A lot of us will turn to YouTube when we're looking to find a song or a video (or Taylor Swift's latest jam, what with that whole Spotify thing meaning we can't stream it) and now they're looking to make some money on the back of that with a paid subscription service.
In an announcement today, YouTube confirmed that they would be offering users the chance to sign up to a paid subscription service known as Music Key that would let them listen to their favourite tunes anytime, anywhere.
Of course, YouTube already has plenty of music thanks to deals with Vevo and the like, and Christophe Muller, YouTube’s director of global music partnerships, said that this next development was an exciting chapter for them: "we want to continue to make YouTube the best place for artists and fans to connect".
The service will start rolling out on Monday and will gradually become more widely available as time goes on, as it's just an invite-only beta for the moment. However, it will be open to both users who have paid and those who haven't, and you can still listen to music if you don't mind having to sit through some ads first.
Pic via The Verge
The YouTube app on Android and iOS will now feature a 'Music' tab that you can go straight in to to see more content from an artist (including listening to full albums), while when Music Key does eventually become available, it will include a subscription to Google Play Music and will be a few quid cheaper; in the US it will be $7.99 instead of $9.99.
The beta users will get six months free and then be invited to pay up, but for those users who can't wait, they can sign up for Google Play All Access and get Music Key too, but seeing as they will only be releasing it in the US and six European countries, we may have to wait a little while to get it here in Ireland.
