Tag Archives: Google Play Music

Technology

You Can Finally Listen to YouTube Music on Wear OS

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YouTube Music for Wear OS is finally getting a tile!
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

Good news for YouTube Music listeners! A compatible app for Wear OS is finally available so that you can take your playlists with you on the go.

Google announced in a user community post that YouTube Music is finally a standalone app. This week, the company will start rolling out the ability to stream YouTube Music over LTE and wifi. You’ll no longer need to carry your phone in your back pocket to access your YouTube Music playlists or pre-download the music you want to listen to out on the trail. All you’ll need is an internet connection on the watch itself.

This standalone version of YouTube Music is the first smartwatch app for the streaming service after it brutally replaced Google Play Music in late 2020. Samsung had pre-announced this ability earlier this year for its flagship smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch 4, which is one of our favorite Android-based watches at the moment.

If you’re a YouTube Music Premium subscriber, you’ll have access to all of the service’s streaming library, plus premade playlists. You won’t have to endure ads either, and the app comes with a Smart Downloads feature to ensure the newest music is synced to your watch any time it’s back on WiFi. YouTube Music will also start aggregating new playlists based on your history as you keep listening.

If you’re already on a Wear OS smartwatch, you’ll have access to the new YouTube Music tile. The tile is like a quick-launch remote for any recently played playlists. It’ll also allow you to browse the main page of the YouTube Music app from your watch.

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Tiles work like widgets, wherein you can place it in its own screen space of sorts to swipe over to it when you’re ready to listen. Music apps like Spotify offer a similar tile that stays embedded in the Wear OS interface, so you can head over and start the music regardless if you have headphones on.

For more information, Google has updated its support page with instructions on the new YouTube Music app for Wear OS. The update should roll out for YouTube Music users this week.

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Technology

A Cheaper YouTube Premium May Be Coming Soon

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There’s a cheaper version of YouTube Premium being tested overseas, and it’s really enticing.
Photo: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

YouTube Premium is a solid option if you want to pay to skip through its often harrowing advertising. But it’s about $12 a month on top of a whole host of other subscription services you’re probably already paying for. The price includes access to YouTube Music, offline downloads, and background playback. But for everyone else who doesn’t want those extras, the current subscription price may be too much.

YouTube is working on a cheaper version of YouTube Premium that eschews the extra features in favor of just the ad-blocking. It’s called Premium Lite, and it’s currently being tested in a few European countries, including Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.

You can technically visit the Premium Lite page now. If you’re visiting from an IP address out of the regions mentioned above, you’ll get a splash screen telling you there is no offer available. But with the help of a VPN app that connected me to servers in Amsterdam, I accessed the screen inviting me to sign up for YouTube Premium Lite.

Log in as if you live in the Netherlands, and you’ll see the splash page to sign up for YouTube Premium Lite.
Screenshot: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

A user in the ResetEra forums initially discovered the existence of YouTube Premium Lite. YouTube confirmed its existence to The Verge with the following statement:

In Nordics and Benelux (except for Iceland), we’re testing a new offering to give users even more choice: Premium Lite costs €6.99/month (or local equivalent per month) and it includes ad-free videos on YouTube

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YouTube Premium currently costs €12 a month in Europe, about the same as in the U.S., give or take on the conversion. Premium Lite is a bit more than half the price and will enable ad-free viewing on YouTube across all platforms, including desktop, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and game consoles. It will also eliminate advertising from the YouTube Kids app, which may be worth it for the peace of mind for some parents.

Of course, much like how SnackWell’s promised us back in the ‘90s that it was as delicious as a full-calorie cookie—which turned out to be a damn lie—YouTube Premium Lite won’t have all the dressings of the current Premium tier. There will be no background playback or offline downloads, nor will you have access to YouTube Music.

It’s unclear if YouTube Premium Lite will eventually make its way to other markets, but it’ll be interesting to see how Google prices it out for families and students. Currently, families of up to five members pay $18 a month across the board for YouTube Premium, and students pay $7. I’d gladly pay for a Family Plan for everyone in my household—even the baby—if it means I never have to see another conspiracy ad.

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