YouTube reportedly planning to launch subscription-based streaming music video service this year

YouTube is planning to launch a subscription-based video-focused music streaming service, according to Billboard. Like many other streaming music services, YouTube’s program will have both free and paid accounts. Unlike other services, however, YouTube plans to integrate video into their platform by allowing users to stream music videos along with regular audio tracks.

Paid subscribers will reportedly an ad-free listening experience, on-demand access to any song or video in the service’s catalog, and unlimited streaming. Offline listening is also being considered, allowing subscribers to download songs to their mobile devices for playback even without an Internet connection.

Billboard also says that Google has already secured most of the licenses from U.S. music distributors needed to launch such a service. These licesnes were originally obtained for the All Access service, but will also allow YouTube to launch a streaming service.