Robert Kyncl, YouTube Chief Business Officer, speaks as YouTube unveils “YouTube Red,” a new subscription service in Los Angeles. (Photo: Danny Moloshok, Associated Press)
When YouTube Red was , the online video company’s entry into subscription music streaming, it seemed doomed from the start. What little market crumbs Spotify and Pandora have left are already tightly encircled by services like TIDAL, Apple Music, Amazon Prime Music and Google Play.
If none of the latter could break through, what chance does a video-first company have in the streaming music world? More accurately, what can YouTube Red offer aside from video that would set it apart?
As it turns out, quite a bit. First, there are the marquee perks the service launched on. First, You’ll never have to watch another ad again on the site, which is a bigger relief than you might expect given how firmly YouTube has pushed into ad placement. YouTube Red also allows you to listen to songs while the app is in the background on your phone and easily download videos for offline playback. It’s a godsend if you’ve ever tried to listen to an obscure mixtape that you can only find on the site without killing your battery in 30 minutes.
Speaking of obscure mixtapes, YouTube has them in spades. Spotify may have more than 30 million songs, but YouTube famously gains another hour of content . Obviously, not all of that is music, but a lot is.
The massive catalog is one of the best features YouTube Red has going for it. Obscure songs and albums that Spotify doesn’t (or can’t) offer are often on YouTube if they’re anywhere on the web. For example, YouTube is the only streaming service that features Memory Tapes diamond-in-the-rough remix of Tanlines’ “Real Life.”
Then, you have obscure uploads that would have no place on other streaming services for a myriad of reasons. “Champion of My Heart” is as much a goofy parody of 80’s synth inspirational music more than a good song in its own right, but it’s something I fondly turn to when a friend is foolish enough to let me control their car stereo. It’s on YouTube in all its ad-less glory.
Finally, there’s the artists have withheld their music from Spotify. While two of 2015’s notable releases, Thee Oh See’s “Mutilator Defeated at Last” and Jim O’Rourke’s “Simple Songs,” are no where to be found on Spotify, they’re easily searchable on YouTube. A more notable example comes in the form of pop high-priestess . Swift, who removed herself from the service in protest, is all over YouTube: studio albums, music videos and live performances litter the platform like gum wrappers on the floor of her concerts.
This gross abundance is a double-edged sword. Unlike Spotify, anyone can upload content to YouTube. That’s wonderfully egalitarian, but it also makes for an ill-organized hodgepodge of content that ranges from annoying to unacceptable.
If organization isn’t a priority, you can probably ignore the fact that punctuation can vary wildly from one song to another. But when a track is flat-out mislabeled or significantly altered, it’s harder to forgive. Because many of uploaders are simply mining for hits, you’ll come across songs that have been pitched up or to avoid the platform’s copyright detection software, or mislabeled to trick you into listening to another artist. And if sound quality is a concern, don’t . Unlike Spotify, there is no way of guaranteeing a high or even passable quality version of a song will be available.
All of these quirks that were easily written off when the service was free become glaringly apparent when you’re paying for it. Side by side, you’re getting considerably less cohesion here than virtually all of its competitors. If that’s important to you, YouTube Red is a no go. However, depending how much you love videos, obscure music and Taylor Swift, YouTube Red could be a viable alternative to the plethora of other streaming services. At minimum, it offers a starkly different platform than its competitors, and that goes a long way.
