There are reports suggesting that Amazon is planning to roll out free music streaming tier for the Echo users. But ahead of that, Google has announced that it will be making YouTube Music available for free with ads for the users of Google Home devices.
The company today announced that YouTube Music, the music streaming service from Google’s video streaming platform YouTube, will be free for Google Home devices as well as other Google Assistant-powered speakers — like those from JBL, Panasonic, Sony, and others.
As said, the free service will be ad-supported and will be available in select markets, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, parts of Europe and elsewhere.
How to use it?
To use the free service, you’ll just have to navigate to account settings and then tap on services. Once you have done that, select music and then set YouTube Music as the default music service.
After that, you just say the command like “Hey Google, play [genre or mood]” and it will start playing the song. It’s noteworthy that the ad-supported YouTube Music won’t let you request specific songs, albums or playlist. So, you can only select a genre or style or mood of the music you’re looking for.
If you want to play a specific song or album with unlimited skips along with an ad-free experience, you can opt for the on-demand YouTube Music Premium which costs $9.99/month.
Availability
The free, ad-supported music service is now live on Google Home devices and supported speakers powered by Google Assistant. The service is available in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, and Austria. The company says that the service will soon be available in more countries.
