YouTube reportedly planning pay music service

YouTube is reportedly planning to launch a premium music video service later this year. 

According to a Billboard report, the service will have a free and a premium tier, with the latter to offer unlimited access to a full catalogue of tracks – similar to Google’s existing All Access music subscription service – but with video.

The report, which cites unnamed sources, said that the premium version would allow viewers to cache music for offline access and would remove ads.

YouTube is currently making a bigger push into the music space with the launch this year of its first YouTube Music Awards show in New York next month.

The firm has also experimented in the past with live-streams of music events, like the Coachella festival in California.

Last month, All Things D reported that YouTube is also preparing an offline viewing function for mobile YouTube users, which will let people save clips to their smartphone and other devices that they can access for up to 48 hours offline.

The report said the videos will still be free, with Google to run ads on the clips.