Last year, YouTube Music became Google’s primary streaming service with the company telegraphing that Play Music will eventually be replaced. Google this month will close the Google Play Artist Hub that musicians use to directly interact with the Play Store.
Back in November, our APK Insight of YouTube Music revealed work on letting users play on-device audio files. This is an important step towards making the app Android’s default playback client. YouTube Music 3.09 today reveals more about the functionality, specifically its limitations.
YouTube Music last week saw a wider international release to 14 countries including India and South Africa. The latest version of the app now lets users manually improve their music recommendations, while the iOS client adds animated thumbnails for videos.
Google’s premier streaming services, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have now rolled out to a further 14 nations as the service continues to expand since launching in May 2018.
Following Spotify and Samsung expanding their music partnership this morning, Google will give four months of YouTube Premium to Galaxy S10 owners. This deal will also be extended to the Galaxy Fold in April, while other Samsung devices will benefit from a similar offer until next year.
Earlier this week, Google Clock added support for musical alarms from YouTube Music, while last month the streaming service gained Android Auto integration with version 3.03. That update also added rudimentary support for playing on-device audio files.
Last July, Google Clock added support for custom musical alarms from third-party streaming services. Spotify was the first partner at launch, with YouTube Music and Pandora following today in the latest update.
Android Auto is becoming a selling point for cars nowadays, and to that end, it can definitely make or break what music service you use. Mind-bogglingly, Google just added support for Android Auto to YouTube Music this week. Let’s take a quick hands-on look.
Recent updates to YouTube Music have added major features like Sonos integration, and more minor tweaks from Queue changes to expanded “Add to playlist” availability. YouTube Music 3.03 adds Android Auto support, and continues work on letting users play “sideloaded” songs.
Since launch, YouTube Music has slowly added new features including UI tweaks and Queue changes last month, as well as Sonos speaker integration. However, Google’s music streaming service is still frustratingly missing functionality as evidenced by the latest addition: adding full albums and playlists to other playlists.
Since launching last year, YouTube Music has slowly added new features like Top 100 Charts and design tweaks earlier this month on Android and iOS. Today, Google’s latest streaming service is adding Sonos speaker integration.
Since launching last year, Google’s latest streaming service has slowly gained new features, and continues work on others. YouTube Music 2.67 features slight interface changes and tweaks to the now playing queue.
The first update of 2019 for Google’s latest streaming service is now available and reveals more work on reaching feature parity with Play Music. YouTube Music 2.65 continues development on sideloaded tracks and suggests that the app could be pre-installed on devices in the future.
For Google, “presenting” major sporting events and award shows have served as a good way to advertise its brand and paid services. The latest sponsorship is for the Times Square Ball Drop broadcast and musical show on New Year’s Eve to showcase YouTube Music.
Earlier this year, YouTube introduced revamped music Charts that reveal trending songs, artists, and other metrics by country. These local and global top lists are now being integrated into YouTube Music for quick browsing and instant listening.
Back in September, YouTube Music for Android and iOS added streaming and downloading quality controls to let users better manage data usage on mobile. These settings are now coming to the YouTube Music web app.
Back in September, we spotted YouTube Music working on an equalizer to allow more advanced users to adjust audio settings. This customization option now appears to be live and widely rolled out with the latest version of the Android app.
YouTube Music 2.61 is beginning to roll out on Android with follow-up about the upcoming features revealed during the last update. This version better details the autoplay functionality, listening to on-device songs, and more.
Pricing changes have arrived today for both YouTube Premium and YouTube Music Premium. The discounted YouTube plans are now available for students with 50% off the streaming music and video services normal pricing.
With the launch of YouTube Music earlier this year, Google detailed how the company’s latest streaming service would get Play Music’s major features before a tentative 2019 migration. Work on that appears to be underway with YouTube Music 2.59 released today.
In addition to temporary Hardware Stores in major cities for the holiday season, Made by Google relies on pop-up experiences to advertise its latest product. Last year’s were focused on the Google Home Mini, but this fall Google is taking the Pixel 3 to the streets with the “Sights of Sound.”
Last month, YouTube Music finally rolled out streaming and download quality controls. Google’s latest attempt at streaming music is now tweaking the albums and playlists UI to make it easier to quickly start playback and shuffle.
The state of Google’s media services is currently a bit of a mess. The lines between Google Play Music and YouTube are blurred in somewhat confusing ways. This has caused double-billing issues for some, which Google has now addressed in a new support guide.
Back in August, Google officially announced audio streaming and download quality controls for YouTube Music. The company also announced that its latest streaming service would adopt a more consistent update cycle. This evening, the much sought after feature is finally beginning to roll out on Android.
