YouTube Music Premium review
Download content for offline playback
Expansive video options
Student rates available
Subscribing to artists through the app is separate from regular YouTube account subscirptions
Local file support is limited
Audio quality
Clunky interface
Confusing to understand their different services
The days of owning music, be it in physical or digital form, are long gone. There are a plethora of viable streaming services out there, but not all are created equally, and certainly not all pay the artists equally. YouTube Music Premium affords access to videos and songs under YouTubes music category. While great improvements have been made since its inception, wed have to wear nearly opaque rose-tinted glasses to say its perfect.
Editors note: this YouTube Music review was updated on July 20, 2021, to update information about alternatives.
What is YouTube Music?
YouTube Music Premium is a paid subscription service aimed to compete with the likes of Apple Music and Spotify.
YouTube Music is YouTubes counter to other popular ad-free streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal. YouTube Music Premium has officially taken Google Play Musics place in the streaming service sphere.
Read on: From Google Play Music to YouTube Music, finally forced to switch
YouTube Music offers a vast library of official and unofficial music videos that populate search results alongside audio files. Previously, subscribing to an artists YouTube Music profile automatically subscribed to your regular YouTube account to said channel. However, YouTube has since updated the subscription mechanism to separate YouTube Music subscriptions from YouTube subscriptions. Yes, its confusing, as is typical for Googles myriad of overlapping applications.
YouTube Music Premium allows you to download content and listen to it from anywhere, saving you from running over your data cap.
Like Google Play Music, Spotify, Tidal, and Apple Music, you can download music and listen to them without using all your data. This is invaluable for anyone with a limited data plan and takes just a few moments to do. YouTube Music is also directly accessible through Sonos smart speakers.
How to use YouTube Music
YouTube Music Premium provides subscribers with ad-free access to both unofficial and official music videos alongside live performances.
The mobile and desktop interfaces are nearly identical. The home screen displays a list of typical categories: favorites, recommended, new, and moods to fit your preferences. From there, you can tab over to search for a specific artist or song, check out a curated video hotlist, and peruse your library.
See also: Best Sonos alternatives
If youre listening to a music video, you can switch to audio-only by selecting song at the top of the display. Doing so pulls up the actual audio version, instead of just playing the music video audio sans-video. This is great because it eliminates any extraneous dialogue included in a music video that isnt present in the album edit.
Audio-only mode lets you turn off your screen, without a video or the extra dialogue from music video versions to distract you.
You can create a playlist by tapping the three clustered, vertical dots in the playback control module. This opens a menu of options including download, add to playlist, add to queue, start radio, and more. If youre creating a new playlist, title it and choose whether its public, private, or unlisted. Note: when you create a playlist, it creates the playlist for your general YouTube account, too. Hopefully, YouTube fixes this in the future as it did with artist subscription overlap.
Does YouTube Music allow for collaborative playlists?
Yes! A new YouTube Music update lets you create a playlist and then add your friends to it [assuming they have an account]. Then you can both add songs to the playlist. This is something that Spotify has had for a long time but its good to see YouTube building out the social aspect of the service.
The desktop layout of YouTube Music Premium is nearly identical to that of the mobile application.
Unlike other streaming platforms, audio adjustments are restrictive. There is an EQ option under settings, but it relies on your phones sound quality options. For instance, the Samsung Galaxy S10e allows you to toggle Dolby Atmos and choose between a few dubious EQ presets. You cant actually create a custom EQ for YouTube Music though. When the service was first announced there wasnt any official documentation of sound quality but that has since been added to the YouTube Music help page. You can choose between a few different sound quality settings:
- Low: 48kbps AAC [uses the least data]
- Normal: 128kbps AAC [default settings]
- High: 256kbps AAC [highest quality setting]
- Always high: 256 kbps AAC [maintains this even when the connection is poor]
This is the official quality for YouTube Music whether youre on a mobile network or Wi-Fi. Its not great seeing how Tidal, Deezer, Amazon Music HD, and a handful of others support lossless formats like FLAC or at least a higher bitrate. In an AMA a Google employee shared that YouTube Music has no intention to exceed 256kbps, citing FLAC streaming as a cost-inefficient option. This is disappointing for the likes of SoundGuys, but if you just want to hear music and dont care much for its quality, selecting high audio quality should be fine.
Dont have unlimited data? Download over Wi-Fi and listen anywhere
You can download a music video, song, or playlist by tapping the three vertical circles and selecting download from the pull-up menu. If you intend to download music videos, make sure your phone has the space for it or pick up a microSD card if your phone supports it.
You can even take extra precautions to prevent streaming over data. Go to the homepage, tap your profile avatar, and select the cog icon labeled settings. Then slide the option to stream via Wi-Fi only. From here, you can also choose to limit mobile data, adjust mobile network quality, and more.
How does the YouTube Music Premium subscription work?
YouTube Music Premium charges $9.99 or $4.99 per month depending on if you enroll in an individual or family plan, respectively. Regardless of your plan, you are charged directly from your Google account. You can use YouTube Music Premium features on a maximum of 10 mobile devices. Once you go beyond that, the oldest authorized device is revoked. Youre capped to four devices per year, presumably to prevent you from sharing it with different friends.
Whats the difference between YouTube Music and YouTube Premium?
Anytime you thumbs up a song, its automatically added to the thumbs up songs playlist.
The difference is in what youre afforded when you subscribe to the former versus the latter. Its similar to how a square falls under the rectangle umbrella: YouTube Music falls under the YouTube Premium umbrella.
YouTube Music Premiums main features include access to albums, live performances, music videos, and remixes. You benefit from YouTubes discovery algorithm, which increases in accuracy as you thumbs up/down songs. You can play music with your phone screen locked as well as download music, something not allowed with the free, ad-enabled version of YouTube Music.
Remember YouTube Red? Thats now called YouTube Premium. Confusing, right? YouTube Premium, compared to YouTube Music Premium, takes a more broad approach to streaming. All videos are ad-free, not just music-related ones. You can download any video directly to your device, whereas YouTube Music Premium limits download functionality to songs and music videos. Another great feature is background play whereby you no longer need to remain in the native YouTube app for a video to continue. Instead, by exiting the app, a small window is overlaid in the corner of your devices screen.
YouTube Premium demands $11.99/mo [$6.99/mo for students]. If youre an avid YouTube consumer, it makes sense to shell out the extra $2/mo for YouTube Premium. The free version of YouTube with ads still exists, of course.
How to get a YouTube Music Premium family plan
Technically there isnt a standalone YouTube Music Premium family plan option. If you want to share with your family, youll have to sign up for a YouTube Premium family plan. This costs $17.99/mo and allows you to add five family members [six accounts total]. As a family member on a plan holders account, you can only switch families once every 12 months. Family members are afforded the same benefits as the original YouTube Premium subscriber.
How does YouTube Music pay artists?
Across the board, artists get shortchanged when it comes to revenue per stream.
YouTube is notorious for shortchanging content creators and this upsetting trend holds true with YouTube Music. Unfortunately, this is a salient occurrence across the board, regardless of what streaming service you use. YouTube Music just so happens to rank poorly compared to the other top contenders.
Related: Distrokid review
Of course, if you do want to support your favorite bands, you can always buy their albums, go to their shows, and buy their merchandise. Any of the above will garner more money for the band than streaming a song here and there.
Music industry website Digital Music News and blog The Trichordist have approximated figures regarding the payout per stream. While YouTube Music isnt on here, YouTube Red was the precursor to YouTube Premium.
Digital Service Provider$ Per StreamQobuz$0.04390Peloton$0.04036iHeartRadio$0.01426Amazon Unlimited$0.01175Napster/Rhapsody$0.0111024/7 Entertainment GmbH$0.01050YouTube Red$0.00948Tidal$0.00927Deezer$0.00567Google Play$0.00543Apple$0.00495KKBox$0.00435Amazon Digital Services Inc.$0.00395Spotify$0.00331Loen$0.00205Pandora$0.00155Vevo$0.00109Yandex LLC$0.00051YouTube Content ID$0.00028UMA$0.00013Source: The Trichordist
Can I listen to my own library on YouTube Music?
Yes, you can but the process of enabling this is clunky. You have to go into settings, select library & downloads, and enable show device files. From there, you need to tab over to your library, enter the songs section, and swipe over to device files. To make matters worse, you cant add local songs to playlists or to your song queue.
You can, however, cast music from YouTube Musics library, and on March 31, 2021, the company added the ability to shuffle music while Casting to smart speakers and displays.
Why you should use YouTube Music Premium
YouTube Music Premium is an excellent option for anyone who likes to watch music videos or live performances.
YouTube Music Premium has great features for general music listeners. If youre a music video fanatic, YouTube Music is hands-down the best subscription service currently available. Its expanse of unofficial, official, and lyric videos give it the edge over more limited platforms like Tidal.
Whats more, Google Play Music is already out the door. There was a grace period when GPM users could transfer their GPM libraries to YouTube Music with just a few taps.
Why you shouldnt use YouTube Music Premium
The Apple Music app has a better user interface and design than YouTube Music.
Aside from that, YouTube Music has some other pitfalls. Its New Release Mix and Your Mixtape selections fell into one of two camps:
- they were songs I already had in separate playlists, or
- they were songs I wouldnt make the conscious effort to listen to.
I was a bit disappointed. After all, isnt the algorithm supposed to know everything about us individually and collectively? I guess what Im saying, YouTube Music, is that Im hurt you dont know me better. Oftentimes, the recommendations felt myopic and cyclical. This would likely improve as I continued to use YouTube Music, but thats what happens within the first few weeks at least.
Its suggestions didn't allow for much music discovery and often repeated songs I already added to playlists.
On the whole, YouTube Music isnt the best option when it comes to sound quality and falls short with its user interface. If you want something that offers lossless streaming with an intuitive UI, look into the competitively priced Amazon Music HD: it streams FLAC. Alternatively, Deezer supports lossless streaming and has more attractive UIs than Amazon Music HD. That said, YouTube Music is slowly maturing and getting better with time. While it isnt quite there just yet, it will likely stand as a much stronger competitor to Spotify and Apple Music in the future.
If youre thinking of getting a YouTube Music Premium subscription, I highly recommend investing an extra $2/mo for YouTube Premium. That way, you can enjoy all that YouTube has to offer ad-free and from anywhere.
How does YouTube Music compare to Spotify?
Both apps are available on desktop and mobile.
Both YouTube Music and Spotify offer free, ad-supported versions, but Spotify free offers less control over music playback than YouTube Music free. However, there are definite downsides to free YouTube Music as well, such as an inability to exit the app and keep the music playing. If you do choose to pay for either streaming service, you can play music on-demand, in the background, and over higher bitrate files, though neither have high-fidelity audio.
You might like: CDbaby review
The largest differences between the two streaming services are that Spotify offers podcasts whereas YouTube Music offers videos including live performances, covers, or original songs recorded by a band in their basement. You can find a lot of underground music on Spotify because they accept submissions from pretty much everyone, but in general, more people upload their music to YouTube than to Spotify. For an in-depth comparison of the two streaming services, check out our YouTube Music vs Spotify article.