YouTube Launches New $9.99 Monthly Music Video Subscription Service

Looking to cash in on the popularity of some of your favorite artists, Google and YouTube have launched a new paid music video streaming service that will offer users ad free steams, offline content and more. Along the new service YouTube has also made several music oriented changes to its apps and website.

Starting today, you’ll see a new home just for music on your YouTube app for Android, iOS and on YouTube.com that shows your favorite music videos, recommended music playlists based on what you’re into and playlists of trending music across YouTube.

The new streaming service which will be launched in full in 2015 will be dubbed YouTube Music Key, and will be a monthly subscription service starting with the promotional price of $7.99/month (discounted from $9.99/month). The new services will offer subscribers ads-free music, background play and offline viewing. It will also include a subscription to Google Play Music (which is currently $10/mo on its own), 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.

For now YouTube Music Key will only be available through an invite to its "biggest music fans", who can try out the beta version for six months at no charge, YouTube said in its blog. If you’re interested in getting more info on the beta, you can let Google and YouTube know at YouTube.com/musickey.