Youtube Music, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube have been launched in India. The launch has rendered India’s music and video streaming space more crowded with all the major global providers in the game as well as a few local services. Both TouTube services were announced in June last year in seventeen countries and have taken over eight months to reach India.
Google already has Google Play Music and Google Play Movies services in the country and with the launch of the YouTube Music and YouTube Premium, Google is taking on a host of competitors that are already available in India. Notably, YouTube Music has been expanded to India just a few days after the launch of Spotify, which was involved in a legal dispute with Warner Music over licensing rights in the country.
YouTube says that YouTube Music will be available both as a standalone mobile app and a Web-based desktop interface that is designed for music streaming. The service offers original songs, albums, thousands of playlists, and artist radio as well as YouTube’s own catalog of remixes, live performances, covers, and music videos.
YouTube is offering two tiers of services in India: YouTube Music, which is free/ ad-supported, and YouTube Music Premium, which is paid/ ad-free, like most other music streaming services in the market. YouTube Music Premium would allow users to stream music videos in the background with the YouTube Music app while they do other things on their smartphones, something that is not available in standard YouTube experience. The paid subscribers will also get to download songs to listen in offline mode.
YouTube Music Premium subscription has been priced starting ₹99 a month. The company is also offering a three-months free service as an introductory offer, however, the offer is only available to users who have never used any of Google’s Play Services.
With the launch, the company is looking forward to building on the back of its already massive YouTube following in the country.
“India is where the multi-lingual music scene thrives. It’s interesting to note how Indian artists have consistently claimed top spots over the last few months in the Global YouTube Top Artists chart,” said Lyor Cohen, Global Head of Music, YouTube, in a statement. “With YouTube Music, we are hoping to bring the best in global and Indian music to millions of fans across India, and give them an immersive music experience, with the magic of music on YouTube.”
YouTube says that the paid subscribers of Google Play Music will automatically get access to YouTube Music Premium and they would not need to pay any extra fee. The YouTube Music app is available on both Android and iOS platforms and can be downloaded through their respective app stores.
YouTube Music has been launched as a direct competition to the likes of Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, JioSaavn, and Gaana in the country. All these services, except Amazon Prime, offer paid services starting from ₹99.
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