Pros & Cons
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- Lets you easily switch between audio and music videos
- Many music discovery tools
- Cool location- and time-based playlists
- Can search for songs by lyrics
- Collaborative playlists
- Family and student plans
- Podcast support
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- Lacks hi-res audio
- Real-time lyrics not available for every song
YouTube Music Specs
| Free Version Available | |
| Song Lyrics |
The streaming music field is packed with companies battling for your auditory attention. YouTube Musican extension of Google’s entertainment armstands out from rival services by combining on-demand playback with hyper-focused playlistssearch-by-lyrics functionalityofficial studio releasescommunity uploadsmusic videospodcastsand other entertaining features. This excellent mix makes the service a multifaceted Editors' Choice winner alongside Amazon Music UnlimitedApple Musicand Spotify.
YouTube Music: Free and Paid Plans
YouTube Music is the company's most focused and complete music service. It features more than 100 million official songsplus millions of coversperformancesand other recordings. It's a truly comprehensive catalog.
(Credit: YouTube Music/PCMag)You can fire up YouTube Music using a browser or mobile app. The service is free to usewith ads peppered between tracks. Surethe ads aren’t idealbut they’re generally shortand you can skipreplayor scrub through as many tracks as you'd like during a listening session. That's impressive for a free serviceconsidering that many othersincluding LiveOne and SiriusXM Internet Radiolimit your hourly song skips.
The $10.99-per-month YouTube Music Premium plan lets you eliminate pesky adsdownload tracks for offline listening on mobile devicesand enjoy Smart Downloads. With Smart DownloadsYouTube Music automatically downloads frequently listened-to music (up to 500 tracks!) and similar songs and playlists. It's a fantastic tool for music recommendations. You can deactivate this feature in the Settings menu if you don't fancy it. Don't want to pay that much for music? LiveOne has an ad-free$2.99-per-month (when billed annually) Plus plan with fewer features.
Like Apple MusicSpotifyTidaland many other paid streaming music servicesYouTube Music has a family plan. The option lets people access YouTube Music's catalog and premium features for $16.99 per month. It also offers a student discount of $5.49 per month. In additionif you subscribe to YouTube Premium—the company's $13.99-per-month ad-free entertainment network—YouTube Music Premium is bundled as part of the package.
Data-Driven Recommendations
The YouTube Music homepage has three main sections: HomeExploreand Library. Home is where you find recommended content (more on that later). Explore is where trending songslive performancesand deep cuts live. Library contains your liked songsfavorite albumslistening historyand created playlists. We were happy to see our holiday playlist created on regular old YouTube carried over herefor example. The homepage is well-designedeasy to navigateand attractive.
(Credit: YouTube Music/PCMag)YouTube Music leverages Google's mountains of data on its users to provide customized experiences—at leastthat's the goal. If you're in an airportfor exampleYouTube Music should deliver relaxing tunes for the stressful flight experience. At the gymYouTube Music should feed you heart-pumping beats and riffs.
In our testsYouTube Music detected the time of day and our location and served us the appropriate playlists. For exampleit suggested listening to the energy-boosting Classic Rock Party and 90s Hip Hop Party playlists in the early morning. During the eveningYouTube Music recommended several commute-focused playlists with RockHip-Hopand Classic driving tunes. The weather even plays a role; YouTube Music Premium detected clear skies in New York Citywhich resulted in the Feel Good Favorites playlist. If you're okay with exchanging your personal data for customized playlistsit's a really slickif somewhat soberingexperience.
Samples is another music discovery tool. This feature draws from your listening preferences and highlights 30-secondvertical video shorts of recommended tracks in a dedicated tab. You can likeadd to a playlistshareor play the full song from there. You can also select Short to make a YouTube Short with said song. Navigating this tab is a cinch: You simply swipe up or down to move on to the next recommended track. Though curiously TikTok-like at a glanceSamples serves an entirely different purposeand the additional recommendations are a welcome inclusion to the service.
Another valuable feature is the Shazam-like listening tool next to the YouTube Music search bar microphone icon. When tappedthe microphone captures and identifies audio from a song playing in the backgroundspoken lyricsor even hummed melodies. It correctly identified the Harry Potter theme when we hummed it. In another experimentwe played an AI performance of Patrick Star singing Afroman's "Because I Got High," which the tool correctly identified. It's a welcome feature for those times when you can't place a track.
(Credit: Youtube/PCMag)Let AI Take the Wheel
YouTube Music is experimenting with AI-generated playlists like those rolled out to Amazon Music UnlimitedDeezerand Spotify. You can find it on your YouTube Music homepage under a new prompt labeled "Ask for music any way you like it." The AI feature is experimentalso it's not available everywhere. For exampleI saw it on when using my Pixel 6 Probut could not find the option on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.
You use textemojisor even spoken prompts to create clever playlists for almost anything you can think of. Enter a hot and cold emoji for a Chillhop Beats playlist featuring "Cold as Ice" by Foreigner"Hot for Teacher" by Van Halenand "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. If you're in the mood for something more combativeask for ninja-slaying music and receive Ninja Slayer Jamsfeaturing "Samurai" by Lupe Fiasco"The Final Countdown" by Europeand "Crane/White Lightning" by the RZA/Charles Bernstein.
It works well in practicethough it has some kinks. YouTube Music didn't create a playlist when requesting said ninja-slaying playlist with text prompts. But when making the same request via the microphoneit produced the resulting playlist.
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Scrolling and Real-Time Lyrics in YouTube Music
YouTube Music has another cool gimmick: lyrics-based searches. You can type"Took a test to become an MC and didn't fail," into the search boxhit the enter keyand see RUN-DMC's "Rock Box" accurately listed as a result. That saidthat same search returned Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" for some inexplicable reason. Nonethelessit’s a great little tool to use when all you know about a song are a few lyrics. YouTube Music also features lyrics for official music streamswhich is a wonderful feature to use to sing along withor figure out the dense verbiage in Snow’s “Informer.”
(Credit: YouTube Music/PCMag)Lyrics are enhanced with real-time auto-scrolling functionalitysimilar to Spotify's Live Lyrics feature. This is a convenient karaoke-like elementthough it still has a few kinks that must be ironed out. For instancenot all vocal tracks support real-time lyrics. In additionthe scrolling is slightly inconsistentso the highlighted text is occasionally out of sync with the sung words. We hope to see this functionality improved in the future.
The YouTube Music Listening Experience
Of courseYouTube Music also recommends songsalbumsand playlists based on songs you've liked or listened to in the past. While researching The Offspring for a projectour YouTube Music feed was flooded with KornLimp Bizkitand other suburbanaggro-rock tracks. The algorithm worksregardless of taste.
In terms of audio qualitythe streamed music sounds good. Neither the YouTube Music app nor the web version displays the audio-quality specificsbut a quick look at the service's Help page provides answers. Music tracks stream at LowNormaland High qualitieswhich carry 48Kbps AAC128Kbps AACand 256Kbps AAC bit ratesrespectively. High quality is only available to Premium users. Naturallythe bit rate dips if you stream music over a weak connection. The average music listener with decent headphones will melt into a world of big beatssoft vibesand hard rock. Howeverthe service lacks hi-res audio. Audiophiles with more discerning ears may want to check out Amazon Music UnlimitedApple MusicQobuzor Tidal for master-quality sound.
YouTube Music's listening options include podcastsmusicand comedywhich puts the service on par with competitors. Over the last few yearsstreaming music services have expanded to offer non-music contentsuch as news and weather updates (LiveOne)podcasts (DeezerSpotify)editorial (Tidal)concert listings (iHeartRadio)or live radio streams (SiriusXM Internet Radio). YouTube Music also features collaborative playlistsso you can share and edit playlists with your friendsand vice versa. Hopefullyyour friendship can endure the inevitable "Never Gonna Give You Up” additions to your favorite playlist.
(Credit: YouTube Music/PCMag)YouTube Music Podcasts
Podcasts now have their own dedicated tabwhich is long overdue considering you can find them on the video-focused YouTube. Selecting Podcasts brings you to a podcast page organized by category. It features topics like MusicPolitical CommentaryArts & FictionHistoryTrue Crimeand Religion & Spirituality.
You can rewind a show by 10 secondsor skip ahead by 30 seconds. Additionallyyou can save the episode for later listeningor add it to a playlist. In a nice touchyou can swap between audio or video versions of the show (if available)as you can with some music tracks.
Video Music Box
NaturallyYouTube Music has lots of video. If you search for Flatbush Zombiesthe results page will contain a dedicated video section where you can view official music videos and content uploaded from the community. Most streaming music services only serve up official music videosbut YouTube Music gives you official content alongside karaoke trackspeople performing covers in their bedroomsand other random uploads. If you like journeying down YouTube rabbit holesyou'll dig the lack of curation.
Stillwe understand if someone dislikes this open-door approach to video content. If only official music videos will dotake a look at Tidal to sidestep the fluff and enjoy a robust selection of videos in its curated library.
YouTube Music Mobile Apps
In addition to the easily accessible browser-based versionYouTube Music is available on the Android and iOS platforms. We spent much time experimenting with the iOS version on an iPhone.
The app is similar to the desktop versionwith a simpleattractivegrid-based interface that places playlists front and center. With Music Premiumyou can download playlists and let the app play in the background as you toy with other apps. The Explore section is a great way to see what’s new and hot in the music world and enjoy live performances and deep cuts. Like the desktop versionthe mobile app features official lyricsso you can easily sing along. We encountered no crashing or freezing during our many hours of listening.
(Credit: YouTube Music/PCMag)Verdict: YouTube Music Is a Top-Tier Streaming Music Service
YouTube Music's location- and time-based playlistssearch-by-lyrics functionalityand lack of skip-throttling are all strong points in its favor. The service's gargantuan selection of tunes from filmvideo gamesand the music industry as a wholeas well as podcasts and fan remixesmake exploration fun. If you like recommendation-heavy listening and don't mind a lack of hi-res audioYouTube Music is well worth considering and an Editors' Choice winner for streaming music services.
