YouTube Music isn’t ready to be your daily music driver just yet

By Joshua Smith November 23, 2015

It’s nice to have variety and options for streaming media, especially music. And with music streaming services like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music already dominating the scene it’s a tough task for newcomers to come in and try to tackle the competition. A host of services, including Tidal, have come in and tried to make a splash with meager results. The latest to join the bunch is YouTube Music. Fresh off the recent addition of its premium based video platform YouTube Red, many wonder if YouTube Music will have what it takes to become their go-to music app.

In this video Joshua Smith gives you a hands-on look at the new YouTube Music app. After spending some time with the new streaming service it’s obvious that YouTube is aiming to carve out it’s turf in the streaming music landscape. Find out how the app works, where it beats other apps, and where it falls short. With tons of videos to watch, an offline mixtape mode, and even the ability to listen to YouTube audio outside of the app, this could be the music app for you.

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Mobile

YouTube hides dislike button count, drawing criticism from users and creators

Youtube video on mobile. Credits: YouTube official.

YouTube is currently the second-most-used platform in the world, and it has introduced a number of beneficial updates recently, such as offering translation options in the comments section of a YouTube video and introducing a "Media Literacy" campaign that empowers users to prevent misinformation. However, a recent update that hides the dislike button count has not gone down well with the creative community.

An announcement on the official YouTube blog has revealed the company would be making dislike counts private across its platform. While the creators will be able to see dislike counts, users will not. YouTube's justification for this is that it's seeking to reduce harassment of content creators, irrespective of their reach. YouTube revealed that it conducted an experiment earlier this year where the dislike button was available to viewers, but the dislike count was hidden. Because the count was hidden, it found that viewers or commenters were less likely to leave a dislike and engage in targeted harassment, which tends to occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels.

Mobile

The Moto 360 and other older Wear OS watches can now download YouTube Music

Moto 360 watch face

Google is further expanding YouTube Music's availability on Wear OS to even more older watches. The company initially launched the app on Wear OS 3, with exclusivity to the Galaxy Watch 4, but rolled it out to a selection of older smartwatches powered by the Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform last month. A new report notes that smartwatches like the Moto 360 can now get it, too.

Google has confirmed the expanded selection, but the company did not share exactly which watches were eligible. Instead, Wear OS users are encouraged to check the Play Store and see if their device is eligible. As it has been seen on the Moto 360 and TAG Heuer Connected watches, 9to5Google speculates it could be rolling out to watches powered by the Snapdragon Wear 3100. This should encompass quite a few Wear OS watches, including the Fossil Gen 5, the Montblanc Summit, and the Suunto 7.

Mobile

YouTube Music is finally fixing its most annoying limitation for some free users

youtube launches music feat

A select group of YouTube listeners will have plenty to sing about on November 3. Starting that day, YouTube Music will allow music to continue playing in the background, such as when your screen is turned off or when you’re performing other mobile tasks, for some user of its free service. The catch, however, is that this option will only be available in Canada.

YouTube hasn’t announced any further rollouts in other countries as of yet. A lack of a date in any other country, however, seems to be a not-so-good sign that it will still be a while before YouTube unveils it anywhere else.