YouTube Launching Subscription Music Service

Watch out, Spotify

In what could be the biggest threat to Spotify's growth yet, YouTube is putting the finishing touches on an on-demand subscription music service to launch later this year. The outline of the licensing deals were completed in May alongside the launch of Google's All Access music service; and industry insiders have been telling Hypebot about the YouTubes plans for weeks. But now specific details are starting to leak.

In addition to Spotify-like music streaming, YouTube will add video. Mobile is a the center of the company's plans including a free tier that includes unlimited on demand track and album streams, sources tell Billboard.  The paid tier will remove ads and add cached music for offline listening.

Another, likely related leak, pointing to YouTube generated background audio on Android devices was uncovered by the Android Police blog.  But will Apple, who have tussled with YouTube and Google in the past, also welcome the addition of a YouTube music service into its app store?