Google Play Music and YouTube Red will merge to form unified music service: Report

Google’s YouTube Red, YouTube Music and Google Play Music will finally be merged into a brand new service.

In conversation with The Verge, YouTube's head of music, Lyor Cohen, confirmed that the company plans to create a “new streaming offering”. The report pointed out that the merger has been rumored within the industry for months, and recently picked up steam after Google combined the teams working on the two streaming services earlier this year.

In a statement, Google said it will notify users of any changes before they happen. “Music is very important to Google and we’re evaluating how to bring together our music offerings to deliver the best possible product for our users, music partners and artists. Nothing will change for users today and we’ll provide plenty of notice before any changes are made.”

YouTube Red, as it's called, will offer ad-free videos, as well as original content created specifically for it. It'll also allow subscribers to save videos for offline viewing, as well as allow videos to play in the background on mobile, while you're in working in another app.

Combining the music services will help Google consolidate its efforts will also make it easier for the company to deal with artists and record labels. At the moment, there is no definite timeline provided for the same.