YouTube Music - Another Music Streaming Service...But This Time, Good?

 

Reading about some of the early audio streaming services this week prompted me to review and write about YouTube Music. Let’s explore the application together.

 

A YouTube Music subscription allows users to search for and play specific songs, entire albums, curated playlists, and user uploaded music. It also allows users to view music and listen to music videos. You can also save music to your devices for offline listening where service is limited. In 2013, YouTube accounted for nearly 20% of all internet traffic with much of the content consumed being music (Vahid et al., 2019). With access to an incredibly vast library, YouTube music is a great option for those seeking audio streaming services.

 

Upon launching the app or visiting the site, users will be greeted with a home page curated specially for them based on their usage. The “Mixed for you” icons are playlists that are generated by YouTube music for you from your listening history. Its logic isn’t perfect, but it also does a good job separating these playlists by genre so you are listening to like music. The home page also has quick access to previously listened mixes or albums via the “Listen again” section.

 

Clicking over to the Explore tab will allow users to browse newly released music, music & video by charts (rankings) & also charts for different countries, and even browse by mood or genre. This tab truly does what its name implies; the user can explore a wide variety of different music and playlists. Searching by mood is also another great feature. Users can see workout playlists, happy or sad playlists, focus & study playlists, and much more. Of course if you know exactly which artist or album you want to listen to, you can search for that particular song and play it directly. YouTube Music, if selected, will also play similar tracks once a track finishes for seamless continuous playing.

 

The Library page of YouTube music is where the user can find another quick access for recently listened to music along with their collection of personally uploaded music and created/saved playlists. A great feature of YTM is the Liked Playlist which is a collection of all the songs that a user has thumbed up. Additionally, users can select to download these playlists directly to their devices for offline listening. This is great for long drives or trips where service may be limited or for when user may be looking to conserve data usage. 

Honestly there isn’t a whole lot I would immediately want to improve with this application but there are a few things, one of which may be major. At its core, it is a simple and straightforward audio & music video streaming service with an easy to use interface. Users will have no trouble immediately being able to use the main functions upon first visit. Probably the most significant improvements would be to increase the quality of music playback from 256kbps to 320kbps. While not necessarily a noticeable difference to the average user, the playback quality will certainly be a deciding factor for some – especially those with higher end speakers or audio gear.

 

To me, the algorithm for Pandora’s radio station for similar music is unmatched. While YouTube Music’s song selection isn’t terrible, there hasn’t been any streaming service that has come close to offering the same level of diversity and inclusion as Pandora while still remaining on genre and/or similar style of music. If YTM were to better its song selection it would be a major selling point for new users.

 

  

Vahid, F., Lysecky, S., Wheatland, N., Siu, R. (2019). TEC 101: Fundamentals of Information Technology & Literacy. Zyante Inc. (zyBooks.com)





https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/answer/9076559?hl=en