YouTube Red and Google Play Music to Merge in New Subscription Service

[tonyr6]

I hope when they merge Play Music can drop there muddy old MP3 codec and use AAC or there own V8 codec for the music service. I had to cancel Play Music because the sound quality is horrible it sounds more like a 64kbps MP3 and it sounds the same if I choose Low or Always High. Yes I cleared my cache even on the Play Music setting page but on every device it sounds like mud.

So Google has until Sep 7th when my Apple Music sub renews to drop MP3 for AAC, OGG or V8 codec at a high bit-rate or I am staying with Apple Music. Paying just for ad free YouTube is not worth it if the music service sounds like crap.

 

[69Mustang]

I saw it as I'm paying $10 a month to not receive ads while still funneling some level of money into film makers. I saw ads as a way to support the artists on YT and red allows me to skip ads and still support them.

My concern is if it stays $10 a month, that essentially divides $5 to Google Music and $5 to YT Red and thus YT would have to lower the amount they pass on to content creators.

If Google Music is already included with YT Red, then I guess nothing changes then why is this post even here? It makes it seems like they're merging. I have no interest in google music.

Like @ActionableMango said, primarily the only change is branding/marketing. The one big thing I didn't realize is the combined service wasn't ubiquitous around the world. Apparently some countries only get the specific service they subscribed to instead of both.

AFAIK, the money we pay for subscriptions doesn't really have a direct correlation to content creators getting paid. It's still primarily number views, or in the case of Play Music/Apple Music/Spotify, number of streams. I'm sure our subscription fees play a part somewhere in the chain, but not that significant a part to content creators.

 

[tonyr6]

Want traffic info in maps, pay, want push service for email, pay, etc and the next thing we know, people end up paying $20-30 a month to use google services.

Amazon is already doing that. Prime is worth crap now that they have add on items, add on Pantry extra fee, add on Fresh extra fee, Amazon channels again add on fee's, Music Unlimited you guessed it more add on fee's. Upload more than 250 pathetic amount of songs again more fee's. Kids profiles extra fee even for that.

Coming soon extra fees to watch Amazon originals and I am not joking. I read this somewhere that Amazon is thinking about doing this.

 

[supercoolmanchu]

If you're paying Google, you're doing it wrong.

That's a company built on tracking your movements, so they owe you the free lunch.

 

[bartvk]

Apparently some countries

That's putting it mildly. YouTube Red is only available in five! countries: United States, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea. Geographically speaking, it might be the most limited Google service ever, and has been so since the beginning. No effort was made after introducing it, as far as I can find.

 

[jimthing]

Amazon is already doing that. Prime is worth crap now that they have add on items, add on Pantry extra fee, add on Fresh extra fee, Amazon channels again add on fee's, Music Unlimited you guessed it more add on fee's. Upload more than 250 pathetic amount of songs again more fee's. Kids profiles extra fee even for that.

Coming soon extra fees to watch Amazon originals and I am not joking. I read this somewhere that Amazon is thinking about doing this.

I think that could be a reasonable pricing structure, though. If done fairly, which Amazon may or may not have done correctly yet.

Idea being that you get the core services, which should be strong in their own right, and not half-baked missing the best stuff. Then you can pay (hopefully reasonable/small) additionals for higher service levels. Bit like anything else in life...
Small / Medium/ Large (or in McDonalds/Starbucks-type language: Standard / Large / Supersize!).

 

[tonyr6]

Nickled and dimed is a better way to put it.