From today, YouTube Music is offering free, ad-supported music streaming on Google Home speakers, as well as other Google Assistant-powered speakers such as the Sony LF-S50G and JBL Link 20.
Owners can ask their smart speaker, via Assistant, to play music for a certain ‘mood’, and YouTube Music will allegedly select a station based on their request and customised to their taste. So if you're hosting a '70s disco party, you'd better hope YouTube Music kicked out some Bee Gees.
You don’t get free reign of specific song and artist selections, then, and naturally you’ll have to bear with ads. It’s hardly a replacement for a full-blown music subscription - something we imagine most smart speaker owners have already - but it’ll no doubt be a decent freebie for some.
Existing speaker owners who wish to take advantage need only head to 'Account Settings' in the Google Home app, tap ‘Services’, then ‘Music’, and select YouTube Music as the default. New owners (who, by the way, can take advantage of this fantastic Google Home deal) can go through this process during initial set-up.
The free, ad-supported YouTube Music on Google-powered smart speakers is available in the UK, US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, and Austria. Support in more countries will follow.
Naturally, Google will hope this exposure leads to a natural upgrade to its £9.99/month YouTube Music Premium plan, which offers specific song/artist/album selection, an ad-free experience and offline listening.
It seems Google isn't the only streaming service player to be launching a free tier in an effort to grow subscriber base, either, with Amazon tipped to launch an ad-supported tier next week.
MORE:
YouTube Music arrives on all Sonos speakers
