What is YouTube Music? Everything you need to know about Google's music streaming service explained

The streaming music field is packed with companies battling for your auditory attention. YouTube Music, an extension of Google’s entertainment arm, stands out from rival services by combining customized playlists, search-by-lyrics functionality, official studio releases, and community uploads.

YouTube Music was announced in 2018 as a music streaming service from Google that only focuses on all things music across the video streaming platform. With YouTube Music, you can listen to official songs, albums, playlists, artist radios, remixes, and live versions of songs. 

It is a free-to-use service if you don't mind listening to adverts every few songs, available through a mobile app or web player. A YouTube Music Premium tier is also available to remove the adverts, give you background listening on your mobile device (so you can exit the app and continue listening), and let you download songs for offline playback.

What you can't do with YouTube Music, is watch ad-free videos, such as cats playing the piano, across the rest of the YouTube site, but there is plentiful access to music videos through the app.