Australia and New Zealand gets YouTube Red

Australia has become the first market outside the US to get YouTube's paid platform YouTube Red. After weeks of speculation about its launch, Google Australia announced the platform's arrival overnight. Along with this, the search engine giant also launched the YouTube Music app in the local market.

The introductory subscription cost for YouTube Red is $9.99 per month. For users who sign up after 6 June 2016, this rate will increase to $11.99 per month.

YouTube Red allows users to watch all the videos on the platform without ads and gives them access to exclusive content hidden behind the paywall such as original series and movies featuring well-known YouTubers like Lilly Singh and Rooster Teeth. The most attractive feature about the service is that the users can save videos to watch offline and play videos in the background on their phone or tablet.

The users of YouTube Music app are not required to be a member of YouTube Red to use it. However, those using the platform without a subscription to YouTube Red will be helping the video sharing platform make money by watching ads before a video starts. If you are a member of YouTube Red accessing the app, then as promised by Google, you can enjoy an ad-free experience.

About the features on the app, Google writes: "You’ll be able to quickly re-discover your favourite music videos, tracks, artists and albums, and you’ll also see all the remixes, covers, lyric videos, and concert footage that YouTube has to offer. You’ll see your personal station with recommendations based on your tastes, and trending lists with the most popular music on YouTube each day."

Google is currently offering a 30-day free trial for YouTube Red. But before redeeming the offer, users are asked to put in their credit card details – as is usually the case with many other subscription services like Netflix.