YouTube Music, YouTube Premium officially launch in U.S. and 16 more countries

Google is revamping its music and paid video plans once again. After a soft launch in May, YouTube Music is now officially available for everyone in the U.S. and 16 other countries, while YouTube Premium is launching today as well.

Besides the U.S., YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are also now available for everybody in Australia, Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

YouTube Music will offer music videos, of course, but also full albums, individual songs, remixes, live performances and more. It will also offer automatic recommendations based on the artists and songs you have played before on the service, along with where you are currently located, and what you might be doing. It also has thousands of playlists to choose from, along with smart searching features and a list of the top music videos currently on YouTube. YouTube Music will eventually take the place of the current Google Play Music, but not for a while, and those users will still have access to their purchased music, uploads and playlists.

You can also sign up for the YouTube Music Premium service, which normally costs $9.99 a month. It adds a way to listen to songs and watch music videos with no ads, along with download support and background listening. If you have not yet tried out the paid version of Google Play Music, you can try the new YouTube Music Premium for free for three months.

YouTube Premium is basically the same service as YouTube Red. It has all the features in YouTube Music Premium, but throws in all of its videos, music or not, as ad-free, along with downloads and background listening, for $11.99 a month. It also lets you check out all of the current and future premium YouTube Originals video series, such as the recent Karate Kid sequel series Cobra Kai. Again, if you have not yet tried out YouTube Red, you can check out YouTube Premium for free for three months.

If you are a current subscriber to YouTube Red and Google Play Music in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico, the good news is that you will automatically be given a subscription to YouTube Premium at the current $9.99 a month price. There’s no word on when or if those customers will get a price hike. Current Google Play Music subscribers in all other countries will automatically receive access to YouTube Music Premium at their current price.