Here is something of a weird change to YouTube Music’s free tier – the ability to watch music videos is being cordoned off for paying subscribers.
This news comes via a support article posted to the YouTube Music help page which announced an “Ask us anything” event happening later today in the US.
The good news is that the changes coming to the YouTube Music app aren’t all bad. YouTube Music can now be minimised so you can listen to music while doing other things.
Unfortunately watching videos on YouTube Music is no longer an option for free users and it appears as if skipping tracks will be limited as will on-demand music selection.
These features will be available for free subscribers:
- Listen to music in the background
- Shuffle play personalised mixes (that are made just for you!)
- Find the perfect mood mixes for activities like workout, commute and more
- Explore millions of songs & thousands of playlists, free of cost.
And the following features will be exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers:
- On-demand listening
- Watching videos on YouTube Music
- Unlimited skips
- Ad-free YouTube Music.
These changes are coming to YouTube Music in Canada at first so there appears to be a short time in which, if you live outside of Canada, these changes won’t affect you.
That having been said, YouTube is making these changes like it or not and if they don’t sit well with you then perhaps it’s worth considering a switch to another music streaming service.
