Google Play Music is a fantastic service that keeps getting better. Aside from offering free users access to their personal music collection via data and WiFi, those with a monthly subscription also have access to any of the content in Google’s vast media library to listen to at any time, or even save for offline playback. The service offers both free and paid users great built-in features to help discover new music, automatically generated playlists based on personal tastes, and access Google Play Music from virtually any device. And right now, they are making the deal even more appealing, by giving new subscribers an entire four months of premium service absolutely free. In addition to free access to Google Play Music’s paid service, subscribers will also gain access to YouTube Red.
YouTube Red is a relatively new service, normally priced at $9.99 per month, however, it comes bundled with Google Play Music; if you pay for one, then you get the other. It has some exclusive premium content that is not available to standard YouTube users, and it does away entirely with advertisements on videos. As part of YouTube Red, subscribers gain the ability to use the YouTube Music mobile app. YouTube Music plays the same content as the traditional YouTube app, but also allows the user to continue to hear the audio from YouTube videos when the app is running in the background, and even when their device’s display is turned off. There is also an option to turn off video while playing audio, which is particularly useful to conserve data usage when you don’t need to see what’s on the screen. It includes a unique feature called Offline Mixtape, which generates an automatic playlist based on music tastes and downloads the songs in the background for playback when there’s no connection. The mixtape refreshes every 24 hours as long as a WiFi connection is present.
After the free trial ends, those that wish to continue their subscription will pay a fee of $9.99 per month and will continue to have access to Google Play Music, YouTube Music, and YouTube Red. A family plan is also available for only $5 more per month, and that includes all of the aforementioned services for up to six people. Considering everything these services offer, they are a great value at $9.99, but even better when the first four months are free.