YouTube might launch a Music Pass streaming service to become an ad-free jukebox

YouTube is the web’s most popular destination for video content; it could soon become a big player for music streaming as well. It may sound crazy to think that Google, which owns YouTube, would launch a yet another music service instead of encouraging more people to listen to its Google Play Music All Access for Android and iOS, but evidence suggests the company is already planning to turn YouTube into a music player.

Android Police has examined code in the latest version of YouTube for Android and discovered that there are multiple references to Music Pass, offline playback, background listening, and keeping music playing while using other apps. All of this points to a music streaming service that would make YouTube able to continue playing audio even when a screen goes off or someone switches to another app. It also promises to have “No ads on millions of songs,” which suggests that it will be a premium service.

You might wonder why Google would bother with a music streaming service on YouTube when it already has Google Play Music. One clue is that Nielsen reveals that young people favor to listen to music through YouTube. Launching a paid service probably won’t attract many teens to participate, but if the service works and is cheap, or connected to Play Music, it might be a way to attract attention from users who are less likely to use Play Music. The code is just there for preliminary test purposes, so it may be a while before Google reveals its intentions with YouTube Music Pass.

VIA