YouTube Music App Now Available On Android & iOS Devices

Aside from being a source of videos, YouTube now attempts to be the No. 1 go-to mobile application for music needs with the launch of YouTube Music.

After a year in its beta phase, Wall Street Journal said the company finally made the application for iPhone and Android users. It is believed to go against rival music streaming apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and Tidal.

The same report highlighted that when users open the new app, they will only see video stills.

"Not every song, of course, has a music video and YouTube mixes videos and audio-only tracks to make up its catalog of about 50 million songs," Wall Street Journal addd.

Users will not only be able to listen to mainstream artists but also covers and music by emerging musicians which sum up to about 20 million songs, as per YouTube engineering director Sowmya Subramanian.

Instead of building playlists based on genres or artists, YouTube claimed that they wanted to focus on having "taste-making playlists" like the Daily 40.

"We want the Daily 40 to be the place you go to know what everyone else is watching and talking about and sharing. If a song is blowing up on YouTube, this is where you'd find out about it," said YouTube head of music products T. Jay Fowler in the Wall Street Journal report.

In its official website, YouTube announced that the recently launched application will be a new medium to continue the company's legacy of being "the absolute best place in the world to discover new music."

It noted that YouTube music will make "discovering music easier than ever."

"The app also gives you complete access to one of the richest music catalogs on earth. You'll be able to quickly find music videos, tracks, artists and albums, but you'll also see all the remixes, covers, lyric videos and concert footage that YouTube has to offer," read the app description on the website.

For those wanting to have a better listening experience, they can subscribe to YouTube Red, which allows users to use the music app without ad interruptions.

A TechCrunch review of the mobile application indicated that it also comes with an audio mode, which allows users to play only the audio of a song without loading videos.

"Audio-only mode is great for radio, because if you put your phone in your pocket, YouTube Music will keep on going and going," the same report added.

Meanwhile, The Verge noted that YouTube Music does not give users the ability to make playlists. Fowler, however indicated that the main aim for the launch was to give people the simplest experience.