Google has just revealed its intention to merge YouTube Red and Google Play Music in order to create a new, streamlined service
Lyor Cohen, Google Music chief, revealed at the New Music Seminar conference in New York that the company needs to bring these services together in order to get new subscribers, mostly in the light of rivals such as Amazon Prime Music, Apple Music and Spotify.
“The important thing is combining YouTube Red and Google Play Music, and having one offering,” Cohen said.
YouTube Red is available in the US and it is a subscription service that offers ad-free music and video streaming. On one hand, the music service is already streamed through Google Play Music and YouTube Music; while ad-free videos can be accessed through YouTube, users can also watch YouTube Red Original television shows and movies as a paid subscriber.
On the other hand, bringing YouTube Red, YouTube, YouTube Music, and Google Play Music together would bring more subscribers as they might be enticed by the new service.
Taking into consideration that there are so many rival services in competition for the same type of business, making the life of the user easier and more accessible makes sense.
In February, Google confirmed that YouTube Music and Google Play Music teams were coming together as one service; this started rumors that the tech giant may want to streamline the way they offer music subscriptions.
In a statement, Google said that users will be told before any major changes happen.
“Music is very important to Google and we’re evaluating how to bring together our music offerings to deliver the best possible product for our users, music partners and artists,” Google told The Verge. “Nothing will change for users today and we’ll provide plenty of notice before any changes are made.”
