YouTube’s paid subscription service ‘Red’ will be eventually merged with Google Play Music to give way to a new service, media reports said.
Google is planning to merge YouTube ‘Red’ — available in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Korea and Mexico — and Google Play Music to create a new streaming service, Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music was quoted as saying by The Verge on Thursday.
Talks of the merger were in the industry for a while and picked up pace recently after the company merged the teams working on the two streaming services.
Google’s streaming services YouTube Music, Google Play Music and YouTube ‘Red’ are confusingly connected right now.
“The important thing is combining YouTube Red and Google Play Music, and having one offering,” Cohen was quoted as saying when asked about why YouTube Red isn’t more popular with music users.
Users will be notified of any change, Google told The Verge.
YouTube ‘Red’ offers an enhanced experience by removing advertisements on videos and lets you save them offline.
Google Play Music is Google’s version of Spotify, while YouTube Music is a free app open to everybody.
YouTube ‘Red’, Google Play Music to be merged