YouTube to launch paid streaming service

YouTube announced on Wednesday, Nov. 12 that it will launch a paid service called “Music Key” that will allow customers to stream millions of high quality songs, ad-free starting at a promotional rate of $7.99 per 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 statement. “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.”
In addition to boasting a wealth of songs, the service will offer quality full albums.
“If a song exists in this world, you can probably find it on YouTube. But until today you couldn’t easily find and play full albums,” the company said Wednesday. “In the coming days, you’ll be able to see an artist’s discography on YouTube, and play a full album with both their official music videos and high-quality songs our music partners added to YouTube.”
RT previously reported that Google may have been creating a service like this to contend with similar ones such as Spotify, which stated it has more than 12 million monthly subscribers. The company also revealed it spends more than $2 billion on labels and various agencies because song plays are continually increasing on the service.
Christophe Muller, director of Youtube’s partnership program told the New York Times that the new service will “give fans more ways to enjoy music on YouTube, but also give artists more opportunities to connect with fans and earn more revenues.”
The service is currently in beta phase, but is expected to have platforms for computers and Android and iOS devices.
Updates on the progress can of Music Key be obtained at www.youtube.com/musickey.

(With reports from RT)