YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are now live in India. A few days after Spotify, the world’s most popular streaming platform expanded its business by launching its services in India, Google is upping the ante with its own music streaming service that is eventually going to replace Play Music, which has been available in India for over two years.
Google’s YouTube Music is a music streaming app that is available in many countries, and now India, and lets you play music or video from your subscriptions, as well as on demand. There is a collection of artists, albums, and personalised playlists that are readily available.
YouTube Music has an ad-supported version and a monthly subscription, much like the other music streaming services in India except Apple Music and Amazon Music. You can either choose to listen to music with advertisements interrupting the playback without the ability to save music offline or you can subscribe to the monthly plans called YouTube Music Premium to enjoy high-resolution music without ads and offline support.
The YouTube Music Premium pricing in India is set at Rs 99 per month, exactly similar to Google Play Music monthly subscriptions. You get three months free as a trial only if you have never subscribed to any Google’s music services. The Google Play Music subscribers do not have to pay anything extra as they get access to YouTube Music Premium instantly. There is a family plan as well in the offing – Rs 149 per month for up to six members in the family.
So far, only two music streaming services have launched family plans in India – Apple Music and Google Play Music (and YouTube Music Premium). The arrival of YouTube Music is a part of Google’s move to show muscle in one of the fastest-growing music streaming market, India. Spotify launched in India a fortnight ago despite legal troubles with Warner Music that asked Indian court to block its music on Spotify India. There are other services such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, Gaana, JioSaavn that will offer stiff competition to YouTube Music in India.
Besides, Google has also introduced YouTube Premium subscriptions in India for Rs 129 that activates the YouTube app’s ability to play music in the background. The subscriber also gets access to the original programming called YouTube Originals.
Source: financialexpress.com
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