Google today has announced that they have rolled out YouTube Premium and YouTube Music in South Africa. This is the first time they are doing this in an African country.
YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium is a subscription based version of YouTube where you pay a certain amount of money each month to enjoy such features as ad-free content, downloads and listening to music in the background. You also get access to exclusive original content that is done in collaboration with creators on YouTube.
For the South Africans out there, you can try out YouTube Premium for free for three months by going here. Later on, you’ll be charged R71.99 ($5.02) per month or R109.99 (S7.67) per month for a family plan.
YouTube Music
YouTube Music is a music streaming service that is specifically tailored for music streaming. It has a different desktop player and mobile app that allows one to listen to music on YouTube.
You’ll find such content as music videos, official album, singles, live performances and more. It will offer recommendations for you and there are are thousands of playlists that you can listen to based on your mood, activity or a genre.
There are two versions: And ad-supported version of YouTube Music which people can listen for free and a paid membership one. Google will let you try out YouTube Music Premium for free here and later on you can pay R59.99 ($4.18) per month or R89.99 ($6.27) per month for a family plan.
The subscription problem.
These are two distinct subscription plans that are somewhat related. If you only use YouTube for music, then the $4.18 per month for YouTube Music Premium seems adequate.
However, the YouTube Premium price of $5.02 a month gets you both YouTube Music Premium access and its benefits as well as ad-free video across YouTube, access to YouTue originals, offline playback and playing in the background.