Why YouTube Might Delay Streaming Music Service Until 2014

YouTube looks to be delaying its subscription music service until 2014.

A report in AllThingsD says YouTube has worked out all the licensing agreements it needs to legally offer music through its service, but it's not yet happy with the way the software works.

According to the report, YouTube still needs to figure out how to incorporate certain multimedia and user-generated content. This has apparently pushed the release date back to sometime in the first quarter of next year. (Via The Verge)

The service itself looks largely unchanged — the most recent investigations from Android Police point to a streaming program offering ad-free music, offline playback and background listening features.

It's still expected to compete with the entrenched players already in the space, like Pandora and Spotify.

And it's still not clear how different it will be from the existing Google Play Music All Access software — a streaming app that some reviewers found is also much like Pandora or Spotify. (Via CNET)

All the while, the new YouTube streamer is still officially rumor — according to AllThingsD, YouTube reps still say they don't have anything to announce yet.