Google has seen a fair amount of success with their Google Play Music All Access service. With over 30 Million songs available to stream paired with a locker that allows you to upload 20,000 tracks of your own, what’s not to like? Well, there’s no videos is there? Google is aiming to remedy this defecit by introducing Music Key Beta – a new way to play and listen to music videos using YouTube.
The Music Key service will allow you to ‘listen to music without ads, to keep playing music videos even if you lock the screen or start using another app’ it will even work offline. The service is starting off as a Beta, which will roll out in Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States starting at US$7.99 (discounted from the usual US$9.99 price tag) per month.
Music Key will also give users access to the Google Play Music All Access service, with existing All Access subscribers being promised access to the YouTube Music Key beta. According to the YouTube Blog, in the coming days, you’ll see the ability to watch YouTube official Music videos right from the app.
You can attempt to sign up for the Music Key Beta, here, but it appears to be limited access. We’ve approached Google Australia about local access to the service, but we’re guessing a ‘Stay Tuned’ comment may be all we’ll get. It sounds pretty sweet and i`m sure a lot of people who don’t generally listen to Music All Access, may be enticed into the service with the promise of video clips.
I just want the offline playback functionality, would that extend to non music content?