According to the recent reports, Google is rebranding its Music Key subscription service as YouTube Red. Apart from the subscription service, YouTube Red could be an amalgamation of more services based on ad-free subscription model.
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o you remember YouTube’s very own music-focused subscription based service called Music Key that was launched about a year ago? Well, it didn’t perform well against the competitors like Spotify, Apple Music or Rdio. However, the company is aiming to rejuvenate things by rebranding it.
Interestingly, Google has recently updated its YouTube app that includes a text describing a product called YouTube Red. It’s a service that enables background and ad-free music playback, a feature that was absent in the Music Key subscription service.
For the fossBytes readers who don’t know, Music Key is a paid music subscription and streaming service operated by Google.
This was spotted by Android Police, that writes that the rebranding is shown as a notification only when you are leaving a video playing in the background and you switch to another app. This is also shown as a pop-up when you re-open YouTube later.
Take a look it in the screenshots below. To see these changes, you must be having the latest version the Android app on your device.
It should be noted that Music Key still has the “beta” tag associated with it and Google could be planning to relaunch the service as YouTube Red. It’s possible that Google aims to do a lot more that music with YouTube Red and this possible rebranding is just the first step.
The next week, on September 29, Google is holding an event and it’s expected to launch heavyweight products like new Nexus phone as well as Android Marshmallow. We can also witness the launch of much-awaited YouTube ad-free subscription service and new Chromecast.
It’s expected that YouTube Red will be playing a bigger role in the upcoming Google Movie.
What do think about this rebranding? Did you like the name YouTube Red? Tell us in the comments below.