Tonight, YouTube Music Premium expands into Africa as it launches the service in the South African region. The music streaming service will now compete with Apple Music, Spotify, JOOX, Deezer, Simfy and MusicTime and will offer two versions – both a free and premium version of the platform.
Google Play Music subscribers will automatically receive access to YouTube Music Premium at their current price. “Nothing is changing with Google Play Music — you’ll still be able to access all of your purchased music, uploads and playlists in Google Play Music,” the company said.
The ad-supported version will be available for free while the ad-free premium version will come at a price of R59.99 for a single-user plan or R89.99 a month for the family plan – on par with the pricing for every other streaming platform. The family plan supports up to six users per household.
The premium version doesn’t only support offline and background listening, but it has a variety of exciting features. The Offline Mixtape feature automatically downloads songs you’ve been listening to frequently to ensure that you can always listen to the songs you love while the Smart Search feature makes it easier to find songs you may not know the title of. In the feature, fans can search for songs they love by using descriptions or lyrics – and the feature supports isiZulu and isiXhosa as well which is a great local touch.
The new YouTube Music app is available to download from the Play Store and App Store today. For a limited time, music fans can get three months of YouTube Music Premium free.
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