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While many people probably use traditional streaming music services like Google Play Music All Access, Spotify, or Pandora, (three of the most popular) YouTube is a common place for people to stream their favorite tunes, and with the launch of YouTube Music Key last year Google really took listening to music through YouTube to the next level. With the launch of the service which comes bundled with All Access if you already subscribe, it offers background listening and the ability to search for the music you want so you can hunt down and create playlists or listen to a single song all accessible from your smartphone or tablet.
If you typically use the YouTube webpage though to feed your music addiction, the experience isn’t quite the same as if you use YouTube Music Key on your Android device. A new Chrome extension called Streamus though aims to bring an enhanced listening and viewing experience of your YouTube playlists and music videos. It features a cool Material Design style UI in a separate panel that pops up from your browser bar, making it possible to listen to all your music without having to open the YouTube site in another tab. Another benefit of this is since you can add music and music videos to your saved playlists with Streamus, you can listen to your music on any computer with the Chrome browser installed by singing into Chrome with your Google account.
The Streamus extension lets you manage your playlists, pause/play music from the extension panel, or you can opt to open up the panel in a new tab if you prefer. Searching can also be done without having to open the YouTube site, making the task of adding music and videos to playlists and streams a snap. There’s a host of other features too, like sharing playlists with friends via links, and integration with the omnibox (your address bar in Chrome) so you can search for stuff just by typing “streamus” then hitting the space bar and finishing off with a video or song name. It also supports integration with Beatport so you can have quick access to the top 100 charts. There’s even a fairly large list of keyboard shortcuts you can use for easy playback controls without even touching the extension itself. Best of all, Streamus is free to use. The only thing it lacks which YouTube Music Key offers is offline listening, but even without that particular feature Streamus is an awesome alternative if you don’t want to pay the monthly fee for YouTube Music Key and All Access.