YouTube global music chief Lyor Cohen prays YouTube can take on Spotify at a 2018 SXSW session. (Photo: Sean Mathis / Getty Images)

Google has unveiled it’s new vision for music: breaking up its premium YouTube Red into two new categories: a YouTube Music streaming service that can be accessed free with ads or by subscription for $9.99 per month, and YouTube Premium that will include original video content and ad-free access to everything on YouTube for $11.99 per month. The services, announced in a May 16 blog post, position YouTube to directly compete with Spotify.

To that end, YouTube Music comes with a new mobile app and a redesigned player for computer interface. The thing that YouTube claims will set its service apart is access to unlimited specialty playlists, culled not only from “official versions” but from live performances, remixes, covers and any other configuration you can imagine. In other words, everything at one’s fingertips on YouTube.  Google’s AI technology is another touted plus, enabling the service to cull lists and discover songs by typing a few lyrics or inputting info as general as “that hipster song with the whistling.”

Dynamic recommendations based on location and listening history are a key component. For instance, if you’re at the airport… well, who knew airport playlists are now a “thing”?  The casual listener will  now be privy to such information, previously available only to those hip to Brian Eno’s “genre-defying,” 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports.  Needless to say, gym tunes will be integral to the new services’ success.

The $9.99 YouTube Music package  includes background listening, downloads and what it’s touting as “ad-free” (but we expect will in fact end up offering limited advertising, as compared to the higher-priced model).  Google Play Music subscribers will receive YouTube Music as part of their paid plan. Google hasn’t indicated it will be retiring Google Play Music anytime soon. Though it hasn’t elaborated on  how it plans to differentiate that legacy service, one option would be to position it primarily as a “store.” Forbes is speculating  that Google Play Music will eventually be folded into YouTube Music.

Thus far, YouTube Originals for music include things like Cobra Kai, Step Up: High Water and Youth & Consequences.

YouTube has certainly ratcheted up the annoyance factor of its advertisements in anticipation of the launch of these new services. Many ads no longer offer the option to “skip” after a few seconds, forcing viewers to watch the entire thing. Then again, from the standpoint of commerce it was hard to believe that the skip option was ever offered. Pattern behavior in consumers is challenging to change. This will be as interesting a sociological as commercial study.