Summary
YouTube is not only a top spot for videos, but also for music, among the most popular websites worldwide. Google’s decision to consolidate all that music into a single app, YouTube Music, comes as no surprise. There are paid and free tiers to the app, which both provide access to music and podcasts.
How often you use YouTube to find music and how significant music videos are to you are the main factors that determine how YouTube Music compares to other music streaming services such as Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music. You will find all the necessary details to make a well-informed choice in this post.
The fundamentals
YouTube Music has an easy-to-navigate, lightning-fast, and spare user interface. Its user-friendly interface is intended to provide speedy access to your preferred musical selections and films. Library, Explore, Home, and Sample are some of its parts. Everything from mixes to charts to music videos to songs you’ve suggested may be found on the Home page. The most recent addition to the service, the Sample area, offers personalized short video clips based on your listening preferences. Library displays your listening history, preferred artists, and playlists, while Explore helps you find new music.
For a more tailored experience, YouTube Music pulls data from your Google account and past listening habits. After you’ve been a YouTube music listener for a while, you’ll see prompts to establish a profile and add your favorite artists. If you’d rather not do this step, however, that’s OK. If you just let the program run, it will keep playing the songs you’ve already liked.
In 2023, Google included a Podcasts link to the Home area. Looks like Google isn’t trying to compete with Spotify or Apple Podcasts just yet when it comes to collection size. The service instead suggests podcasts based on the user’s previous listening habits.
With a library of almost 100 million songs, YouTube Music is right up there with services like Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Spotify, and Qobuz.
Premium memberships vs. free ones
With a free Google account, you can listen to music and podcasts on YouTube. On the other hand, there are certain restrictions that free users have to cope with, such commercials popping up every now and again, not being able to play music in the background, and not having much choice over which songs play on a radio station or playlist.
With a YouTube Music Premium subscription, you can mute advertisements, listen to music offline, skip songs as you choose, and save videos to listen to later.
Anyone who subscribes to YouTube Premium also has access to YouTube Music Premium.
Spotify vs. YouTube Music: so similar, but which suits you the best?
Sound reproduction
Depending on your bandwidth preferences, YouTube Music has many audio tiers for you to choose from. Also determined by these tiers is the quantity and amount of the audio that will be downloaded to your device:
Selecting “Low” will set the bit rate to 48 kbps AAC, the most data-efficient option.
The default option for YouTube Music is Normal, which is set at 128kbps AAC. Both data use and audio quality are balanced.
For areas with reliable internet access, choose “High,” which will set the bit rate to 256 kbps AAC.
In all cases This function emphasizes good audio quality even with a bad internet connection, which results in greater data use, and it utilizes a bit rate of 256kbps AAC.
In the YouTube Music preferences, you’ll see the option to toggle between them. Typical audio files are what you’ll get when you download them for offline listening. When it comes to listening to or downloading high-resolution audio files, YouTube Music falls short compared to services like Apple Music, Tidal, and Amazon Music’s Hi-Fi tiers. If you’re looking for a service that prioritizes audio quality, YouTube Music may not be the right fit for you. In any case, if you care about dependable streaming, it’s a very competitive alternative.
Levels and prices
Three different YouTube Music Premium plans are available after the free one, so you may choose the one that’s best for you:
Monthly fee: $11 (cancel anytime) or $110 (a 15% discount when paid yearly) for an individual plan.
Monthly cost: $17 for a family plan that covers up to five people living in the same home.
Monthly fee for students: $5.50 (verification of student status is required).
For the first 30 days, new customers may listen to YouTube Music Premium at no cost.
The interoperability of platforms
A web browser and a standalone app are the two ways that YouTube Music may be accessed. Any desktop or laptop computer may use the web browser option. Nevertheless, if you choose to access the service on a mobile device—be it an Apple Watch, Google Pixel, ChromeOS, Android, or any other operating system—you may install the app. Chromecast also makes it easy to cast videos, music, or any other material to a compatible screen.
Highlights and discovery of new music
If there is a music video accompanying the song, it will play immediately inside the music player; otherwise, album art will be shown. If you go to a different part of the YouTube Music app, the videos will shrink and remain in the corner. Live performances and related categories may also be searched for. Because of this, YouTube Music is a great choice if you like music videos or would like some kind of visual accompaniment to your music.
Add songs to an existing playlist or develop one from scratch using your own preferences; you may even choose to make the playlist public or private on your YouTube channel. Automatic playlists are generated using your likes and historical listening habits. Additionally, you have a lot of control over the music you’re listening to. By tapping on a song’s dropdown menu, you’ll be able to do things like discover more about the artist, add it to a playlist or your preferred songs, play it next, add it to your current queue, and more.
Additionally, you can use YouTube Music to automatically create playlists including your preferred artists and songs suggested by radio stations. Like many other genre-based new release mixes, My Supermix is a fantastic tool for discovering new music. Also included are suggestions based on currently trending playlists, genres, and the most popular songs on the charts. Those who like playlists will find a lot to their liking here; but, as YouTube does not provide any selections that are human-curated, they will need to rely on the algorithm.
The “Your Music Tuner” function allows you to compile songs from up to thirty different artists into personalized radio stations. You have the option to customize the function according to your tastes. For example, you may choose to simply display the musicians you’ve added or to allow related artists as well.
