones

Tecno shows off a bezel-less concept phone that looks achingly breathtaking

Tecno's bezel-free phone could be revealed at IFA 2026 in September.

Tecno camon bezel free concept phone.

Say what you will about bezel-less phones, how bad they are for typing, and how they are a glorified ergonomics nightmare, but you can't deny their charm. For over a decade, smartphone makers have made numerous attempts to reduce or eliminate those black borders. The likes of Vivo went with a sloping screen, while others like the ill-fated Essential and Xiaomi just kept trimming the sides. Apple and Samsung followed in their footsteps, but neither of them has tried anything too audacious lately.

Tecno, it seems, wants to go bezel-less without any tricks. The brand just released a short teaser video showing its "next-gen bezelless concept phone." It's a concept phone, so keep that designation in mind. The brand hasn't said when this phone will be officially showcased, or launched, but IFA 2026 is our best bet. As for the device itself, it just looks stunning, and rumors also suggest that the bezel race will be white hot in 2027.