According to a report from Fortune that cites multiple sources inside both Google and the record industry, YouTube is set to launch its own subscription music service later this year in tandem with the Google Play subscription service that we’ve been hearing about.
The service would allow anyone to listen to music for free, but would include a subscription element that would unlock bonus features and of course, get rid of the ads that would be needed to support the free version.
Recent reports suggested that Google was in fact working on a subscription music service that would take on Spotify, Pandora, and others. A Bloomberg report cited multiple sources who said that negotiations were already underway with major record labels to launch a streaming service in the third quarter.
Apparently, the YouTube effort will see some overlap with the Google-branded effort.
YouTube had this somewhat revealing comment on the report:
While we don’t comment on rumor or speculation, there are some content creators that think they would benefit from a subscription revenue stream in addition to ads, so we’re looking at that.
Basically, we’re not going to confirm that, but a bunch of people think it would be a good idea.
