YouTube, long renowned for its vast video library, has quietly established itself as a formidable music streaming service. Its dedicated app, YouTube Music, offers a curated collection of songs, albums, and podcasts catering to various music lovers. With millions of songs and countless music videos, YouTube Music boasts a comprehensive catalog that rivals industry giants like Spotify and Apple Music.
The app utilizes advanced algorithms to suggest music based on your listening habits, ensuring a tailored and enjoyable experience. YouTube Premium subscribers can download their favorite tracks for offline playback, perfect for commutes, workouts, or areas with limited internet connectivity.
Suppose you’re wondering how YouTube Music compares to other music streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music. In that case, it depends on how frequently you rely on YouTube to search for music and how important music videos are to you. In this article, we’ll give you all the information you need to make an informed decision.
The basics
YouTube Music offers a simple, fast, minimalistic interface. With direct controls, it’s designed to get you to your favorite songs and music videos quickly. Its various sections include Home, Sample, Explore, and Library. The Home page contains your recommended songs, music videos, mixes, charts, and more. The Sample section, the newest service, features short video snippets curated based on your listening habits. Meanwhile, Explore allows you to discover new albums, while Library shows your listening history, favorite artists, and playlists.
YouTube Music uses your Google account information and history to personalize your experience. If you have been using YouTube to listen to music for some time, you will find prompts to add your favorite musicians and create a profile for recommendations. However, you can skip this step if you prefer. If left to its own devices, the app will automatically continue playing your past favorites.
Google introduced a link to Podcasts in the Home section in 2023. A glance at the section reveals that Google is not currently competing with Spotify and Apple Podcasts in terms of library size. Instead, the platform promotes podcasts that align with the listener’s musical preferences.
YouTube Music offers around 100 million tracks, which puts it in the same neighborhood as similar services like Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Spotify, Qobuz, and Tidal.
Free vs. Premium subscriptions
A free Google account allows free access to the YouTube music and podcast library. However, free users must deal with limitations such as occasional ads, no access to background playback, and limited control over song selection when listening to radio stations or playlists.
By subscribing to Buy at YouTube Music for $14 per month, you can remove ads, listen to content in the background, download content for offline use, and skip songs with no limitations.
You automatically have a YouTube Music Premium subscription if you are a YouTube Premium subscriber.
YouTube Premium Lite
Recently, YouTube launched a less expensive ad-supported tier of YouTube Premium called YouTube Premium Lite. While the $9-per-month plan offers “most video ad-free,” according to YouTube, we mention it here because unlike the standard Premium plan Lite does not include YouTube Music music and vides ad-free, not does it offer background play or downloads.
Audio quality
YouTube Music offers several different audio tiers you can switch between depending on how much bandwidth you are comfortable with taking up. These tiers also dictate how much audio will download onto your device and the size of those files:
- Low: This sets the bit rate to 48kbps AAC, which uses the least data.
- Normal: This is the default setting for YouTube Music and is set at 128kbps AAC. It balances data usage and sound quality.
- High: This option sets the bit rate to 256kbps AAC, and is ideal for locations with solid internet connections.
- Always High: This feature uses a bit rate of 256kbps AAC, but prioritizes high audio quality even with a weak internet connection, resulting in increased data usage.
You can switch between these anytime by heading to the YouTube Music settings. Downloads for offline listening provide you with standard audio files. YouTube Music does not offer the ability to listen to or download hi-res audio files — that’s one area where features like Apple, Tidal, and Amazon Music’s Hi-Fi tiers, among others, can go well beyond what YouTube Music is capable of. If audio quality is your top concern when subscribing to a service, YouTube Music isn’t the best choice. Still, it’s a very competitive option if you are interested in reliable streaming.
How much is YouTube Music?
After the free YouTube Music plan, there are three YouTube Music Premium plans to choose from, depending on your situation:
- Individual plan: $11 per month (you can cancel anytime); $110 (when paid annually, for a savings of 15%)
- Family plan: $17 per month (share with up to five family members living in the same household)
- Student plan: $5.50 per month (this requires student verification)
New subscribers can try YouTube Music Premium free for 30 days.
Platform compatibility
YouTube Music provides two ways to access its service: a web browser and a standalone app. The web browser option is suitable for using a desktop or laptop computer. However, you can download the app if you’d like to use the service on mobile devices like Android, Google/Android TV, ChromeOS, iOS, or WearOS for the Apple Watch. You can also easily cast the music video or any other content to a compatible screen using Chromecast.
Features and music discovery
Excellent video integration
Music videos are integrated into the music player and play automatically if they are available with a song (otherwise, you get album art). The videos will downsize and stay in the corner if you navigate elsewhere in the YouTube Music app. There are also options to search for live performances and similar categories specifically. That makes YouTube Music one of the best options if you like music videos or want a visual component in the background while listening to music.
Playlists and playback
You can also choose to create an automatic playlist based on what music videos you’ve liked and listened to in the past, or create a new playlist of your own and add songs — with options to make it public on your YouTube channel or set it as private. You can also do a lot with any song you’re looking at. Select the Dropdown menu to a song, and you’ll see options to play it next, add it to your current queue, add it to a playlist or your liked songs, learn more about the artist, and more.
Music discovery
YouTube Music will also produce automated mixes based on your favorite artists and radio station recommendations featuring the artists you like listening to. My Supermix is a great way to discover new music and many other genre-based new release mixes. You’ll also find recommendations from broadly popular playlists, current chart-toppers, specific genres, and more. If you like playlists, you’ll find a lot to love here, but YouTube doesn’t have any human-curated options, so you’ll have to put your faith in the algorithm.
YouTube Music’s search is also pretty good, allowing you a range of ways find something to listen to, beyond just the regular. Not only does the algorithm detect the time of day it is and suggest music to suit (it might offer up some lively music to wake you up in the morning, for example), but its Shazam-like feature can use your device’s microphone to listen to a song that’s playing if you like it and want to play it or add it to a playlist. Additionally, if you know a few of the words or a melody, you can speak or hum into your phone’s mic and Music will figure it out.
Real-time, scrolling lyrics
YouTube Music also offers lyrics for you to follow while you listen — or if you have a cool party speaker and are doing karaoke. Available with official music streams, lyrics are presented with real-time auto scrolling, and like karaoke the lyrics you’re singing are highlighted.
Fine-tuner
With the “Your Music Tuner” feature, you can create radio stations featuring music from up to 30 artists. The feature can be tweaked to your preferences, such as whether you want it to include only the artists you added or whether it’s OK to include similar artists.
