Google is looking to merge its YouTube Red and Google Play Music services into a single subscription. Both services are currently treated as separate entities, despite both having linked features and offering benefits to both services.
YouTube Red is a subscription service that removes advertisements from YouTube videos. In addition to this, it provides access to specific content from content creators who would like a little extra income on the side. More importantly, it also provides access to Google Play Music for free.
On the other hand, people can subscribe to Google Play Music separately. Or use YouTube Music for free with ads. Buying into YouTube Red removes the ads from YouTube Music as well.
There is also YouTube TV, which is an experimental service being trialed in the USA. This is similar to a more traditional entertainment provider, showing a handful of channels from American cable providers.
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If that was confusing to anyone, then you are not alone. Google’s video and music offerings are all over the place, and the result of incremental changes. The internet giant only recently merged the teams working on the services.
YouTube’s head of music Lyor Cohen confirmed the change in direction, although hasn’t provided details. It’s presumed that the various apps will at least merged into a single streamlined service. That said, the conversation hasn’t covered YouTube TV and there’s no telling what’s going to happen on that front.
One last thing to note is that none of these services are actually available in Malaysia. Therefore, any shakeup of YouTube and Google Play Music will have practically no effect on us here.
[Source: The Verge]
