YouTube Premium to rival Spotify and Netflix with ad-free subscription coming to UK

YouTube Netflix Rival
YouTube to launch new Spotify and Netflix rival

YouTube is launching new subscription services for music and video to challenge Spotify and Netflix and attract more paying users.

The new ad-free $12 (£9) video service will be called YouTube Premium, replacing Google's YouTube Red, and will include a music streaming service called YouTube Music.

The service will come without advertising and offer free downloads across YouTube videos, although it is $2 more expensive than the current YouTube Red service.

The move will also see more original videos from YouTube, which has lagged behind Netflix's investment in well-regarded exclusive films and series.

"More new Originals from around the globe are on the way," YouTube said, "featuring comedies, dramas, reality series and action adventure shows from the UK."

Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Pandora and Google on an iPhone in New York
The new service will hope to challenge apps like Spotify Credit: AP

YouTube said the service would launch in the US and is expected to come to more markets including the UK later this year.

YouTube has long-relied on user-generated videos and paid creators to make new videos with a share of advertising revenues, while Google has only recently dabbled with a subscription-based version of its service. It first launched YouTube Red in 2015, which YouTube Premium will replace. 

YouTube will also be re-launching its music offering as YouTube Music. Users can pay $12 per month for the full YouTube Premium service or pay $9.99 for just the music app, the same price as rival services like Spotify.

YouTube Music
How the new YouTube Music will look

YouTube Premium will eventually bring all Google's music and video services under one banner including Google Play Music. The growth of music streaming companies has seen a revival in the music industry, with Spotify expanding to more than 75 million paying subscribers.

While YouTube itself racks up tens of billions of views on user content and music videos, Google does not reveal subscriber numbers for its streaming services, but it is thought to lag far behind Spotify and Apple Music.

“YouTube was made for video, not just music,” said YouTube product manager Elias Roman. “We’ll be changing that by introducing YouTube Music, a new music streaming service made for music with the magic of YouTube.”

Google’s share price opened almost unchanged on the news. Shares in Spotify dropped 2pc in early trading.

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