Ad-free music
Subscribe to YouTube Music Key and you’ll be able to listen to music without seeing or hearing ads. Ads won’t be shown before or during eligible music videos you watch on youtube.com, and music videos and playlists will play continuously on your mobile device, without interruption. You will still see ads on other YouTube videos, however. The 
Ad-free badge tells you that a video will be ad-free.
Offline access
Music Key subscribers can make music videos and playlists available for playback during periods of low or no connectivity. Touch the Add to Offline 
icon below the video, or select Add to Offline from a video’s context menu 
to get started.
An available offline 
icon will appear below the video once it has been added to offline. To access videos or playlists that have been added to Offline, touch Offline in the Guide.
To remove a video from Offline, touch the available offline icon again and select Remove.
Manage offline videos and playlists
To remove a video or playlist from Offline:
- Visit Offline in the guide.
- Touch
next to the video you’d like to remove. - Select Remove from offline.
Settings
By default, videos are only added to offline over Wi-Fi. To allow videos or playlists to be added to offline over mobile networks, go to Settings > Background & Offline and un-check the box next to Add over Wi-Fi only.
Set the default quality of your offline videos by going to Settings > Background & Offline > Quality. Higher quality videos may take longer to appear in Offline, and they may take up more space on your device.
To view how much space you have left on your device for offline content, go to Settings > Background & Offline in the YouTube app for Android. If you have less than 5% of storage space remaining on your device, you won’t be able to add any additional videos to offline. To free up additional space, try removing a video or playlist from offline.
Availability
You must be a Music Key subscriber to take music videos offline. Music videos with the Ad-free badge can be played offline for up to 30 days before requiring a connection. After that, you’ll need to reconnect your device to a mobile or Wi-Fi network to allow the app to check for changes to the video, your subscription status, or content availability.
The Ad-free badge tells you that a video will be available for offline access on Android devices. Videos will be available offline for so long as the video’s content owners allow such videos to be available offline; if a content owner has removed a video’s offline availability, the video may be removed from your device during the next sync.
red music note instead of the Ad-free badge. This music note indicates that the video would be available for offline, background, and ad-free playback once you join the beta.You must be signed in to use offline functionality in the app. Videos or playlists that are added to Offline can only be played during periods of low or no connectivity while signed in with the same account. Some features, like commenting and liking, won’t be available in the YouTube app for Android when your device is offline.
Background play
With a Music Key subscription, you can navigate to other apps on your mobile device and your video will continue to play in the background, similar to navigating to new browser windows on a desktop computer while your YouTube video continues to play in the background.
Disable background
By default, background is enabled at all times. You can choose to disable it completely by following these steps:
- In the YouTube app for Android, tap the menu icon, and select Settings
- Select Background & Offline
- Below Background play, select Playback
- Make your selection:
- Off means video will never continue in the background
- Headphones or speakers means video will only continue in the background if you’ve connected headphones or an external audio device
Background playback controls
When a video is in the background, you can pause, play, or skip through videos in a playlist directly from the notifications tray or the lock screen.
Subscribe to YouTube Music Key
Join the YouTube Music Key beta in a few simple steps:
- Visit the Music Key channel using the YouTube app for Android, or using a web browser: youtube.com/musickey
- Click the Join now btn.
- Click Start free trial to start the purchase process
- Select the payment method you wish to use from Google Wallet, or add a new payment method, then click Buy to finish the transaction
- Once your purchase is complete, you won’t see ads on millions of music videos, and you’ll be able to watch videos offline, and playback videos in the background. The
Ad-free badge tells you when you can use these features!
Try Music Key at no cost for 6 months (note that you will be required to provide a credit card number when signing up for a Music Key subscription). You can cancel your subscription at any time. Visit youtube.com/purchases to check the status of your subscription, including the next billing date.
Music Key on devices
- Paid content on Android mobile devices
- Paid content on iOS mobile devices
- Paid content on smart TVs
- Paid content on game consoles
- Paid content on Chromecast
- Paid content on Roku
- Paid content on Apple TV
YouTube Music Key with a Google+ page identity
YouTube Music Key works slightly differently when using YouTube as a Google+ page identity, rather than a Google+ profile identity or an older YouTube account.
Google Play Music
If you are already a Google Play Music subscriber you’ll be given free access to YouTube Music Key when using your Google+ profile identity, not your Google+ page identity (even if you primarily use YouTube with the Google+ page identity). Similarly, if you subscribe to YouTube Music Key using a Google+ page identity, you will not get free access to Google Play Music All Access.
Chromecast
If you’ve purchased YouTube Music Key with a Google+ page, ads will show on music videos when you cast them to your Chromecast. Music videos will always play without ads when you watch them directly on your phone, tablet, or computer’s web browser.
