YouTube Red music streaming service to rival Spotify is probably coming to the UK this year
YouTube's paid-for music streaming service could finally land in the UK in 2018, giving Spotify and Apple Music something to worry about
YOUTUBE could launch a music streaming service in the UK later this year, according to the company's CEO.
The YouTube Red streaming service – which is already available in the USA – will arrive in "a hundred" more countries in 2018, and the UK is almost certain to be among them, The Sun has learned.
A top tech analyst told us that the platform is likely to launch in the UK as soon as the middle of 2018.
Google launched YouTube Red back in 2014, offering it up as an ad-free alternative to YouTube.
The catch was that users needed to pay a monthly subscription fee, which is set at $9.99 in the USA.
The service was originally launched as Music Key, providing ad-free music streaming and music videos, but was relaunched to include videos in 2015.
It's now available in a small selection of countries, including the USA, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Mexico.
Google has been keeping quiet about an expansion, but CEO Susan Wojcicki says the service will be going global in 2018.
She also added that YouTube Red is "really a music service", suggesting that it's a music rival to Spotify rather than a video rival to Netflix.
That said, YouTube Red currently offers a wide range of original video content, which does put it in direct competition with Netflix and Amazon Video.
Sadly, YouTube hasn't confirmed whether the feature will come to the UK specifically.
Speaking to The Sun, a YouTube spokesperson said: "We don't have plans to announce at this time."
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However, it's very likely that the UK will be among YouTube Red's global launch countries, given how big a presence Google and YouTube have in Britain.
We spoke to tech expert Daniel Ives, who revealed that Google is likely to launch YouTube Red in the UK very soon.
"YouTube Red has had an identity crisis over the last few months and now finally appears to be back on track," explains Ive, who works at top research firm GBH Insights.
He added that we'd see England, France and Germany becoming a "focus for a mid 2018 launch".
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