Google Home Users Get Free, Ad-Supported YouTube Music
- Paul Thurrott
- Apr 18, 2019
-
5
Google announced a free, ad-supported version of YouTube Music to all users of Google Home and other Google-powered speakers.
“Starting today, YouTube Music is offering a free, ad-supported experience on Google Home speakers or other Google Assistant-powered speakers,” Google’s James Goddard announced. “With YouTube Music and Google Home, you can ask Google Home to play the right music for any moment or mood, and YouTube Music will play the perfect station, customized to your tastes based upon your request.”
Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox
Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday — and get free copies of Paul Thurrott's Windows 11 and Windows 10 Field Guides (normally $9.99) as a special welcome gift!
"*" indicates required fields
The free, ad-supported version of YouTube Music is, of course, limited in other ways. You can’t ask to play specific albums, songs, artists, or playlists. And there are limits on song skips and replays. Google says that speaker customers who need those features can pay $9.99 per month for the full version of YouTube Music, which also has no ads.
It’s likely that this new version of YouTube Music is a pre-emptive strike against Amazon, which is getting ready to launch its own free, ad-supported version of Amazon Music that will work with its own ecosystem of Echo and Alexa-compatible smart speakers.
To get started with YouTube Music and smart speakers, check out the YouTube Music Help website.
Tagged with
Conversation 5 comments
-
bharris
<blockquote><a href="#421894"><em>In reply to Simard57:</em></a><em> Especially for older people, who remember TV before we actually paid for it. As long as it is no more than say 10 minutes of ads per hour, I don't think many casual listeners will even notice. I think about my 75 year old mother, She just wants to have something playing just to avoid a totally silent house. I sort of doubt she would even notice the ads and if she did, her attitude would be "Well, they have to make money somehow"</em></blockquote><p><br></p>