What you need to know
- YouTube Music now has a new 'Released' playlist which comes out each Friday.
- The playlist will include the "hottest 50 songs" of the week.
- The playlist is similar to Spotify's 'New Music Friday' and Apple Music's 'New Music Daily'.
YouTube Music has been on a roll here recently adding new features. The latest one is a new "Released" playlist spotted by 9to5Google, which features "The hottest 50 songs this week, served up fresh every Friday."
This is clearly an effort to compete with Spotify's own "New Music Friday" and Apple Music's "New Music Daily". All I can say is, it's about time, Google. For so long, it has seemed like YouTube Music was a side project for Google. However, after seeing all the improvements the past week, it appears it might finally be taking the service more seriously.
In the last week alone, we saw Google finally add the ability to sort albums and playlists. This comes after it originally told Engadget nearly a year ago that the feature was coming "soon". Then, we also saw YouTube Music become Waze's newest audio partner allowing you to stream directly within the Waze app.
Of course, all these improvements could be seen as bad news for long-time Google Play Music fans. With Google rolling out new features and showing a renewed focus on YouTube Music, it can only mean Google Play Music's days are numbered.
Another sign would be that Google removed the ability to gift Play Music subscriptions with an update to the app last week. But as long as Google keeps improving YouTube Music, then perhaps we won't have as hard of a time letting go of Google Play Music when its time finally comes.
YouTube Music Premium
A YouTube Music Premium subscription gives you access to ad-free music streaming, the ability to download and listen to your favorite albums on the go, as well as play music in the background. Unlike other popular music streaming services, you can also flip between a song and its music video with a single tap.
