What you need to know
- YouTube has extended its Premium and Premium Music services to ten new countries.
- A few of those countries got these services early this month.
- The move follows changes Google made when displaying ads on the platform.
YouTube is expanding its Premium and Music services to more countries, which comes as an extension to an earlier announcement made in the African region early this month.
As spotted by to 9to5Google, YouTube Music Premium alongside YouTube Premium is now expanded to regions including Algeria, Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Laos, Tunisia, and Senegal. Amongst these, Kenya, Senegal, and Ghana regions received these services as part of a rollout on December 5, per Google Africa blog post, bringing access to the music app to these countries.
The new addition makes these YouTube services available in 110 countries. The YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium subscriptions are available for both Android phones and iOS devices. The tiered pricing across some regions can be seen in the GIF above, which details how the pricing across platforms differs, with iOS handset users having to pay a little more over their Android counterparts.
The Premium tier across YouTube and YouTube Music is a valuable addition to users who rely on YouTube for videos and music. YouTube Premium offers users an ad-free video experience, background playback, and the ability to download videos for offline viewing. With YouTube Music Premium, users can experience ad-free music and offline downloads. Despite being pricy, plans give users significant benefits with the Premium services.
This is particularly beneficial now that Google is switching up how it displays ads on YouTube. The company recently announced that it's rolling out a new way to showcase ads on YouTube, meaning users without the subscription will watch fewer but lengthier advertisements.
Aside from the usual benefits, Google has also offered its YouTube Premium subscribers significant discounts when purchasing Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro in the U.S. region.
