YouTube has expanded its music streaming service in Europe , to fight competition from iTunes , Spotify and Apple Music . It said it had agreed more equal terms with music companies after receiving criticism for paying less in royalties than iTunes . Tim Cook said in a recent Bloomberg interview that the company has 50 million paid and trial subscribers on its music service, which launched in 2015 and does not have a free tier. YouTube owner Google said 1.3 billion people already listened to music on YouTube , but it wanted a bigger presence in the paid - for music market . Most of the 176 million people who pay to watch music currently use YouTube . Google said it was also rebranding YouTube Red as YouTube Premium with ad - free streaming .
YouTube has expanded its music streaming service in Europe , to fight competition from iTunes , Spotify and Apple Music . It said it had agreed more equal terms with music companies after receiving criticism for paying less in royalties than iTunes . YouTube owner Google said 1.3 billion people already listened to music on YouTube , but it wanted a bigger presence in the paid - for music market . Most of the 176 million people who pay to watch music currently use YouTube . Google said it was also rebranding YouTube Red as YouTube Premium with ad - free streaming .