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29 March 2024

Watch YouTube videos without net connection

Beta version rolls out on limited basis, starting today. (YouTube)

Published
By Vicky Kapur

Popular social media music playing site YouTube on Wednesday unveiled its new service, Music Key, a long-awaited upgrade of its music offerings that will, among other things, play music even if you’re not connected to the Internet.

But before you start singing yourself, take note that this service is still in beta and, more importantly, it is a paid service. For less than Dh1 a day, the service will include higher-quality audio for most songs, and promises additional perks like ad-free service for as payment of $8 (Dh30) a month.

That’s right – this is a subscription-based music service and, in many ways, it’s like existing streaming music services, especially since it comes bundled with Google Play Music All Access.

An invite-only beta version of YouTube Music Key will be available to some of YouTube’s top music listeners starting Monday, November 17. Beta users will get the service free for six months, then pay a lifetime promotional price of $7.99 per month. The service will see a full launch sometime in 2015.

However, what’s different is that while other services offer pure music downloads, YouTube’s definition of ‘music’ is quite different from the rest in that a DJ-remixed copy of, say, a Shakira song could get sold as ‘paid music’. Will it?

The proof of the pudding will be in eating, but this pudding is still in the making. Grey areas like these could – should – get ironed out as the beta version rolls out on a limited basis starting today.

“You’ve asked us for ways to listen to music without ads, to keep playing music videos even if you lock the screen or start using another app, and to play music even if you’re not connected to the Internet. That’s why today we're introducing YouTube Music Key beta, a monthly subscription service starting with the promotional price of $7.99/month (discounted from $9.99/month) that will give you all that – ads-free music, background play and offline viewing,” YouTube said in a blog post yesterday.

“It will also include a subscription to Google Play Music, with 30+ million songs, expert-curated playlists, and in the coming days, the ability to watch many YouTube official music videos right from the app,” it added.

“Thanks to your music videos, remixes, covers, and more, you’ve made YouTube the biggest music service on the planet. To turn YouTube into your perfect music service, we’re launching YouTube Music Key as a beta with our biggest music fans first, and then we’ll bring YouTube Music Key to the whole world together. So, if you see an invite in your app or email, try it out for six months for free,” it added.