Google is reportedly working on a new paid music service to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. The company is planning to launch the music service by March 2018.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the new paid music service is referred as Remix internally. The report further added that YouTube has already signed a deal with Warner Music Group, one of world’s three major record labels. YouTube is in talks with Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group and Merlin, a consortium of independent labels, for its upcoming music service.
The report mentions that the upcoming music service will be different from other two rivals. The brand is planning to bring on-demand streaming along with adding video clips. Apple Music is one service that offers on-demand music, different music videos and a host of original content. YouTube has reached out to artists to seek their help in promoting the new service, people close to the development told the publication.
This is not the first time, Google came with music services to compete with other music streaming players. The brand came up with Google Play Music in 2011 and it was launched in India last year. After that, it launched YouTube Music Key in 2014, which gave subscribers an option to watch music videos ad-free. Then in 2016, the brand introduced YouTube Red, which brings original content to the table.
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However, despite several attempts, Google has not able to garner much enthusiasm from its subscribers. Spotify and Apple Music have actually more subscribers and it would be interesting to see how well the upcoming service would be able to compete with the other two. However, the report highlights that there are several hurdles to meet the March deadline. On one hand, YouTube is trying to negotiate new deals with Universal and Sony for more than a year, it also negotiating with Vevo for the service as well.