YouTube Launches Premium Music Service, Challenging Spotify and Apple
*By Alisha Haridasani*
After a series of stops and starts, YouTube will launch a music streaming service later this month to compete directly with Spotify and Apple Music.
The ad-supported YouTube Music will be available to users for free, and an ad-free version, YouTube Music Premium, will cost about $10 a month. There will be a mobile app and a desktop player designed to stream pre-programmed playlists, personalized music suggestions, live performances, and music videos, according to a [statement](https://youtube.googleblog.com/2018/05/youtube-music-new-music-streaming.html) from YouTube.
To consolidate its various video and music products, Google will include access to YouTube Music Premium for Google Play Music subscribers at no additional cost.
In addition to the standalone music product, YouTube is re-branding its music and video YouTube Red service as YouTube Premium. The ad-free subscription service will go from $10 to $12 a month, but it includes the new ad-free premium music service.
YouTubes official entry into the premium music streaming business has been a long time coming: More than 1 billion users a month already use YouTube to “discover new music.” A [study](http://www.ifpi.org/downloads/Music-Consumer-Insight-Report-2017.pdf) published in 2017 estimates that YouTube accounts for 46 percent of time spent online listening to on-demand music.
The leading premium music streaming service, Spotify, has 75 million paid subscribers and is expected to hit 96 million by the end of the year. Rival Apple Music [reportedly](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/apple-music-hits-50-million-subscribers-1112018) has 50 million paid and free users.
Elon Musk announced that he expects Starship to reach orbit in 2022. The SpaceX CEO delivered updates about the largest space vehicle to be constructed from its Texas facility. Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder at Phantom Space, joined Cheddar News to talk about the future of Starship. "I've always done wrong by betting against Elon," he said. "The one thing that I find very curious is it launches 100 metric tons into space, and last year, in the entire year, we launched 750. So, you know, with about seven launches, he could launch every satellite on Earth."
Sheri Bachstein, CEO of The Weather Company and GM of IBM Watson Advertising, joins ChedHER to discuss her successes in this role, and how she's helping women thrive in the c-suite.
Amid a string of recalls for their electric cars, Tesla is also facing a lawsuit over workplace discrimination. The electric automaker is being accused by California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing of a pattern of racial discrimination against Black workers. Caleb Silver, Editor-in-Chief at Investopedia, joined Cheddar News to discuss the numerous technical and safety issues that led to the recalls and the allegations of systemic racist abuse at its Fremont plant. "Tesla disputes these claims, but still you can’t avoid the pattern," he said.
The Super Bowl is only a few days away, and the game is currently tracking to be the most expensive one ever.
Gametime, a website and app for last-minute tickets, says the average ticket price for the NFL's championship game is $9,502.50, with the most expensive seats costing nearly $38,000. That's a far cry away from the average ticket price of the first-ever Super Bowl in 1967, which was only $12. The average ticket price increased by more than $8,000 in just the past decade. Matt Rados, Senior Operations Manager at Gametime, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
