YouTube Music finally gets a Wear OS app

If you're a YouTube Music user and have a smartwatch running the latest Wear OS 2 version, you can finally listen to YouTube Music on the wearable. It's possible to stream over LTE or Wi-Fi without your smartphone. You can download songs to it to listen to while offline, control playback, manage downloads, and like songs all from your wrist. The YouTube Music tile will act like a quick-launch remote for recently played playlists, and you can also browse the main page of the app.

If you're a premium subscriber, you won't have to endure ads and get access to that download function. It will also start aggregating new playlists based on your listening history.

Source | Via

YouTube Music brings free background listening to Canada first

YouTube Music users in the country will soon be able to listen to their songs in the background while your phone screens are off or you're doing something else on your phone. What's great about this news is it's coming to free and Premium users. This is the first time YouTube Music offers a feature without requiring users to subscribe to its Premium tier. It is coming to Canada first, with other countries coming at an unspecified later date.

Starting November 3, it will be available on the standard ad-supported, personalized radio mixes, and any uploaded content you've added to your account. It might be a bit late in the game, given this is a feature we expect from music streaming apps. But at least we're getting first dibs.

Source: Google Canada | Via: The Verge

YouTube Music introduces new Replay Mix playlist

YouTube Music wants to make it easier for you to find your recent most listened tracks. So, the streaming service introduces a new Replay Mix playlist right before the My Supermix playlist in the app's Mixed For You. It can hold up to 100 songs, and it includes tracks you've been listening to a lot in the "last few weeks." You can liken it to Spotify's On Repeat playlist.

Source: 9to5Google

Google launches YouTube Music app on the Apple Watch

Source: Google

As Google is set to shut down Play Music later this month, the company makes sure those few YouTube Music subscribers on iOS can have access to its service. The YouTube Music app is available on the Apple Watch. It's mostly access to the essentials, turning your Apple Watch into a music remote. But you can do things like browsing your music collection, controlling playback, and "Like" tracks. 

There's a complication that adds playback controls to the watch face, but not all watch faces support this feature. It will also let you cast a song from your phone to a speaker and even get recommendations based on your listening habits. It works similar to how Spotify's Apple Watch app works. You'll need at least a Series 3 or above running on watchOS 6 or above to use the app. And yes, you need an active YouTube Premium or YouTube Premium Music subscription, too.

Source: Engadget