YouTube is updating its Music app to add a new feature called “Samples” to help users find new music on the platform. The new tab, located between the “Home” and “Explore” tabs in the app is made up of small snippets of music videos, which users can interact with to be directed to the full video of the song.
YouTube describes Samples as a “seamless feed of short video segments to get you to your next favorite music. While the tab feels a lot like TikTok, it will exclusively be made up of music videos. The Samples feed will be personalised, and users can tap on the snippets to play the full song and watch videos. Users can also add songs to their playlists or make a new short with it as the soundtrack.
The update from YouTube comes even as TikTok is working on rolling out its full-fledged music app, TikTok Music, to try to capture more users in the music segment.
While this is not the first time music platforms have tried to use vertical scrolls to help users find new music, earlier Spotify had rolled out a similar feed, introduction of Samples in YouTube Music looks like a move from the company to capture all things audio.
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Earlier in March, YouTube announced new features on the desktop version of YouTube Studio to create podcasts, set existing playlists as podcasts, and analyse the performance of podcasts.
The feature allowed creators to upload media and order their videos to present them in a podcast-style format on the platform.
