Google confirms paid subscription tier for music on YouTube

Google is shaking up the digital music market with a paid subscription tier for YouTube and a series of enhancements to the world's biggest video site.

The company said yesterday that in the coming weeks it would launch a monthly subscription service called YouTube Music Key, which will offer advertising-free videos, offline viewing and the ability to play music when a phone is locked.

Google is launching the subscription service in “beta” mode and giving the people who play the most music on YouTube a free trial for six months. At full price, it will cost $9.99 a month.

Closer competition

The introduction of a paid- for tier will throw it into closer competition with Spotify, the Swedish music service, Deezer of France and Apple’s Beats Music.

US singer Taylor Swift last week pulled her music from Spotify, objecting to the low royalty rates paid by its free tier. However many of her tracks remain on YouTube, even though it is also free.

It was reported on Tuesday that the launch was imminent after YouTube struck a deal to license music from the thousands of independent labels represented by the rights agency Merlin.

Google already owns an audio-only music subscription service, Google Play Music, which offers access to more than 30 million songs. The company does not release performance details, but analysts said it had not achieved much success relative to peers such as Spotify. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014