YouTube Music Turns 10 This Year, Adds New Features

Google is celebrating the 10th anniversary of YouTube Music this week, though the music streaming service we know by this name didn’t launch until 2018, and it didn’t fully replace its predecessor, Google Play Music, until 2020.

Confused? Me too.

Mostly because I found a post I wrote in 2018 about Google announcing this “new streaming service made for music with the magic of YouTube.” But Wikipedia tells me that Google launched YouTube Music in October 2015 alongside what was then called YouTube Red (now YouTube Premium). Apparently, it was originally called YouTube Music Key and wasn’t originally a competitor to Spotify, as Google Play Music was. It was designed for people who primarily enjoyed music through YouTube, which to this day features a stunning array of music video content that’s not available anywhere else.

In any event, Google Play Music and YouTube Music were an obvious redundancy and so Google eventually merged them as a “new” YouTube Music service that we know today. The YouTube Music service that Google announced in 2018 was accompanied by the YouTube Premium rebranding as well.

With that history out of the way, Google this week said that fans have created over 4 billion music playlists through YouTube/YouTube Music to date, 1.8 billion of which are public. And YouTube Music now has a catalog of over 300 million tracks, which includes official studio recordings, remixes, live performances, and covers, many unique to this service.

It also has a few new features that are rolling out now:

Taste match playlists. These new collaborative playlists allow multiple people to connect over their shared musical interests and discover new songs. They’re automatically updated each day based on the music tastes of everyone who joins.

Album and playlist comments. Soon, YouTube Music subscribers will be able to comment publicly on albums and playlists.

Discover nearby concerts. Thanks to a partnership with Bandsintown, YouTube Music will display nearby and upcoming concerts by your favorite artists while watching videos, shorts, or official artist channels.

Artist notifications. YouTube Music will notify you when favorite artists announce a new release, new merchandise, or event dates.

Fan badges. YouTube Music recently introduced fan badges so dedicated supporters can show their loyalty to favorite artists. There are badges like “First to Watch” and “Top Listener,” and Google says more are on the way.

View milestones. This feature helps fans contribute to an artist’s success by highlighting when videos are close to a new view milestone like 100,000 or one million views, so you can help them get there.

“These updates are just the beginning of our next chapter at YouTube Music where we’re focusing on bringing fans even closer to the artists they love,” YouTube Music senior director T. Jay Fowler writes. “We can’t wait for you to dive in and explore.”