After launching in the US last October, it appears that Google has finally brought YouTube Red, their ad-free YouTube service to Australia.
The service hasn’t been officially announced at the time of writing, but all indications are that it is live so it’s just a matter of waiting until Google Australia actually announces that it’s here.
YouTube Red? It’d basically YouTube’s premium offering, which allows users to continue watching (or rather, listening) to videos in the background, eradicate video ads, save videos for viewing offline, and to get access to some exclusive content.
The service is free for Google Play Music subscribers, which normally costs $11.99 per month, although we’re seeing a $9.99 per month offer until June 6th, as you can see below. It appears there’s also a 1-month free trial you can get if you haven’t used Red or Google Play Music before.
YouTube Red includes access to some special content including full length movies from YouTube stars such as the biggest YouTube star of them all: PewDiePie, though we haven’t seen local information on Australian YouTube stars. Expect more when Google officially announces the service later this morning.
The YouTube Red service will also offer subscribers the ability to save videos offline for viewing later. We’ve tried it, and it’s quick and rather cool.
We’re waiting on official confirmation from Google, which should be on the Google Australia blog later today when their press embargo ends (noting we received this info from a tip and our own devices… Not Google! Whoops.)
Got mine today 🙂 My wife will get more use out of it than me to be fair, so I had the family plan all set up and ready to press go (I have been a Music subscriber since day one) so we both now have Music, Youtube Red and Youtube Music. Haven’t had much chance to check it out yet though.
When someone figures out the family plan setup for this please let me know.
Yay, I noticed this when the music clip I was watching in YouTube continued playing in the background 🙂 About time Google, I can’t believe it’s taken so long for such a basic feature to be made available to Australians regardless of other YouTube red benefits.
I think what should be highlighted is the YouTube music app is now live and working perfectly?
Getting error messages when try to subscribe : (
Kind of off topic but did podcasts show up also by chance? (In G Play music)
no… had the some idea and checked, especially after an app update today
Discovered it this morning. So awesome since it’s packaged with the Music subscription that I already have.
Yeah same. Google play family subscription working fine.
And can also confirm working with family plans and with iOS as well!
I logged in as my kids and didnt have red access. hmmmm
One of my sons is having issues too. I just had a chat with a Youtube support person/bot, and they/it said they were having some issues like this and that it should be fixed by tonight. But can’t who knows.
just looked at everyone in my ‘family’ two have red and two dont. funny bug
Just checked my sons account and he now has Red access!