YouTube Music has removed one of its most frustrating limitations, but it is only available in Canada. YouTube today announced that customers in Canada can now listen to their music while they are doing other tasks or turning off the screen.
Background listening supports both personalized, ad-supported radio mixes as well as uploaded content.
YouTube Music is offering the feature for the first time without the need to upgrade to a Premium subscription. YouTube has not yet revealed when other countries will be able to enjoy the same convenience.
Music lovers rejoice! Background listening will soon be available on the @YouTubeMusic App. You'll be the first to experience this feature beginning Nov 3. Enjoy radio-like listening without your screen off, and don't stop the music! https://t.co/GPwRMcVhp1 Google Canada (@googlecanada) October 4, 2021
YouTube Musics rivals, such as Spotify, Apple Music and Pandora, offer background listening for free. This is an area where YouTube is behind its competitors. We hope that this expansion will be completed sooner than expected.
YouTube Music Premium offers other benefits, even though background playback is limited to the free tier. Offline downloads is the biggest benefit, but you can also listen to music without ads and switch seamlessly between audio and video.
