June 12, 2018 • 6 mins
A review of the new and improved YouTube Music App. Hear about the unique features this music streaming app offers compared to Spotify and others. Plus, learn about my favorite feature that can help you watch live performances of your favorite artists without searching for them.Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontechEasy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Is the new YouTube music app goodenough to replace your
current music app? What's going on? I'm Richdmiro. This is
Rich on tech Daily. YouTube is added again with YouTube Music,
a new app and music experience that's sort of like
a competitor to Spotify. But it's not there just yet.
Let me explain for starters. YouTube Music has already been
(00:24):
around for a while. A quick check of my email
shows that I first met with YouTube to discuss YouTube
Music back in November twenty fifteen. But recently the app
and experience was redesigned and relaunched. What used to be
heavy on music videos is now a good mix of
music videos and curated playlists. And let's be honest, I
understand why YouTube wants to do a music app. I mean,
(00:46):
who knows more about music than YouTube. Now. I don't
have the numbers, but I'm guessing millions, if not billions,
of music videos are streamed each and every day on
their website. And that's the really smart part about all
of this. YouTube has the data they know from all
of these views, which acts are hot, which acts are
up and coming, which artists are cooling off. They have
(01:07):
all this data, and it's highly localized. For areas around
the world, and that's kind of what YouTube Music is
built off of. When you first open the app, it's
going to ask you to choose some of your favorite
artists and also for access to your location. This way,
it can suggest playlists for like when you're at work,
the gym, and various other places. Now, I'm not a
huge fan of how the app is organized. It's not
(01:28):
like other music apps that just kind of give you
a bunch of categories and present playlists in those categories. No,
this is much more complicated. But pretty much every aspect
of YouTube Music is personalized and that's what they want.
So right now, when I open the app, at the
top of my screen, there are a bunch of playlist
options for today's biggest hits. And here's where it gets confusing.
There's almost too much choice. The first playlist option is
(01:50):
something called pop hit List, but then the one right
next to it is Today's biggest Hits. What's the difference,
I'm not really sure. Then I see some playlists I
recently listened to, which is fine that I can easily
jump back into those, And then comes the part of
the app that I really like, and this kind of
surprised me. There's a section of the app that features
videos with recent live performances, all featuring the artists that
(02:12):
I like. Now, these are videos I would probably never
search for on my own, but there they are, and
I love watching them. It's kind of like this stuff
you might have seen back in the day when you
were watching your favorite artists on a late night TV
show or an award show presentation. It's just cool, different
versions of songs that you've already heard and you know
and you love. After this, the app gets kind of
murky again. You scroll down. There's an endless selection of
(02:33):
various categories with playlists in those categories, and they all
seem to be personalized. So right now I'm seeing mellow moods,
then right after that energy boosters. I even think there's
a playlist based on the weather, because it's saying it
looks clear outside, so I've got a summer playlist. And
then there's a selection of artists that you can play
similar to the artists you like, and more recommended music videos.
(02:54):
Then there's more similar artists, and it goes on and on.
It's kind of a bit much, and again, I see
no way in this app to just browse through a
list of playlists in various categories. Now. I get that
YouTube Music wants to be totally personalized just for me,
but sometimes I just want to go into a category
like workout or Focus or Indie and choose a playlist
that I want to listen to. You can't really do
(03:15):
that here. Another tap of the app features trending music
videos from YouTube. These are not necessarily personalized, which is fine.
But then another tap contains your library with all the
music videos that you recently played, along with your downloads,
your saved playlist, your albums, songs, and also the artists
that you liked. And keep in mind, all this information
is kind of shared with the YouTube regular site and
(03:37):
vice versa. So if you liked a musical artist on
the regular YouTube site, that data transfers over to YouTube Music,
and if you like an artist on YouTube music, it
goes into the data on your YouTube page as well.
A feature I really like is called the offline Mixtape.
YouTube Music compiles an ever changing playlist of up to
one hundred songs that it thinks you're gonna like. It
puts this all into a playlist. Right now, I only
(03:59):
have twenty of them. I guess I haven't listened to
enough music for it to give me one hundred, but
that's all saved to your device. And this is really
cool because it really saved me. The other day on
the plane, I flipped my phone into airplane mode and
realized that I had not downloaded any music from Spotify
or apparently from YouTube music, so I had nothing to
listen to except this little mixtape, which was great. And
what's cool about the mixtape is that it spans all genres.
(04:21):
It's kind of like YouTube's best Guess at all the
stuff you'll like, both old favorites mixed in with some
new stuff. It's sort of like Spotify's Discover Weekly, but
even more personalized. The other place YouTube music excels is
in remixes and those live performances. Now it's pulling audio
from what is still Google play Music, which is also confusing,
and all the videos on YouTube, so you really get
(04:42):
it all. If you want to listen to fifteen different
versions of a song, you pretty much can now. Search
is also really smart on YouTube music. For instance, I
just searched that new Ariana Grande song, and sure enough,
No Tears Left to Cry came right up if I
searched theme song from friends, it brings up I'll be
there for you from the rembrants. Clearly, this is using
Google Smarts in a really interesting way here. So bottom line,
(05:03):
can YouTube Music replace your current music app? Probably not,
at least not right now. For starters, to get all
the best features, you have to pay ten dollars a month,
So if you don't, you won't get the downloads for
offline listening, you won't get the mixtape or an ad
free experience, and I get it all the other music apps.
If you want to get the best experience, you have
to pay, so I understand that, But unlike the other
free music apps, with the free version of YouTube Music,
(05:25):
you can't listen to music in the background with your
screen off unless you pay that monthly fee. That's a
big downside. I also found that YouTube Music is not
compatible with CarPlay right now, which most other music apps are.
That means you can't use it as a one stop
shop for all your music. What if you subscribe to
this and now you want to listen to your car,
you really can't use it with CarPlay. You'd have to
use the app outside of CarPlay, which is kind of weird. Overall,
(05:48):
I'd say YouTube Music is super promising because they have
all the data to surface the stuff that you like,
plus a huge music catalog with stuff you can't find
anywhere else. I just wish it was better organized, not
as confusing, and work with more devices like Sonos and CarPlay.
It does work with Google Assistant and Google Smart Speakers,
so you do have that. And don't get me wrong,
I'm not in love with Spotify, although I am a
(06:09):
subscriber of that service. I think they've built a product
that works pretty well and it works everywhere. Although these
days I've kind of been loving Apple Music more since
it's really simple, it's really straightforward, and the music on
their playlists seems to work for me. But something tells
me YouTube music is not finished just yet, and it
will be in all those places that I mentioned, and
I think it will just continue to get smarter and smarter.
(06:32):
Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you
like what I'm doing here, please rate and review it
in the Apple podcast stapp. I'd appreciate that because that
way more people discover it links to everything I talk
about at richontech dot tv. I'm Rich damiro I'll talk
to you real so
Is the new YouTube music app goodenough to replace your
current music app? What's going on? I'm Richdmiro. This is
Rich on tech Daily. YouTube is added again with YouTube Music,
a new app and music experience that's sort of like
a competitor to Spotify. But it's not there just yet.
Let me explain for starters. YouTube Music has already been
(00:24):
around for a while. A quick check of my email
shows that I first met with YouTube to discuss YouTube
Music back in November twenty fifteen. But recently the app
and experience was redesigned and relaunched. What used to be
heavy on music videos is now a good mix of
music videos and curated playlists. And let's be honest, I
understand why YouTube wants to do a music app. I mean,
(00:46):
who knows more about music than YouTube. Now. I don't
have the numbers, but I'm guessing millions, if not billions,
of music videos are streamed each and every day on
their website. And that's the really smart part about all
of this. YouTube has the data they know from all
of these views, which acts are hot, which acts are
up and coming, which artists are cooling off. They have
(01:07):
all this data, and it's highly localized. For areas around
the world, and that's kind of what YouTube Music is
built off of. When you first open the app, it's
going to ask you to choose some of your favorite
artists and also for access to your location. This way,
it can suggest playlists for like when you're at work,
the gym, and various other places. Now, I'm not a
huge fan of how the app is organized. It's not
(01:28):
like other music apps that just kind of give you
a bunch of categories and present playlists in those categories. No,
this is much more complicated. But pretty much every aspect
of YouTube Music is personalized and that's what they want.
So right now, when I open the app, at the
top of my screen, there are a bunch of playlist
options for today's biggest hits. And here's where it gets confusing.
There's almost too much choice. The first playlist option is
(01:50):
something called pop hit List, but then the one right
next to it is Today's biggest Hits. What's the difference,
I'm not really sure. Then I see some playlists I
recently listened to, which is fine that I can easily
jump back into those, And then comes the part of
the app that I really like, and this kind of
surprised me. There's a section of the app that features
videos with recent live performances, all featuring the artists that
(02:12):
I like. Now, these are videos I would probably never
search for on my own, but there they are, and
I love watching them. It's kind of like this stuff
you might have seen back in the day when you
were watching your favorite artists on a late night TV
show or an award show presentation. It's just cool, different
versions of songs that you've already heard and you know
and you love. After this, the app gets kind of
murky again. You scroll down. There's an endless selection of
(02:33):
various categories with playlists in those categories, and they all
seem to be personalized. So right now I'm seeing mellow moods,
then right after that energy boosters. I even think there's
a playlist based on the weather, because it's saying it
looks clear outside, so I've got a summer playlist. And
then there's a selection of artists that you can play
similar to the artists you like, and more recommended music videos.
(02:54):
Then there's more similar artists, and it goes on and on.
It's kind of a bit much, and again, I see
no way in this app to just browse through a
list of playlists in various categories. Now. I get that
YouTube Music wants to be totally personalized just for me,
but sometimes I just want to go into a category
like workout or Focus or Indie and choose a playlist
that I want to listen to. You can't really do
(03:15):
that here. Another tap of the app features trending music
videos from YouTube. These are not necessarily personalized, which is fine.
But then another tap contains your library with all the
music videos that you recently played, along with your downloads,
your saved playlist, your albums, songs, and also the artists
that you liked. And keep in mind, all this information
is kind of shared with the YouTube regular site and
(03:37):
vice versa. So if you liked a musical artist on
the regular YouTube site, that data transfers over to YouTube Music,
and if you like an artist on YouTube music, it
goes into the data on your YouTube page as well.
A feature I really like is called the offline Mixtape.
YouTube Music compiles an ever changing playlist of up to
one hundred songs that it thinks you're gonna like. It
puts this all into a playlist. Right now, I only
(03:59):
have twenty of them. I guess I haven't listened to
enough music for it to give me one hundred, but
that's all saved to your device. And this is really
cool because it really saved me. The other day on
the plane, I flipped my phone into airplane mode and
realized that I had not downloaded any music from Spotify
or apparently from YouTube music, so I had nothing to
listen to except this little mixtape, which was great. And
what's cool about the mixtape is that it spans all genres.
(04:21):
It's kind of like YouTube's best Guess at all the
stuff you'll like, both old favorites mixed in with some
new stuff. It's sort of like Spotify's Discover Weekly, but
even more personalized. The other place YouTube music excels is
in remixes and those live performances. Now it's pulling audio
from what is still Google play Music, which is also confusing,
and all the videos on YouTube, so you really get
(04:42):
it all. If you want to listen to fifteen different
versions of a song, you pretty much can now. Search
is also really smart on YouTube music. For instance, I
just searched that new Ariana Grande song, and sure enough,
No Tears Left to Cry came right up if I
searched theme song from friends, it brings up I'll be
there for you from the rembrants. Clearly, this is using
Google Smarts in a really interesting way here. So bottom line,
(05:03):
can YouTube Music replace your current music app? Probably not,
at least not right now. For starters, to get all
the best features, you have to pay ten dollars a month,
So if you don't, you won't get the downloads for
offline listening, you won't get the mixtape or an ad
free experience, and I get it all the other music apps.
If you want to get the best experience, you have
to pay, so I understand that, But unlike the other
free music apps, with the free version of YouTube Music,
(05:25):
you can't listen to music in the background with your
screen off unless you pay that monthly fee. That's a
big downside. I also found that YouTube Music is not
compatible with CarPlay right now, which most other music apps are.
That means you can't use it as a one stop
shop for all your music. What if you subscribe to
this and now you want to listen to your car,
you really can't use it with CarPlay. You'd have to
use the app outside of CarPlay, which is kind of weird. Overall,
(05:48):
I'd say YouTube Music is super promising because they have
all the data to surface the stuff that you like,
plus a huge music catalog with stuff you can't find
anywhere else. I just wish it was better organized, not
as confusing, and work with more devices like Sonos and CarPlay.
It does work with Google Assistant and Google Smart Speakers,
so you do have that. And don't get me wrong,
I'm not in love with Spotify, although I am a
(06:09):
subscriber of that service. I think they've built a product
that works pretty well and it works everywhere. Although these
days I've kind of been loving Apple Music more since
it's really simple, it's really straightforward, and the music on
their playlists seems to work for me. But something tells
me YouTube music is not finished just yet, and it
will be in all those places that I mentioned, and
I think it will just continue to get smarter and smarter.
(06:32):
Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you
like what I'm doing here, please rate and review it
in the Apple podcast stapp. I'd appreciate that because that
way more people discover it links to everything I talk
about at richontech dot tv. I'm Rich damiro I'll talk
to you real so
Host
Rich DeMuro
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