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.
A group of crypto enthusiasts pooled over $40 million dollars in an attempt to win a copy of the U.S. Constitution last week. However, their efforts came up short, as hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin emerged as the victor in a $43.2 million Sotheby's auction. Matt Cutler, CEO & Co-Founder of Blocknative, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why ConstitutionDAO ultimately came up short.
Gparency, a company that says its mission is to revolutionize the commercial mortgage industry, raised $15 million in its first funding round - representing the largest ever seed round in the commercial real estate space. Gparency's service will allow landlords and real estate developers to receive funding directly from banks, without the need for a mortgage broker. The company says its new approach will give power back to the consumer. Gparency founder and CEO Ira Zlotowitz joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Rapper and singer T-Pain is teaming up with Google this holiday season to encourage shoppers to support Black-owned businesses on Black Friday. Stephanie Horton, the director of marketing for Google Shopping, joined Cheddar to provide some details about T-Pain's new song, featuring Normani, in a new shoppable interactive film for the promotion. She also explained how Google worked with local artists in various states to create shoppable murals, where products seen in the artwork are discoverable online by simply pointing your camera at it.
Per a request from the UK singing sensation Adele after her new album "30" dropped on Friday, Spotify removed shuffle play as the default for albums. Adele tweeted about her request to the streaming service, arguing that an album's track sequence is intentional and that the songs should be listened to in that order.
Caleb Silver, the Editor-in-Chief for Investopedia, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the latest in the Activision Blizzard sexual misconduct scandal. After 1,700 of the embattled video game maker's employees signed a petition demanding CEO Bobby Kotick step down, Kotick reportedly said he would step down if he can't turn the toxic workplace culture around quickly. Silver noted that the allegations go back years with settlements and lawsuits that indicate Kotick would have to be claiming ignorance of his own business or deliberately obfuscating his knowledge of what happened under his watch.
In 2022, all 3G networks will shutdown permanently. Sprint will be leading the charge as the first network to go dark on New Year's Day, and the rest will follow shortly thereafter. Ryan Johnston of Next Century Cities joins Cheddar News to discuss the importance of the shutdown, and how users who may be affected can act fast before they're left disconnected.
