via Gigaom

 

YouTube is planning to roll out a subscription music service this year, according to a Billboard report citing unidentified sources. The service will apparently be similar to Spotify, with free and premium tiers, and will include video in some way.

From Billboard:

“The service, designed with mobile listening in mind, will have a free component and a premium tier that offers unlimited access to a full catalog of tracks similar to what’s already available via YouTube’s parent company, Google Inc., via its All Access subscription music service. Premium features would include the ability to cache music for offline listening and removing ads.”

The good news for YouTube is that it already has the licenses it needs for a service like this. Google launched its own music subscription service, Google Play Music All Access, in May, and the licenses it obtained for that service were also for YouTube.

Read the rest of the story here.