YouTube unveils paid, ad-free music subscription service
 

YouTube has officially entered the music business upon announcement this week that the Google-owned video sharing site will soon launch a paid service that will offer customers the offer to stream high-quality versions of millions of songs.

On Wednesday, YouTube settled months of speculation by formally unveiling a portal on the website?s homepage, as well as mobile applications for Android and iOS devices, that will offer an ad-free listening experience made possible by the site?s impressive cache of tunes and the more than 30 million songs already included through its parent company?s Google Play Music service. The service, ?Music Key,? will start offering subscriptions at a promotional rate of $7.99 a month.

?You've watched, shared, remixed, invented, parodied and whatevered your favorite songs, making YouTube the ultimate place for artists and fans to connect,? the company said in a press release. ?To celebrate all that music and unlock new ways to enjoy, we?re making it easier to find new music on YouTube and rock out to old favorites. Plus, we?re starting the launch of a new subscription service that lets you watch and listen to music without ads, in the background or offline.?

?Starting today, you?ll see a new home just for music on your YouTube app for Android, iOS and on YouTube.com that shows your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists based on what you?re into and playlists of trending music across YouTube,? the statement continues.

Continued http://rt.com/usa/204951-youtube-music-key-launched/

Interesting move. Now there "crackdown" on you piracy sites makes perfect sense.

LOL

That's a conspiracy. Half the music on youtube is pirated.

Youtube has so many legitimate content partners now that they could do away with user uploads completely and only display content from verified content producers who have been uploading to YouTube for years.

Google are in a position to censor over 90% of piracy on the web if they wanted to, perhaps the tide is turning...

If Youtube removed all of the pirated content their popularity would drop within 24 hours. They survive on stolen content.

I saw a promo video and it shows streaming video. You don't need to see moving images for listening to music ! Even if you can disable it by turning off your phone and still hearing the music.

In the beginning yes, now... not so much.

There are literally 10s of thousands of Youtube channels with people/companies creating original content.

now pay us to listen music

IMHO, it a train wreck waiting to happen -- a no starter.

If they were to sell uploaded copyright infringing music they would be liable for criminal copyright infringement and lose safe harbor.

If Youtube removes all of the "user uploads" to be sure there is no infringing music content most of their inventory is gone.

The only way this could work is that the paid subscription service will be limited to "official" uploads of copyright holders -- I would expect the offer to be amended to this before release.