Music  

YouTube Music Comes On Stream

By Eniola Daniel

14 March 2020   |   3:24 am

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To further promote Nigerian music to reach more audiences, the American video-sharing platform, YouTube has announced the launch of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in Nigeria. This announcement is coming as the Nigerian music continue to enjoy global attention despite having less than 50 per cent of its view on the platform from Nigeria. At…

Communications & PR Manager, Google West Africa, Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade (left); YouTube Content Partnership Manager, Google; Sub-Saharan Africa, Addy Awofisayo; Nigerian Afro-Pop Music Artiste, Naira Marley and Product Marketing Manager, Google, Sub-Saharan Africa, Adetutu Laditan at the official launch of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in Lagos

To further promote Nigerian music to reach more audiences, the American video-sharing platform, YouTube has announced the launch of YouTube Music and YouTube Premium in Nigeria.

This announcement is coming as the Nigerian music continue to enjoy global attention despite having less than 50 per cent of its view on the platform from Nigeria.

At the launch in Ikoyi, Lagos, YouTube revealed that despite the exploit of Nigerian music over the years, more can be done to give more artists the opportunity to showcase their creativity.

With the launch, fans can access ad-supported YouTube Music for free, while it also announced YouTube Music Premium, a paid membership that gives users background listening, downloads and an ad-free experience.

Speaking at the event, YouTube Content Partnership Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Addy Awofisayo said, “Starting today, user can also upgrade to YouTube Premium, providing members with the benefits of Music Premium, plus ad-free, background listening, and downloads across all of YouTube, plus users can get binge-watch YouTube Originals shows and movies, including the hit series Cobra Kai and many more.

“If you love music and if you love music that’s personalised to you, that’s the amazing thing YouTube Music does; we figured out your taste. We asked you when you first logged on the app the types of artists or music you listen to you and then from that we curate music that’s personalised to individual taste.

“There is a free piece on YouTube Music so you don’t have to necessarily subscribe to YouTube music to listen to music on YouTube music as long as a user has the app. However, if you want to enjoy some of the features like offline songs, if you’re on a plane and you don’t have WiFi or if you don’t have data, then you would have to subscribe to YouTube music to enjoy some of our features and to get the full benefit and full potential of YouTube Music.

On how the new feature will improve the music market globally for African artists, he said, “Without YouTube Music, YoTube is already the gateway for African artists to reach a global audience. “A lot of artists get audiences from the US, the UK, France, Canada via YouTube. A lot of those guys discover people like Burna Boy, Kizz Daniel, Davido via the YouTube app. So, the YouTube music streaming app is an add on, and provides more benefit to anyone who loves music and maybe discovers the artists on YouTube can enjoy all their albums or their songs on YouTube music, the streaming app.”

On the difference between listening to music on YouTube and listening to music on YouTube app, she said, “The main difference between YouTube main and YouTube Music is, YouTube Music is actually a product for music lovers, so if you love listening to music, YouTube Music app is for anyone who loves listening to music, then main YouTube is the app for anyone who loved watching music video content. So, the core difference is a lot of lovers of music, who are not necessarily watching the videos, can use YouTube Music to do that.

On his part, Nigerian rapper, Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, who was the number one most vied artist in Nigeria in 2019 said, “It’s good that YouTube Music and Premium are in Nigeria now, we need it,”. “This platform is going to make things easier for me to listen to my favorite tunes, and it’s also a nice way for me to build more fans in Nigeria and across the globe. It’s about time, YouTube is more than videos, YouTube is the plug.”

Product Marketing Manager, Google, Sub-Saharan Africa, Adetutu Laditan, said, “The newly launched feature will give users to easily choose music for every mood, and that’s what makes the features more exciting.”