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YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are now available in India

YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are now available in India

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google has announced that YouTube Music, YouTube Music Premium, and YouTube Premium have all launched in India. The services join Google Play Music and Google Play Movies, which arrived in India in 2017.

India consumes a tremendous amount of music on YouTube already. A Nielsen report from 2018 says YouTube is the country’s top source for streaming music, and Indian music label T-Series just surpassed YouTube star PewDiePie as the most subscribed channel on the entire platform for the third time, before dropping back to second place. T-Series is already the most-watched YouTube channel globally, with a combined 60 billion views across all its uploaded videos. India’s current streaming revolution — the result of low-cost smartphones combined with falling data rates — means there are millions of new internet users eager to stream music, and companies equally eager to expand into India to grab a piece of the market.

These newly introduced YouTube services will be tackling a host of competing streaming platforms in India, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, JioSaavn, Gaana, and Spotify, which entered the Indian market just last month.

In India, the ad-supported version of YouTube Music will be free, YouTube Music Premium will cost users 99 rupees per month ($1.42), and YouTube Premium will cost 129 rupees per month ($1.85). These are the cheapest rates globally, but on par with what other streaming services charge in India. Those who buy YouTube Premium will get features like the ability to play videos in the background while running other apps, offline downloads, access to YouTube Originals, and YouTube Music Premium bundled in.

Like in other countries, Samsung Galaxy S10 users in India who aren’t current subscribers to YouTube Premium, YouTube Music Premium or Google Play Music can try out four months of free access to YouTube Premium.