YouTube Rumored to Launch Subscription Streaming Music Service

Move over, Spotify. It sounds like Google’s coming out with its own streaming music service—and it’s powered by YouTube.

YouTube will be launching a subscription streaming music service later this year, according to Fortune.

Currently, YouTube does stream all sorts of content, music and otherwise, and does so using only ads as a source of revenue. But now YouTube will be offering a subscription-based music service for those who want an ad-free music listening experience among other features, sources from Google and the record industry told Fortune.

Though sources from YouTube’s parent company Google spoke to Fortune about the upcoming music service, YouTube was still unwilling to confirm the news directly, but did say the following in a statement:

“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.”

Surprisingly, Spotify is not the most popular subscription streaming music service: mobile carrier Cricket’s “Muve Music” is the most popular with 1.4 million customers.

It’s possible that with YouTube’s vast audience, its subscription service could knock Spotify out of the No. 2 spot (approximately 1 million customers) with competitive pricing, if they can offer prices closer to Muve’s less-than-$5-a-month subscription.

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