YouTube music streaming service delayed until early next year

YouTube music streaming service delayed until early next year
Stick with your Spotify for now

YouTube's subscription music service won't be arriving in time for Christmas, despite alleged plans to have it live by the end of the year.

According to AllThingsD, people "familiar with the company's plan" claim that the paid service won't be here until 2014.

We're still not hearing a specific date but the same sources say that a planned Q1 launch is now in YouTube's diary.

Can't get no satisfaction

Apparently YouTube already has all of its licensing deals done and dusted but still "isn't satisfied with the product itself".

Despite all this, YouTube has not once acknowledged the existence of the service – we've relied on rumours and other hidden hints for that.

For example, we recently saw a bunch of clues in an APK teardown of the latest version of the YouTube Android app, which pretty explicitly reference offline playback and "background listening" in the rumoured service.

"2014 is promising to be a very exciting time for UK music services," Oleg Fomenko, CEO of music streaming app Bloom.fm, told us. "The challenge we all face is finding compelling ways to get music fans to part with their hard earned cash and we welcome any move by YouTube that finds new ways to generate better returns for music creators and the music industry."

Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.


Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.