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YouTube Music Key: Ad-Free Subscription for Background & Offline Playback

Nov 12, 2014 07:15 PM

Nov 12, 2014 07:22 PM

YouTube Music Key promotional banner with tagline about enjoying music ad-free.

It's been rumored for months, but now we've got some official news about Google's newest music offering, YouTube Music Key. The subscription service will allow for an ad-free experience with background listening (i.e., having your screen off) and offline playback.

The service will start, predictably, as a "beta," and you'll have to submit your email address to get on the waiting list, which you can do right here.

YouTube Music Key will initially be $7.99/month, and just like Google Play Music All Access (GPMAA), will jump up to $9.99/month eventually. What's great about this is that a Music Key subscription will include an All Access subscription, making it a potential Spotify-killing feature.

Current All Access members will have Music Key beta access rolled into their subscription, which I'm personally thrilled about.

What do you think of the latest entry into the subscription-based music service arena? Are you signing up or sticking with other services?

The next big software update for iPhone is coming sometime in April and will include a Food section in Apple News+, an easy-to-miss new Ambient Music app, Priority Notifications thanks to Apple Intelligence, and updates to apps like Mail, Photos, Podcasts, and Safari. See what else is coming to your iPhone with the iOS 18.4 update.