YouTube Music Will Soon Have Download To SD Card, Audio Quality Options

Google launched YouTube Music in May to compete with other music streaming services like Apple Music and Spotify. So far, it has received mixed reviews because it lacks some important features. Google is planning to remedy this by providing regular software updates to YouTube Music.

YouTube Music will be given improvements through software updates every two weeks, Google revealed to Engadget. Some of the improvements that Google promises to bring will include the ability to sort albums by other categories besides “Recently Added.” YouTube Music product manager Elias Roman also said that the feature is “firmly on the roadmap.”

The plan to introduce the ability to sort albums is also the reason why YouTube Music has removed the “Shared History” feature. The feature actually combined what the user is listening to on YouTube Music and what they’re watching on YouTube’s video site.

Google is also planning to streamline how users follow artists on YouTube Music. If users follow an artist on YouTube Music, they will automatically be subscribed to their YouTube video channel. Right now, there’s no way to filter out other YouTube creators who aren’t necessarily music oriented or singers. Roman said that they’re solution for this might be a drop-down menu to filter out musicians that users are following on YouTube Music.

Google has no plans on completely separating its YouTube Music streaming service with its core video service. There are already more than a billion people who listen to music through YouTube and it just makes sense that Google would want to leverage that.

Roman also revealed that Google is now rolling out a feature to YouTube Music that’s been highly demanded by Android device users. Soon, Android users will be able to save their music on their SD card or on their hard drive. The product manager said that the feature is now rolling out to all YouTube Music subscribers.

Lastly, Google will be adding the ability to let users select audio quality for streaming and for downloading music. No specifics were given on when exactly this feature will be available, but it should arrive “in the next few weeks.” Audio quality will include low, medium and high options, as pointed out by Android Authority.

Apple Music and Spotify are both known for collaborating with popular artists to deliver exclusive music content. However, Google has no plans to do the same for YouTube Music. Roman said that they are not focusing on that because they believes that it isn’t good for the music industry or the consumers.