[AMA] Ask us anything about YouTube Music app’s new listening experience by Oct 21

Question

Hi everyone!
 
Last week, we shared with our YouTube Music listeners (blog post) that background play will soon be available in Canada, to all ad-supported listeners, beginning on November 3, 2021. Alongside this update, some features will become exclusive to YouTube Music Premium listeners, such as on-demand music selection and unlimited skips. These changes are coming to Canada first, and we’ll keep everyone posted on global expansion plans – stay tuned. 
More on what this means for YouTube Music listeners in Canada below,
 
Those who listen to music with ads will now be able to
listen to music in the background 
shuffle play personalized mixes (that are made just for you!)
find the perfect mood mixes for activities like workout, commute and more
explore millions of songs & thousands of playlists
 
Those who pay for a YouTube Premium subscription will be able to enjoy additional exclusive benefits, like the ability to
listen to songs on-demand 
watch videos on YouTube Music
skip tracks an unlimited number of times
enjoy YouTube Music without ads
 
Note: If ad-supported listeners have uploaded songs on the YouTube Music app, they can continue to play them anytime, on-demand.
 
We know many of you have questions, so we’re excited to host an AMA with Product Manager Jason Robinson on this topic! Starting today, you can submit your questions and feedback in the comments below and we’ll respond by next Thursday.
On Thursday Oct 21 at 12 pm PST, Jason will be here in the community answering as many questions as possible – directly on this thread! 
Please keep in mind that we will only be addressing questions related to YouTube Music app’s new listening experience since that is Jason’s expertise. All other unrelated questions won’t be addressed but know that we hope to bring more AMAs to you in the future, spanning other topics.
 
That’s all for now, I look forward to reading your questions!
 
– Hazel (on behalf of the YouTube Music team)

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: As someone who paid for Google Play Music for many years and is now paying for YouTube Music/Premium does this benefit me in any way or does it just punish those not paying for Premium? Because I still feel like I'm being punished. (From Reddit u/strayslacker)
I wouldn’t say we’re “punishing” those not paying for Premium but doing quite the opposite – we’re doubling down on providing the best listening experience based on the feedback we’re getting from free listeners. Background play is the #1 user-requested feature for the YouTube Music app, and without it, free listeners have not been able to listen to music while out on a walk, in the gym, or out on the road. At the same we want to reward our Premium members with additional exclusive benefits like on-demand song selection, video playback and unlimited skips!

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: What sound quality options will be available to free users?  Will they be able to choose between quality settings? (From Pete_L)
We’re making no changes to the quality options available to free YouTube Music listeners with this update. Free listeners will be able to continue to stream music in Normal – upper bound of 128kbps AAC  (or Low – upper bound of 48kbps AAC ) quality, as they already can today!

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Will this new approach still allow users to listen to their own uploaded music in the background, and queue these songs in any order they like? Continuing the above, if a user plays music from their own uploads, will it autoplay music outside of their uploads too? (From Pete_L)
Yes! Free tier listeners can still enjoy their uploaded music in the background and queue these songs in any order they like. Listening to a playlist that only includes uploads will only play your uploaded tracks.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: What happens if you've added individual songs to a playlist with uploaded songs? (From newsjunkie)
When playing a playlist that includes uploaded songs, your uploaded songs will play first. After all uploaded songs have been played, a radio station will start based on songs in your playlist.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: With this new update, is it possible for "shuffle play personalized mixes" to be built solely based on uploaded music? (From Graig Lubsen)
This new update does not include changes to personalized mixes, but you can always shuffle play your uploaded songs from the Library tab of the app.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Are there any plans to offer various tiers (beyond student) to YTM or bring some of the changes coming to Canada to the US? (From Reddit u/paraxio)
We’re first going to roll out these new changes to our listeners in Canada and have no updates to share on US expansion plans just yet. We’ll keep you posted as we have more information. Additionally, at this time we don’t have plans to offer tiers to YouTube Music beyond just Student plans.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: What do you mean by the changes to on-demand? On both mobile and desktop? Why should there be a difference in this respect between main Youtube and Youtube Music as long as there are still ads? What does "explore" music mean? (From newsjunkie)
With this change, free YouTube Music listeners on mobile devices in Canada will no longer be able to select specific songs that they want to listen to (aka play music on-demand) starting Nov 3, 2021. Note that these changes are limited to YouTube Music only and nothing on YouTube changes for the free viewer experience. Our main goal with these changes is to give free YouTube Music listeners the ability to listen to music in the background, which is the #1 user-requested feature for the YouTube Music app. On YouTube Music, listeners will also still be able to continue to find or discover new music from millions of official songs.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Will you ever remove ads in playlists of uploaded music for free tier users? (From puddy 77)
 
To clarify, free tier listeners can play uploaded songs in the background on your mobile phone or on the web, ad-free and offline - even if they are not currently a YouTube Music Premium subscriber. If you’re seeing ads on your personal playlists with uploaded songs, this definitely should not be the case! I suggest you send us feedback on the issue, and the right team will look into this!

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: The whole point of the move from Google Play Music was supposed to be bringing the music and Youtube experience closer together, so now removing a key part of the Youtube experience from free Youtube Music (on demand with ads) seems kind of schizophrenic, especially on desktop where it's just a version of the same website. (From newsjunkie)
Our goal with migrating Google Play Music listeners to YouTube Music was to create one music offering to best meet the needs of listeners and artists. With this new change, we’re trying to build on that same promise by giving our free listeners the best listening experience that we can while rewarding our Premium users with all the benefits of our service. Free YouTube Music listeners will still be able to enjoy millions of official songs and all of their YouTube listening habits will further help their recommendations within this new experience – including personalized mixes to match their every mood and moment including workouts, focus, and energy. This new change only affects the YouTube Music app on mobile devices and does not change the YouTube Music experience on desktop or on the web.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Will you EVER get shuffle right? I got a 100 song playlist. I want to hear each song ONCE in random order every time I select shuffle. (From User 16106360789468723279)
While shuffle play is only available for personalized mixes for free YouTube Music listeners, we’re working to improve the shuffle experience overall to address this user concern. If you have specific feedback on the Shuffle feature, I also suggest you pass your thoughts along here as this will go directly to the team that works on it!

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Currently, all YTM playlists (except GPM migrated) are available in the main YT app. Is on demand song play going to remain available in the main YT app? Will playlists that free users created in the YTM app will still be available and playable in the main YT app? Also, along the same lines, will the official releases for albums/songs/etc... still be available in the main YT app? (From G Alexander)
Yes to all three! These changes only affect the YouTube Music experience for free-listeners in Canada. Nothing is changing on the main YouTube app.

Jason E Robinson · Accepted Answer

Q: Will Canadian users’ created playlists or playlists in general be affected by this change? (From Leon E)
Free YouTube Music users in Canada will still be able to curate their playlists just as they do today. When users play the playlists that they have created, a radio station based on the songs in the playlist will start playing, which they can listen to in the background.