There’s quite a lot of changes Android is making besides the name change to Android 10. YouTube Music will now officially come preinstalled on Android devices. This means that Google Play Music will no longer be the default music player for Android devices.
The company announced that the subscription music service will be preinstalled on all devices that run Android 10 out of the box. It also said that YouTube Music will take the place of Google Play Music.
However, if you’re a fan of Google Play Music, don’t worry. The fact that it doesn’t come preinstalled like in previous versions doesn’t mean it’s gone for good.
YouTube Music product manager Brandon Bilinski wrote in a blog post:
“Google Play Music listeners with new Android 10 devices can continue to enjoy Google Play Music by downloading it from the Play Store and logging into their accounts.”
Until now, YouTube Music required a separate download from Google Play on Android devices, but not anymore. The app will also come preloaded on new devices that ship with Android 9 Pie in the future.
Since YouTube Music launched in 2015, Google has talked about the switchover. The company said the service will ultimately replace Google Play Music as its one and only subscription music platform. The music player never quite racked up the same kind of user base as competitors like Spotify, Deezer or Apple Music.
Meanwhile, YouTube, with over a billion users, has maintained a strong foothold in the music streaming industry. However, the company has lagged in bringing over user uploads and libraries from Google Play Music to YouTube Music. In addition, people are unwilling to make the switch until that migration has proven successful. This is likely because its interface still feels a bit clunky. It is also not as user-friendly when compared to rival services.
The YouTube Music player is free. Nevertheless, a premium subscription will cost you $10 (about ₦3,600) a month. You can also bundle it with a YouTube Premium subscription for $12 (about ₦4,400) per month.
Before this, YouTube has been aggressively advertising its premium subscriptions within its popular app, displaying frequent pop-up screens that tout the benefits of YouTube Premium. The premium version comes with what you’d expect: an ad-free viewing experience, downloadable playlists, ofline access and more features.