If Google has its way, YouTube Music will become the premier app destination for all the hottest tunes out right now.
The tech giant's YouTube Music app launched Thursday after a year of it being in beta testing. It's now available to iPhone and Android users.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the app hopes to separate itself from competition such as Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Pandora by focusing on music videos from known and even amateur artists, who frequently use the platform to assert themselves in the industry, anyway.
While, YouTube Music will combine human and algorithmic curation — like Apple Music — it's counting on its Daily 40 playlist, which will be put together by its team, to be a one-stop shop for the most relevant and current music videos out.
"We want the Daily 40 to be the place you go to know what everyone else is watching and talking about and sharing," T. Jay Fowler, the head of music products at YouTube, told the Journal. "If a song is blowing up on YouTube, this is where you'd find out about it."
The Journal additionally reports that when opening YouTube Music, you're hit with video stills, while the app mixes its videos and audio-only tracks to make up its nearly-endless catalog of about 50 million songs. Sowmya Subramanian, a YouTube engineering director, says about 20 million of those songs are varying-quality fan covers and music from buzzworthy independent artists.
Another neat feature of the app is when users listen to a song, they'll get an automatically-generated station of similar tunes. The stations can be customized to inlcude all music from one artist or similar artists.
YouTube Music, just like YouTube itself, will include advertisements. However, those wanting to do away with ads can opt to pay $9.99 per month for a YouTube Red subscription.
