A 3D-printed YouTube icon is seen in front of a displayed YouTube logo in this illustration taken October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Ilustration
(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s YouTube plans to introduce a paid music streaming service in March, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Record label Warner Music Group has already signed on while Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Merlin, a consortium of independent labels, are in talks with the video streaming website, Bloomberg said.
The service, internally referred to as Remix according to Bloomberg, will compete with similar offerings from Spotify and Apple Inc.
Google, another Alphabet unit, introduced Google Play Music, a streaming service, in 2011. YouTube launched ad-free, subscription-based YouTube Red in 2016 featuring exclusive video content from popular creators such as Lilly Singh Michael Stevens.
YouTube was not available for comment outside regular business hours.
(Reporting by Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Richard Chang)
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