RadioandMusic
| 25 Apr 2024
YouTube Music redesigns tap to reach larger audiences

MUMBAI: According to the report, YouTube is now pushing out a redesign, making it easier for users to explore its amazing new features and is slowly rolling out to the wider audience. Specifically, that's the previously-limited UI rework that brings functionality and aesthetics of the tab more in line with Google Play Music. The rework also delivers a few new features that were missing from previous versions and fixes.

Among those, songs added to the user's library will now automatically result in the artist being added to the Artists list in the Library tab. Beyond that, songs added as part of an album won't solely be stored as an album any longer. Rather, they'll also appear as individual songs in the aptly-named Songs segment of the Library tab.

With the changes in place, users will have much more control over what they're listening to and when. That's without discrepancies in the songs, albums, or artists that they've added. And that's without the available options varying wildly depending on the section of the Library tab they happen to be navigating.

Google's media offerings under the YouTube brand are finally coming together. The new YouTube Music Library tab redesign falls well in line with other changes YouTube has been making. For the most part, those have been centered around improving user experience and eliminating widespread complaints. In each case, those have cropped up as Google continues moving its media-specific offerings from its Google Play platform to YouTube.

For instance, in March, YouTube reworked its YouTube Music app's Player design. That change-up ensured that all of the appropriate controls appear on-screen logically. But YouTube also ensured that none of those controls are hidden in sub-menus or behind secondary clicks in the UI.

Aside from that alteration, YouTube also tacked on the toggle switch for swapping between videos and songs. The change made it possible to switch between the playback styles from any of the app's pages.

Another recent change, also wholly separate from the new Library UI but in the same vein, is the still-rolling Explore tab update. Meant to keep consistency with the main YouTube app, that replaces the "Hotlist" tab with an "Explore" tab and icon.

Explore will still contain recommendations for what's hot in the music industry. But that tab will also do a lot more to bring YouTube Music in line with competing apps. It accomplishes that by adding two new ways for users to discover and explore new music. The first is dubbed "Moods & Genres." As is implied, that lets users find new recommendations based on either their mood or their favorite genres.

The second new option is placed just above that UI in the Explore tab. Under the heading "New Albums & Singles," that also does exactly what its name implies. Namely, it lets users see the newest music to land on the service. YouTube presents those in a horizontally-scrolling list, complete with a "See all" link.

This is still rolling out so you might not have it just yet. Now, the redesign of the YouTube Music Library interface may not land for everybody just yet. As noted in previous reports and with prior new features, this is a server-side update. But it also isn't rolling out to everybody all at once. Instead, Google's media arm is pushing the update in waves. The key difference here is that it appears to be rolling out to a far wider audience than the previous wave.

The fact that it's a server-side update also means that end-users don't need to do anything to get the new update. Rather than updating the YouTube Music app, it should swap out the old for the new UI automatically. That will happen while the handset in question has an active connection