YouTube just launched its new subscription service - here's how to try it for free

YouTube Red, the company's recently announced ad-free subscription service launches today in the US.

For $9.99 per month, YouTube Red banishes all advertisements and lets subscribers save videos for offline viewing. Subscribers can also play videos in the background on their phone, which helps YouTube Red compete with streaming services like Spotify or Apple Music.

Starting next year, it will also host a bunch of original content that regular YouTube users won't have access to, like a new show from the gaming superstar PewDiePie.

You can take it for a spin without paying up: Google's giving everyone a 30-day free trial.

Here's how you sign up:

Go to YouTube.com/Red. The service costs the same on desktop and Android, but if you're a curious iPhone owner, make sure to sign up via desktop - the service costs $3 more on any iOS device.

Once you click the big red "free trial" button, you'll be prompted for your payment information. Personally, I set a calendar reminder in my phone for November 27, to make sure that I can re-evaluate the service before it charges me for my first "real" month:

Aaaand, that's it!

Personally, I don't watch a lot of random videos, but my first order of business is listening to a YouTube music playlist that will be blissfully uninterrupted: