YouTube's new music subscription service takes on Apple Music and Spotify

YouTube

YouTube Red's first hit show is "Cobra Kai," a spin-off of the "Karate Kid" movies.

• YouTube is taking on the likes of Apple and Spotify with a new $10/month music subscription service named YouTube Music Premium.
• The service pairs with YouTube Premium for $2 more, the new name for YouTube Red, to offer one monthly subscription to both services.
• Paying the additional $2 monthly gets rid of ads on YouTube and offers access to original YouTube content like "Cobra Kai" (seen above).

Forget about YouTube Red - on Thursday morning, YouTube rebranded its paid YouTube service as "YouTube Premium" and is now offering it bundled with a streaming music service.

The name of the music service: "YouTube Music Premium."

For $10/month, YouTube Music Premium offers access to ad-free music that can be downloaded for offline listening or streamed over an internet connection - very similar to what Apple Music and Spotify offer. For an additional $2/month, you'll also get access to YouTube Premium.

Here's how YouTube describes that new service:

"With YouTube Premium, you'll get access to the full slate of YouTube Originals, including recent hits like the Karate Kid-inspired series, 'Cobra Kai,' the dance drama, 'Step Up: High Water,' and upcoming series like the sci-fi thriller, 'Impulse,' and Liza Koshy's 'Liza on Demand.'"

In so many words, YouTube Premium is more or less identical to what YouTube Red offered - a way to watch original YouTube shows, to enjoy YouTube without ads, and to download shows for offline viewing.

Still confused? Don't worry, YouTube created this helpful chart:

YouTube

Rather than solely relying on the YouTube app for music playback, a new desktop app is being created and the mobile app is getting "reimagined."

Existing YouTube Red subscribers will automatically be enrolled in the new service at whatever price they're already paying, as soon as the new service launches - it's expected to arrive in the near future.

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