We have recently reported on some Reddit rumours regarding YouTube's unconfirmed functionality that was available only to some users: AI radio and hum to search. It appears that now, it's no longer a rumour: YouTube indeed has these two in the works.
Announced on Monday, the company is introducing an AI-generated radio feature and a Shazam-like tool that identifies songs by singing, humming, or playing parts of them. This feature is currently available to a select group of Premium users in the United States and allows users to create custom radio stations by simply describing their musical preferences.
This new tool is similar to AI playlist generation features in Spotify, Amazon Music, and now also Deezer. Premium users with access to the new feature will have a new “Ask for music any way you like” card on their app’s home feed. By clicking on this card, users can enter a custom prompt or choose from suggested ones. Although this feature is currently limited to select users, YouTube has plans to expand its availability in the future.
Additionally, YouTube Music has officially rolled out its song recognition feature to all users on both iOS and Android. Initially available to select Android users earlier this year, this tool allows users to search YouTube Music’s catalogue by sound. By tapping the “search” button in the app, users will now see a waveform icon, indicating they can identify a song by singing, humming, or playing it.
