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YouTube Music has been testing custom radio stations for quite some time, it was even spotted last year. And now, it’s rolling out to more people.
This music streaming service is rolling out a refreshed radio experience that will give more flexibility in terms of tuning the mood by adding filters to your station. Users can navigate to “Your music tuner” section in the YouTube Music home screen and then tap on the plus sign. YouTube Music lets you select up to 30 artists when creating a new radio station.
Custom radio isn’t really new to YouTube Music
Radio stations have been a part of streaming music services for many years, perhaps pioneered by Pandora Music way back in the day. But what’s new here is that you have a lot more control over your radio station.
Before, you could only choose from a single song or artist, and YouTube’s own algorithm would take care of the rest. Now, you can pick up to 30 different artists for your station and do a lot more. This includes how frequently a specific artist repeats, as well as using filters like downbeat, chill, and deep cuts. There’s also an option to only hear music from artists that you’ve chosen. So you can get very personalized results with this relaunched feature. And that’s really great to see.
Once you’ve set it up, just tap on the “Tune” button to get things started.
This feature is rolling out in the Android and iOS app where YouTube Music is available. It is available on both paid and free tiers of YouTube Music as well, which might be the most surprising part. But this is the latest feature that YouTube Music is rolling out, in hopes of converting those free customers into paying customers. It comes with YouTube Premium, so why not.