WEBVTT - YouTube Music App Review

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<v Speaker 1>Is the new YouTube music app goodenough to replace your

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<v Speaker 1>current music app? What's going on? I'm Richdmiro. This is

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<v Speaker 1>Rich on tech Daily. YouTube is added again with YouTube Music,

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<v Speaker 1>a new app and music experience that's sort of like

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<v Speaker 1>a competitor to Spotify. But it's not there just yet.

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<v Speaker 1>Let me explain for starters. YouTube Music has already been

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<v Speaker 1>around for a while. A quick check of my email

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<v Speaker 1>shows that I first met with YouTube to discuss YouTube

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<v Speaker 1>Music back in November twenty fifteen. But recently the app

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<v Speaker 1>and experience was redesigned and relaunched. What used to be

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<v Speaker 1>heavy on music videos is now a good mix of

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<v Speaker 1>music videos and curated playlists. And let's be honest, I

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<v Speaker 1>understand why YouTube wants to do a music app. I mean,

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<v Speaker 1>who knows more about music than YouTube. Now. I don't

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<v Speaker 1>have the numbers, but I'm guessing millions, if not billions,

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<v Speaker 1>of music videos are streamed each and every day on

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<v Speaker 1>their website. And that's the really smart part about all

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<v Speaker 1>of this. YouTube has the data they know from all

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<v Speaker 1>of these views, which acts are hot, which acts are

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<v Speaker 1>up and coming, which artists are cooling off. They have

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<v Speaker 1>all this data, and it's highly localized. For areas around

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<v Speaker 1>the world, and that's kind of what YouTube Music is

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<v Speaker 1>built off of. When you first open the app, it's

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<v Speaker 1>going to ask you to choose some of your favorite

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<v Speaker 1>artists and also for access to your location. This way,

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<v Speaker 1>it can suggest playlists for like when you're at work,

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<v Speaker 1>the gym, and various other places. Now, I'm not a

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<v Speaker 1>huge fan of how the app is organized. It's not

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<v Speaker 1>like other music apps that just kind of give you

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<v Speaker 1>a bunch of categories and present playlists in those categories. No,

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<v Speaker 1>this is much more complicated. But pretty much every aspect

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<v Speaker 1>of YouTube Music is personalized and that's what they want.

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<v Speaker 1>So right now, when I open the app, at the

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<v Speaker 1>top of my screen, there are a bunch of playlist

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<v Speaker 1>options for today's biggest hits. And here's where it gets confusing.

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<v Speaker 1>There's almost too much choice. The first playlist option is

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<v Speaker 1>something called pop hit List, but then the one right

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<v Speaker 1>next to it is Today's biggest Hits. What's the difference,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not really sure. Then I see some playlists I

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<v Speaker 1>recently listened to, which is fine that I can easily

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<v Speaker 1>jump back into those, And then comes the part of

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<v Speaker 1>the app that I really like, and this kind of

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<v Speaker 1>surprised me. There's a section of the app that features

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<v Speaker 1>videos with recent live performances, all featuring the artists that

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<v Speaker 1>I like. Now, these are videos I would probably never

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<v Speaker 1>search for on my own, but there they are, and

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<v Speaker 1>I love watching them. It's kind of like this stuff

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<v Speaker 1>you might have seen back in the day when you

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<v Speaker 1>were watching your favorite artists on a late night TV

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<v Speaker 1>show or an award show presentation. It's just cool, different

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<v Speaker 1>versions of songs that you've already heard and you know

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<v Speaker 1>and you love. After this, the app gets kind of

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<v Speaker 1>murky again. You scroll down. There's an endless selection of

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<v Speaker 1>various categories with playlists in those categories, and they all

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<v Speaker 1>seem to be personalized. So right now I'm seeing mellow moods,

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<v Speaker 1>then right after that energy boosters. I even think there's

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<v Speaker 1>a playlist based on the weather, because it's saying it

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<v Speaker 1>looks clear outside, so I've got a summer playlist. And

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<v Speaker 1>then there's a selection of artists that you can play

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<v Speaker 1>similar to the artists you like, and more recommended music videos.

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<v Speaker 1>Then there's more similar artists, and it goes on and on.

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<v Speaker 1>It's kind of a bit much, and again, I see

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<v Speaker 1>no way in this app to just browse through a

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<v Speaker 1>list of playlists in various categories. Now. I get that

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube Music wants to be totally personalized just for me,

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<v Speaker 1>but sometimes I just want to go into a category

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<v Speaker 1>like workout or Focus or Indie and choose a playlist

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<v Speaker 1>that I want to listen to. You can't really do

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<v Speaker 1>that here. Another tap of the app features trending music

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<v Speaker 1>videos from YouTube. These are not necessarily personalized, which is fine.

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<v Speaker 1>But then another tap contains your library with all the

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<v Speaker 1>music videos that you recently played, along with your downloads,

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<v Speaker 1>your saved playlist, your albums, songs, and also the artists

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<v Speaker 1>that you liked. And keep in mind, all this information

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<v Speaker 1>is kind of shared with the YouTube regular site and

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<v Speaker 1>vice versa. So if you liked a musical artist on

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<v Speaker 1>the regular YouTube site, that data transfers over to YouTube Music,

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<v Speaker 1>and if you like an artist on YouTube music, it

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<v Speaker 1>goes into the data on your YouTube page as well.

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<v Speaker 1>A feature I really like is called the offline Mixtape.

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<v Speaker 1>YouTube Music compiles an ever changing playlist of up to

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred songs that it thinks you're gonna like. It

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<v Speaker 1>puts this all into a playlist. Right now, I only

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<v Speaker 1>have twenty of them. I guess I haven't listened to

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<v Speaker 1>enough music for it to give me one hundred, but

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<v Speaker 1>that's all saved to your device. And this is really

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<v Speaker 1>cool because it really saved me. The other day on

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<v Speaker 1>the plane, I flipped my phone into airplane mode and

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<v Speaker 1>realized that I had not downloaded any music from Spotify

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<v Speaker 1>or apparently from YouTube music, so I had nothing to

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<v Speaker 1>listen to except this little mixtape, which was great. And

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<v Speaker 1>what's cool about the mixtape is that it spans all genres.

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<v Speaker 1>It's kind of like YouTube's best Guess at all the

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<v Speaker 1>stuff you'll like, both old favorites mixed in with some

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<v Speaker 1>new stuff. It's sort of like Spotify's Discover Weekly, but

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<v Speaker 1>even more personalized. The other place YouTube music excels is

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<v Speaker 1>in remixes and those live performances. Now it's pulling audio

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<v Speaker 1>from what is still Google play Music, which is also confusing,

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<v Speaker 1>and all the videos on YouTube, so you really get

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<v Speaker 1>it all. If you want to listen to fifteen different

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<v Speaker 1>versions of a song, you pretty much can now. Search

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<v Speaker 1>is also really smart on YouTube music. For instance, I

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<v Speaker 1>just searched that new Ariana Grande song, and sure enough,

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<v Speaker 1>No Tears Left to Cry came right up if I

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<v Speaker 1>searched theme song from friends, it brings up I'll be

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<v Speaker 1>there for you from the rembrants. Clearly, this is using

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<v Speaker 1>Google Smarts in a really interesting way here. So bottom line,

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<v Speaker 1>can YouTube Music replace your current music app? Probably not,

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<v Speaker 1>at least not right now. For starters, to get all

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<v Speaker 1>the best features, you have to pay ten dollars a month,

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<v Speaker 1>So if you don't, you won't get the downloads for

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<v Speaker 1>offline listening, you won't get the mixtape or an ad

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<v Speaker 1>free experience, and I get it all the other music apps.

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<v Speaker 1>If you want to get the best experience, you have

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<v Speaker 1>to pay, so I understand that, But unlike the other

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<v Speaker 1>free music apps, with the free version of YouTube Music,

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<v Speaker 1>you can't listen to music in the background with your

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<v Speaker 1>screen off unless you pay that monthly fee. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>big downside. I also found that YouTube Music is not

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<v Speaker 1>compatible with CarPlay right now, which most other music apps are.

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<v Speaker 1>That means you can't use it as a one stop

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<v Speaker 1>shop for all your music. What if you subscribe to

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<v Speaker 1>this and now you want to listen to your car,

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<v Speaker 1>you really can't use it with CarPlay. You'd have to

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<v Speaker 1>use the app outside of CarPlay, which is kind of weird. Overall,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd say YouTube Music is super promising because they have

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<v Speaker 1>all the data to surface the stuff that you like,

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<v Speaker 1>plus a huge music catalog with stuff you can't find

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<v Speaker 1>anywhere else. I just wish it was better organized, not

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<v Speaker 1>as confusing, and work with more devices like Sonos and CarPlay.

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<v Speaker 1>It does work with Google Assistant and Google Smart Speakers,

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<v Speaker 1>so you do have that. And don't get me wrong,

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<v Speaker 1>I'm not in love with Spotify, although I am a

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<v Speaker 1>subscriber of that service. I think they've built a product

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<v Speaker 1>that works pretty well and it works everywhere. Although these

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<v Speaker 1>days I've kind of been loving Apple Music more since

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<v Speaker 1>it's really simple, it's really straightforward, and the music on

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<v Speaker 1>their playlists seems to work for me. But something tells

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<v Speaker 1>me YouTube music is not finished just yet, and it

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<v Speaker 1>will be in all those places that I mentioned, and

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<v Speaker 1>I think it will just continue to get smarter and smarter.

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks so much for listening to the podcast. If you

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<v Speaker 1>like what I'm doing here, please rate and review it

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<v Speaker 1>in the Apple podcast stapp. I'd appreciate that because that

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<v Speaker 1>way more people discover it links to everything I talk

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<v Speaker 1>about at richontech dot tv. I'm Rich damiro I'll talk

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<v Speaker 1>to you real so