YouTube announced Wednesday that its much-anticipated subscription music service will arrive next week, and will provide music and music videos free of advertisements.
The new service, called YouTube Music Key, will cost $7.99 a month, and will come with a top-level music tab that offers personalized recommendations for music videos, trending music and playlists, according to The Verge. Users will also get to see all of the albums from their favorite artists, as well as music videos and related content, on their profile pages.
Christophe Muller, director of global music partnerships at YouTube, said the video-sharing site has gained the reputation of being the biggest music service in the world, thanks to artists and their fans.
"We want to continue to make YouTube the best place for artists and fans to connect," Muller added.
Additional bonuses of YouTube Music Key include access to Google Play Music, which offers 30 million songs for $9.99 a month, and a recommendation service that shows you songs based on music habits, CNBC.com reported.
Music Key is starting out as an invite-only service for beta testers. Those who receive an invitation get to use the service for free for six months, but will have to pay for it afterwards.
The U.S. and six European countries will be the first to receive the ad-free service, The Verge reported.
YouTube has several new rivals to deal with now that it is offering ad-free music videos, such as Spotify, iTunes, Beats and Amazon Prime.
