YouTube Music is testing a fresh look with sprawling album art headers

Google has been steadily giving YouTube Music a visual refresh, and the latest interface tweak gives album and playlist pages a much-needed facelift. Hot on the heels of experiments with the app’s Now Playing redesign and expanded full-screen album art, the streaming service is now testing an overhauled layout for album and playlists that brings immersive headers and cleaner controls to the forefront.

As spotted by multiple users on Reddit, YouTube Music’s new look for albums ditches the traditional, boxed-in header in favor of an expansive, album-art-driven backdrop. The album cover stretches across the top third of the display, similar to what we see right on artist landing pages.

Right below the synopsis, YouTube Music has reworked the action bar into a split row. Users get circular quick-action buttons for offline downloads, library bookmarks, paired with a large Play button on the right.

The UI for playlists sees similar changes, with the composite album art now stretching expansively on the display.

The button row has split once again, with buttons for offline downloads, library bookmarks, and comments on the left, paired with a large Play button on the right. There’s a new shuffle button replacing the menu button, which now sits at the top of the header.

As is typical with Google’s rollout strategy, this redesigned YouTube Music interface appears to be an A/B test pushed via a server-side switch. Only a limited number of users have received the update so far, but if feedback remains positive, expect the cleaner aesthetic to reach a wider audience in the coming weeks.