YouTube to launch premium on-demand music service

Spotify, but with video. That’s the plan for YouTube’s premium on-demand music service, which is being rolled out this year, according to Billboard.

Detractors might argue that this is basically what YouTube has offered for years, however this new service is said to be geared to mobile devices, with the free tier featuring unlimited access on all platforms, which will be ad-supported much in the way that YouTube currently is. The paid service will eliminate the advertising, and allow caching for offline access - which may raise copyright concerns.

Billboard suggests that the music-licensing aspect required with a paid service is part of a strategic move to allow cross-promotion and packaging of music with other Google products, which suddenly gives this service a lot more purpose - at least from Google’s point of view. From the consumer point-of-view, while shelling out for something that has been free for years seems counter-intuitive, if they can manage to include most of the features Spotify and similar streaming services boast, but with the added might of the YouTube library – not to mention the visual element – Google might succeed in converting quite a few paid customers from other streaming services.