Google has rolled-out YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in Europe in an effort to compete with the likes of Apple Music, Tidal and Spotify.
YouTube Music brings music streaming to the firm’s video platform.
Unlike Apple Music, YouTube Music has a free ad-supported option.
However, Google withholds a number of features for the paid-for monthly plans, including offline playback, to encourage customers to move to the £9.99 (€9.99/$9.99) a month subscription tier.
Elsewhere, Google has rebranded its short-lived YouTube Red service as YouTube Premium.
This service includes music streaming via YouTube Music, as well as exclusive video series commissioned by YouTube, and the ability to download videos for offline playback.
The service launched in the US in May.
Google has added music streaming into its YouTube video platform. The new service, dubbed YouTube music (pictured), is designed to replace the existing music facility in on the Google-owned website, as well as offering offline playback on the go for the first time
YouTube Music is designed to compete directly with Apple Music and Spotify.
The music streaming service has a dedicated smartphone app, which was built from the ground-up and incorporates thousands of on-demand tracks, albums and playlists alongside the official music videos and obscure tough-to-find records people expect from YouTube.
In a written statement, Elias Roman, product manager for YouTube Music said: ‘YouTube Music is a new music streaming service made for music.
‘Official songs, albums, thousands of playlists and artist radio plus YouTube’s tremendous catalog of remixes, live performances, covers and music videos that you can’t find anywhere else – all simply organized and personalized.
‘For the first time, all the ways music moves you can be found in one place.’
The YouTube Music app will also allow you to continue listening to music videos and tracks when the smartphone screen is locked, or the app is minimised and running in the background – something which is not possible with the standalone YouTube app.
Opening the app, YouTube Music will present machine-learning to curate tracks and artists on the home screen that it thinks you will enjoy based on your past listening history.
Google will continually tweak its suggestions as you listen and rate tracks on the service.
YouTube Music also uses location-tracking to tailor its recommendations, surfacing a different selection when it knows you are at the gym, compared to waiting to board a flight at the airport.
YouTube Music also has a desktop player, which is found at music.youtube.com.
YouTube Music will present machine-learning to curate tracks and artists on the home screen that it thinks you will enjoy based on your past listening history
Unlike the traditional YouTube smartphone app, the new service allows users to download tracks to listen when they don’t have an active mobile or Wi-Fi connection
Anybody who pays for a Google Play Music subscription will automatically be upgraded to YouTube Music Premium as part of their membership.
However, Google will not replace Play Music with its new streaming offer, with the former set to continue operating as normal despite the duplication in functionality.
Likewise, YouTube Red subscribers will have their monthly plan automatically bumped-up to a YouTube Premium subscription.
The latter includes access to ad-free, background and offline access to everything on YouTube.
The paid-for subscription, which costs £11.99 (€11.99/$11.99), enables access to YouTube Originals, like Cobra Kai, Step Up: High Water and Youth and Consequences.
These are exclusive shows and movies commissioned by the video platform which are unable on the free ad-supported version of YouTube.
The new ad-supported version of YouTube Music will be available for free, while YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership without advertisements, will be available at £9.99 a month. YouTube premium, at £11.99 ($11.99), includes all the music features as well as access to exclusive video series and movies, dubbed YouTube Originals
Google is offering a three-month free trial of both YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium.
YouTube Premium also has a family plan available, which offers ad-free streaming, offline playback and access to YouTube originals for up to six people in the same household for £17.99 (€18/$14.99) a month.
From today, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium will be available in Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK for the first time.
Google debuted the service in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico back in May.
YouTube is currently the most popular platform for streaming music in the world accounting for some 46 per cent of all listening online.
The announcement of YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium comes soon after the launch of a new ‘Music in this video’ initiative from the video platform.
This allows viewers information on the songs – as well as the artists’ who created them – used in video clips on the website, even if they’re unofficial.
YouTube Premium includes ad-free, background and offline across all of YouTube, as well as access to all YouTube Originals like Cobra Kai (pictured), Step Up: High Water and Youth & Consequences