YouTube, long renowned for its vast video library, has quietly established itself as a formidable music streaming service. Its dedicated app, YouTube Music, offers a curated collection of songs, albums, and podcasts catering to various music lovers. With millions of songs and countless music videos, YouTube Music boasts a comprehensive catalog that rivals industry giants like Spotify and Apple Music.

The app utilizes advanced algorithms to suggest music based on your listening habits, ensuring a tailored and enjoyable experience. YouTube Premium subscribers can download their favorite tracks for offline playback, perfect for commutes, workouts, or areas with limited internet connectivity.

Suppose you’re wondering how YouTube Music compares to other music streaming services like Spotify, Tidal, or Apple Music. In that case, it depends on how frequently you rely on YouTube to search for music and how important music videos are to you. In this article, we’ll give you all the information you need to make an informed decision.

The basics

YouTube Music offers a simple, fast, minimalistic interface. With direct controls, it’s designed to get you to your favorite songs and music videos quickly. Its various sections include Home, Sample, Explore, and Library. The Home page contains your recommended songs, music videos, mixes, charts, and more. The Sample section, the newest service, features short video snippets curated based on your listening habits. Meanwhile, Explore allows you to discover new albums, while Library shows your listening history, favorite artists, and playlists.

YouTube Music uses your Google account information and history to personalize your experience. If you have been using YouTube to listen to music for some time, you will find prompts to add your favorite musicians and create a profile for recommendations. However, you can skip this step if you prefer. If left to its own devices, the app will automatically continue playing your past favorites.

Google introduced a link to Podcasts in the Home section in 2023. A glance at the section reveals that Google is not currently competing with Spotify and Apple Podcasts in terms of library size. Instead, the platform promotes podcasts that align with the listener’s musical preferences.

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YouTube Music offers around 100 million tracks, which puts it in the same neighborhood as similar services like Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, Spotify, Qobuz, and Tidal.

Free vs. Premium subscriptions

You automatically have a YouTube Music Premium subscription if you are a YouTube Premium subscriber.

Audio quality

You can switch between these anytime by heading to the YouTube Music settings. Downloads for offline listening provide you with standard audio files. YouTube Music does not offer the ability to listen to or download hi-res audio files — that’s one area where features like Apple, Tidal, and Amazon Music’s Hi-Fi tiers, among others, can go well beyond what YouTube Music is capable of. If audio quality is your top concern when subscribing to a service, YouTube Music isn’t the best choice. Still, it’s a very competitive option if you are interested in reliable streaming.

How much is YouTube Music?

After the free YouTube Music plan, there are three YouTube Music Premium plans to choose from, depending on your situation:

• Individual plan: $11 per month (you can cancel anytime); $110 (when paid annually, for a savings of 15%)
• Family plan: $17 per month (share with up to five family members living in the same household)
• Student plan: $5.50 per month (this requires student verification)

New subscribers can try YouTube Music Premium free for 30 days.

Platform compatibility

Features and music discovery

Excellent video integration

Music videos are integrated into the music player and play automatically if they are available with a song (otherwise, you get album art). The videos will downsize and stay in the corner if you navigate elsewhere in the YouTube Music app. There are also options to search for live performances and similar categories specifically. That makes YouTube Music one of the best options if you like music videos or want a visual component in the background while listening to music.

Playlists and playback

You can also choose to create an automatic playlist based on what music videos you’ve liked and listened to in the past, or create a new playlist of your own and add songs — with options to make it public on your YouTube channel or set it as private. You can also do a lot with any song you’re looking at. Select the Dropdown menu to a song, and you’ll see options to play it next, add it to your current queue, add it to a playlist or your liked songs, learn more about the artist, and more.

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Music discovery

YouTube Music will also produce automated mixes based on your favorite artists and radio station recommendations featuring the artists you like listening to. My Supermix is a great way to discover new music and many other genre-based new release mixes. You’ll also find recommendations from broadly popular playlists, current chart-toppers, specific genres, and more. If you like playlists, you’ll find a lot to love here, but YouTube doesn’t have any human-curated options, so you’ll have to put your faith in the algorithm.

Fine-tuner

With the “Your Music Tuner” feature, you can create radio stations featuring music from up to 30 artists. The feature can be tweaked to your preferences, such as whether you want it to include only the artists you added or whether it’s OK to include similar artists.

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If you’re a fan of VR then you might want to take a trip to your nearest Zero Latency VR location and check out the new Space Marine VR experience. Warhammer 40,000 fans know there’s something special about stepping into the boots of an Ultramarine, fighting for the glory of the emperor across the universe. Space Marine VR – Defenders of Avarax launched officially on September 25, and it promises some intense action with a full-on immersive experience that is sure to excite any fan of the franchise.

Zero Latency says the experience is available at 100+ locations worldwide. So there’s a good chance that there’s a location close to you. A session to play the game in this unique experience costs $50 per person, so it’s not exactly inexpensive. That being said, that will likely be money well-spent if you enjoy the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Zero Latency’s CEO, Tim Ruse, says creating this experience “was a real labor of love,” adding that he couldn’t be more proud of the team for what they’ve accomplished. So it sounds like the Zero Latency team are fans of Warhammer 40K themselves. That bodes well for the quality of this experience.

Zero Latency worked with Games Workshop to bring the world of Warhammer 40,000 to life in a way that hasn’t been done before. “This is a historic first for the franchise, and we’ve worked hard to craft an experience that’s truly special. One that will captivate both die-hard fans and newcomers like never before,” Ruse said.

The Space Marine VR – Defenders of Avarax experience can support up to 8 players

Whether you prefer going it alone or you fight best with your brothers at your side, you’ll have options with Space Marine VR – Defenders of Avarax. Sessions for this experience can support 1 – 8 players, so you can go in solo or squad up. I imagine playing this game with friends is a lot more fun though, so you might want to see if you have any friends that are interested in tagging along. As part of the session, you’ll “Plunge into the dangerous depths of a vast Hive City” and have to fight off swarms of Tyranids.

The game incorporates a “vast arsenal” too. So you will have plenty to work with to dispose of the enemy alien threat. Zero Latency says the arsenal includes a wide range of weapons from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. So expect to see any number of Bolt gun variations. The screenshots that Zero Latency shared don’t show any melee weapons. However, it would be strange not to have a chain sword or power sword in there somewhere. Seeing as those are pretty iconic to the franchise.

Zero Latency uses a free-roam setup

Each location is likely a little bit different but one thing each location will have in common is the way you play. Zero Latency’s VR experiences are built on a free-roam setup. So you should be able to move around the room as you progress through whatever campaign you’re taking on. This will most certainly add to the level of immersion as you play. And that should feel pretty cool if you’re suiting up as an Ultramarine. It’s the closest any of us will ever get to being an Adeptus Astartes.

If you want to get in the mindset early, you can check out Space Marine 2 on GeForce NOW.

Tesla issued another recall for more than 27,000 Cybertrucks. This is the fifth time the electric truck has been recalled in the last year.

issued the recall due to an image delay from the rear-view camera. The delayed rear-view camera failed to produce an image to the driver of what’s driving behind them within the legally required two seconds, “increasing the risk of a crash,” according to the official recall notice.

reports that the camera display is caused by a software glitch in the Cybertruck’s system. Some vehicles failed to complete the shutdown process before booting up again, causing a noticeable delay in the rear-view camera of up to eight seconds. So far, no crashes or injuries have occurred as a result of the software issue. Tesla is issuing a software update to address the rear-camera display delays.

This recall is just the latest in a string of notices and hiccups for the D-minus geometry project on wheels just this year. Tesla announced in April that it had to because of accelerator issues, a problem that prompted one of its most infamous recalls later that month due to .

Delivery delays led to another recall for the Cybertruck in June due to safety issues with . Several Cybertruck owners including some who just picked up their vehicle reported that the wipers failed to work.

Even virtual versions of the Cybertruck had to undergo repairs shortly after its release. The Cybertruck made an appearance in  as part of the game’s Summer Road Trip promotion but several players reported a weird glitch when they tried to morph a vehicle into Tesla’s signature truck. Epic Games pushed out a fix for the bug sometime later.

A telescope in Hawaii captured a rare comet as it passes near Earth. The footage was captured on 2 October by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru-Asahi Star Camera on the summit of Maunakea.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was discovered in January 2023 after Tsuchinshan Observatory in China spotted it, which was later independently detected by Nasa’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).

Scientists estimate the last time Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS visited our solar system was 80,000 years ago.