There are rumors that YouTube, the famous site for streaming videos online, will offer a free and paid premium music service later this year.
Finding, listening, and creating playlists on YouTube has become a significant activity of users for some time, and YouTube plans to capitalize on this trend by developing a premium music service for its loyal users later this year. YouTube began as primarily a video streaming website, but when musicians and users started uploading preview and full-length tracks on YouTube, users started to treat the website as an online jukebox with millions of songs readily available for listening.
The "music service" is said to be on the works, but no official comment or statement has been released by Google or the people behind YouTube just yet. Reports by AndroidCommunity suggests that a paid version of the "premium" music service will feature no-ad streaming, and that means users can stream albums and songs without 20-second commercials disrupting their listening experience.
Last September, Google has expressed their interest on offline viewing for YouTube users, with videos they can load while they're online and watch later when they're off the grid. This can come in handy for those without a steady internet connection, and we wonder if the offline viewing feature will transcend or apply as "offline listening" if this music service ever comes to fruition.
In case YouTube is really planning to offer this music service, licenses from top artists around the world will need to be dealt with, especially that copyright infringement charges seem to be a constant battle between users, artists and "uploaders."
Fans and users of the famous video streaming site will have to wait for further announcement about this development. For now, they can still enjoy the loads of free music available for streaming on the subscription-based format of YouTube.
