By Matthew Kochen,
Money and Investing Writer
The market for streaming music just grew by one. One of Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) most popular companies, YouTube, is ready to launch the new YouTube Music Key.
The YouTube Music Key is a monthly-paid music streaming subscription that allows users to listen to all the music they want, free of all ads current listeners are used to having to wait and click through.
YouTube Music Key users will also be able to listen to music while the app runs in the background as well as offline listening, features not available to regular users.
The service was first announced back in June, but had to push through negotiating with music labels to use their music.
YouTube Music Key starts next week, but will not be available to everyone, initially. At first it will only be opened to current Google Music Play subscribers at this time as the service goes through the beta test run.
Those with access will be able to use YouTube Music Key free of charge for the first six months, then will be charged a promotional, discounted rate of $7.99 per month until the standard rate of $9.99 kicks in.
YouTube is trying to break into the music streaming service market already made popular by companies such as Spotify and Pandora (NYSE: P).
While these services are already prevalent and established, YouTube does offer some unique advantages.
YouTube is already the largest music provider on the internet by the quantity of songs offered.
Almost everything from the most popular chart-toppers to amateur musicians just looking to share their creations with the world can be found somewhere in the online behemoth’s library.
It is also the most prolific source of listening in the world according to Nielsen Entertainment research.
YouTube generates over a billion unique visitors every month and is third largest venue for discovering music after conventional radio and friend recommendations.
YouTube Music Key also presents as perhaps the best bang for your buck. At the eventual standard price of $9.99 per month, it is cheaper than Spotify Premium’s $14.99.
While Pandora One is cheaper at $4.99 for ad free listening, the extra $5 might be worth it to most for the ability to pick which particular songs they want to listen to at the moment.
It appears on the surface as if YouTube Music Key has the features to compete with market leaders.
If it can convert as little as 5 percent of its usual viewers, it will surpass all competitors, but there are certainly many question that could stand in the way of it taking off.
First among them, does the $9.99 a month justify the 15-60 second ad wait for the video to play or become shippable?
Also, YouTube has to confront the problem of many people using ad-blocking software to bypass ads on their site entirely.
Otherwise, paying anything would be impractical as opposed to picking up a free program online.
Widespread piracy of digital music remains the ever present the music industry as a whole, sending sales of music, both digital and physical, constantly declining.
Online music streaming, particularly through YouTube Music Key, may be the solution to lowering prices and still paying artists for their work.
A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, November 18th print edition.
Contact Matthew at
matthew.kochen@student.shu.edu
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