YouTube Music: the free offer will lose functionality
The free version of YouTube Music will become less interesting from November. The service announces that features will be reserved for the premium offer, namely the paid offer with a monthly subscription.
YouTube Music free tier loses functionality
“Some features will become exclusive to YouTube Music Premium users”, indicated Google in a support sheet, “Like on-demand music selection and unlimited skips”. Removing on-demand music selection and unlimited skipping brings YouTube Music closer to free Spotify accounts, which block mobile devices from choosing specific songs and limit the number of times you can press the Next button. The ability to watch music videos from YouTube Music will also be removed for free accounts.
Here’s all you can do with a free YouTube Music account, after the changes go into effect in November:
- Listening to music in the background
- Play custom mixes in random mode
- Find mood mixes for activities such as training, commuting, etc.
- Find songs and playlists
And here is what will require the premium offer:
- Listen to music on demand
- Watch videos on YouTube Music
- Unlimited jumps
- No advertising
The changes will first be a reality in Canada starting November 3, the same day free background reading becomes available. Google claims that it “Keep everyone updated on global expansion plans”.
