https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/7/16749322/youtube-red-google-play-music-combine-streaming-service-remix-launch-date

YouTube’s new music streaming service is set to launch next March, tentatively with the name Remix, according to a Bloomberg report. The news confirms an earlier report from The Verge published back in July, in which YouTube’s music head Lyor Cohen revealed that the company had plans to combine its YouTube Red video subscription service with its existing Google Play Music offering. The new product will offer both music and video in an effort to simplify YouTube’s somewhat confusing series of streaming products that have been rebranded and relaunched over the years.

According to Bloomberg, the product’s launch is contingent on YouTube cutting deals with two of the three big music publishers, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group. Warner Music Group, the third big publisher, has reportedly already singed on under new, more generous terms. The record industry has for years criticized YouTube for lackluster payouts to labels and artists, despite music videos being among the most popular videos on video platform’s entire network, and for YouTube’s lax approach to copyright infringing music streams uploaded as video. Those remain hurdles in YouTube’s quest to launch a more cohesive and competitive service, as does an upcoming renegotiation with record label-owned Vevo, which controls a majority share of the world’s music video rights.