YouTube Music Review – PCMag
Solid video and tunes, with a few cool tricks
YouTube Music taps Google's massive information database to deliver a rich streaming service that's packed with official tunes, covers, fan uploads, and plenty of features for easy listening.
The streaming music field is packed with companies battling for your auditory attention. YouTube Music, an extension of Google’s entertainment arm, stands out from rival services by combining customized playlists, search-by-lyrics functionality, official studio releases, and community uploads. It’s a great mix, though it probably won’t get you to commit to a subscription if you already use one of our Editors’ Choice picks such as LiveXLive, SiriusXM Internet Radio, Spotify, or Tidal. Still, YouTube Music holds its own against those impressive contenders, and if you sign up for YouTube Premium, of which this service is a part, you’ll enjoy a well-rounded entertainment package.
Google and its subsidiaries have a long, rich history of releasing new products that are similar to existing products (see Google Allo, Duo, Hangouts, and Messenger) and/or rebranding services to the point of confusion (see Google Apps for Your Domain, Google Apps for Works, G Suite, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and Google Drive). That approach is now being applied to the company’s music arm now that Google Play is no more. This isn’t YouTube’s first soiree in the music space either: remember YouTube’s Music Keys and the original YouTube Red? That said, YouTube Music is by far the company’s most focused and complete music service to date.
You can enjoy YouTube Music directly from your browser, or through a downloadable mobile app. The service is free to use, with ads peppered between tracks. It’s a good option if you’re curious to try it. Sure, the ads aren’t ideal, but they’re generally short, and you can skip as many tracks as you like during your sessions. Most other services, including LiveXLive and SiriusXM Internet Radio, limit your hourly song skips for music and comedy channels. A $9.99 per-month YouTube Music Premium subscription lets you eliminate ads. This subscription also lets you download tracks for offline listening on mobile devices, and even offers an offline mixtape, an auto-downloaded playlist based on your listening preferences. In this regard, YouTube Music Premium stands up to the competition. Please note that you can get ad-free listening elsewhere, and cheaper with LiveXLive’s unique $3.99-per-month Plus plan.
Like Spotify, Tidal, and many other paid streaming music services, YouTube Music has a family plan. The option gives six people access to YouTube Music’s catalog and premium features for $14.99 per month. It also offers a student discount for $4.99. In addition, if you subscribe to YouTube Premium—the company’s $11.99-per-month ad-free entertainment network—YouTube Music Premium is included as part of the package. Now you have something to do between Cobra Kai episodes.
The YouTube Music homepage has three main sections: Home, Explore, and Library. Home is where you find recommended content (more on that later). Explore is where trending songs, live performances, and deep cuts live. Library contains your liked songs, favorite albums, listening history, and created playlists. We were happy to see our holiday playlist created on regular old YouTube carried over here, for example. The homepage is well designed, easy to navigate, and attractive, too.
YouTube Music leverages the mountains of data that Google has on its users to provide customized experiences—at least that’s the goal. If you’re in an airport, for example, YouTube Music should deliver relaxing tunes for the stressful flight experience. If you’re at the gym, YouTube Music should feed you heart-pumping beats and riffs.
In our testing, YouTube Music detected the time of day and our location, and served us the appropriate playlists. For example, in the early morning it suggested listening to the energy-boosting “Classic Rock Party” and “’90s Hip Hop Party” playlists. During the evening, YouTube Music recommended several “Commute” playlists, with Rock, Hip-Hop, and Classic drive tunes to jive to. Weather even plays a role; YouTube Music Premium detected clear skies in New York City, which resulted in the “Feel Good Favorites” playlist.
If you’re okay with exchanging your personal data for customized playlists, it’s a really slick, if somewhat sobering, experience. It’s definitely a more personalized experience than what other music services offer.
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 box, hit the enter key, and see RUN-DMC’s “Rock Box” accurately listed as a result. That said, that same search returned Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” for some inexplicable reason. Nonetheless, it’s a great little tool to use when all you know about a song are a few lyrics. While on the subject, YouTube Music features lyrics for official music, which is a wonderful feature to use to sing along with, or figure out the dense verbiage in Snow’s “Informer.”
Of course, YouTube Music also recommends songs, albums, and playlists based on songs you’ve liked or listened to in the past. While researching The Offspring for a project, our YouTube Music feed was flooded with Korn, Limp Bizkit, and other suburban, aggro-rock tracks. The algorithm works, regardless of taste.
In terms of audio quality, the stream music sounds good. Neither the YouTube Music app or the web version displays the audio-quality specifics, but a quick look at the service’s Help page provides answers. Music tracks stream at Low, Normal and High qualities, which carry 48kbps AAC, 128kbps AAC, and 256kbps AAC bit rates, respectively. High quality is only available to Premium users. Naturally, the bit rate dips if you stream music over a weak connection. The average music listener with a decent pair of headphones will melt into a world of big beats, soft vibes, and hard rock. However, the service lacks Hi-Res Audio. Audiophiles with more discerning ears may want to check out Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Qobuz, or Tidal for master-quality sound.
Unfortunately, YouTube Music doesn’t do much more than music and comedy. Over the last few years, streaming music services have expanded to offer non-music content, such as news and weather updates (LiveXLive), podcasts (Deezer, Spotify), editorial (Tidal), concert listings (iHeartRadio), or live radio streams (SiriusXM Internet Radio). That said, YouTube Music features collaborative playlists, so you can share and edit playlists with your friends, and vice versa. Hopefully, your friendship can endure the inevitable “Never Gonna Give Your Up” additions to your favorite playlist.
Naturally, YouTube Music has lots of video. If you search for, say, Flatbush Zombies, the results page will contain a dedicated video section where you can view official music videos, as well as content uploaded from the community. Most streaming music services only serve up official music videos, but YouTube Music gives you official content alongside karaoke tracks, people performing covers in their bedrooms, and uploaded music from random users. If you like journeying down YouTube rabbit holes, you’ll dig the lack of curation.
Still, we understand if someone dislikes this open door approach to video content. If only official music videos will do, take a look at Tidal to sidestep the fluff and enjoy a robust selection of videos in its curated library.
Aside from the easily accessible browser-based version, YouTube Music is available on Android and iOS platforms. We spent a good amount of time experimenting with iOS version on our iPhone.
The app is similar to the desktop version in that it has a simple, attractive, grid-based interface that places playlists front and center. With Music Premium, you 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, as well as enjoy live performances and deep cuts. The app version of also features lyrics for official tracks, so you can jam with ease by clicking on Lyrics, found between the Up Next and Related tabs. We encountered no crashing or freezing during my many hours of listening.
Google’s music venture may not match the competition’s unique features, but the location- and time-based playlists, search-by-lyrics functionality, and lack of skip throttling are standouts. The gargantuan selection of tunes from film, video games, and the music industry as a whole, as well as the incredible covers and fan remixes, make the transition to YouTube Music easy and natural. If you don’t fancy podcasts or Hi-Res Audio, YouTube Music is the service for you.
YouTube Music taps Google's massive information database to deliver a rich streaming service that's packed with official tunes, covers, fan uploads, and plenty of features for easy listening.
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Since 2004, Jeffrey L. Wilson has penned gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for a variety of publications, including the late, great 1UP; Laptop; Parenting; Sync; Wise Bread; and WWE. He now showcases his knowledge and skillset as the Managing Editor of PCMag’s Apps & Gaming team.
When he isn’t crunching copy or facedown in a spreadsheet, Jeff spins vinyl, plays the odd PC game, enjoys a craft brew or a shot of Mr. Black, fires up his Kindle, works the heavy bag, hops on his exercise bike, or dusts off an extremely dusty electric bass guitar.
In the past, Jeff’s appeared on a New York Comic Con panel (Geeks of Color Assemble!: Minorities in Fandom), created his own indie comic (Spin Cycle, Inc.), and put together a PAX East panel (Fragging Gamer Stereotypes). These days, Jeff’s working on a sci-fi novel.
Gabriel Zamora has dabbled in a little bit of everything over the years, including contracting, construction, professional cooking, and podcasting. Yet, he keeps things geeky with more than a decade’s worth of gaming and electronics-related writing contributions. Gabriel now lends his eclectic insight to PCMag as an Analyst who covers the web hosting, streaming music, mobile apps, and gaming beats.
When Gabriel’s not juggling monitors, he’s hard at work in the kitchen perfecting new recipes, savoring new foods and brews across NYC, and improving his amateur art projects.
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