SAN FRANCISCO, April 19 — Google has announced that it is now possible to listen to music from its YouTube Music streaming service on the entirety of its Home range of smart speakers (and, theoretically, any Google Assistant-compatible smart speaker).

A simple “Ok Google, play my favourite music” is now enough to enjoy your top tunes on your Google smart speaker via the search giant’s YouTube Music service. This is obviously aimed at customers who aren’t already subscribers of the service. However, playback will be interrupted by a few 30-second ad breaks. A monthly ad-free YouTube Music Premium subscription currently goes for US$9.99 (RM41.40).

This new feature will be rolled out in the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the UK, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands and Austria. Other countries are slated to be added to the list at a later date.

This strategy is in line with Amazon’s own announcement that a free version of its Amazon Music is available to Echo smart speaker owners, with the caveat that Amazon’s offer only applies to the States for the moment.

Advertisement

The idea for Google and Amazon is to get a cut of Spotify’s market share by offering a free trial to their wide user bases, starting with those who own their smart speakers. — AFP-Relaxnews