Tag Archives: YouTube

Software, Technology

YouTube Music, the app no one needs

Google Play Music, Google Play Music All-Access, YouTube Music Key, then YouTube Music Key becomes YouTube Music and we also now have YouTube Red.

My what a tangled web you weave dearest Google.

“Hello, Confusion.  How are you?  We are the internet!”

In my case, I have it easy, I pay for Google Play Music All-Access, so I get all of these extraneous YouTube bits; however, what about the potential customers that did not start out by having a subscription to Google Play Music?  One can certainly see how there is room for confusion, especially with the duplicity between the apps that are presented to us.

YouTube Music is essentially the YouTube app with a focus on music.  It behaves just like YouTube with all of the swipe gestures you are familiar with; however, it curates music in a fashion that is similar to Google Play Music All-Access — certainly a good thing and allows for a bit of content discovery along the way.  But the question here is does this app do anything that the traditional YouTube app cannot do?  Certainly if I fire up the latest video from Maroon 5 or Jeezy both apps will display content that is like what is playing, rap songs showing more rap, pop songs showing more pop — this is content discovery.  Here is where it gets mushy, YouTube Music behaves like Google Play Music as it streams playlists together for you, which if you were in the YouTube app, you would have to create those playlists yourself — but does this really matter?  In both cases, since I subscribe to Google Play Music All-Access, I can put YouTube or YouTube Music in the background and listen to the audio rather than seeing the video.

The paradox here is that people certainly go to YouTube for music, but is the experience of having YouTube Music that much better than just using the regular app?

I don’t think so.

Bottom line:  Why?

Multimedia, Video

Is cutting the cord for you?

6 years ago, while I was still in college, I officially said goodbye to cable and I’ve never let it rear it’s ugly head again in my household. Why? There are far too many options available on the internet that provide the same level of enjoyment.

When you think of TV, you think of something that requires you to sit down at a certain time at a certain interval everyday or every certain scheduled amount of days for you consume some type of event or television show. However, when you think of entertainment in relation to the internet you can get these things whenever and wherever you please so it’s much more of a come as you and grab what you want type of experience.  This is the absolute greatest for me because I refuse to build my schedule around what comes on a black box in my living room, it’s ludicrous. Yet, why do we see so many people that conform to the norm of having a cable subscription with more channels than they will ever watch?

Cutting the cord is easy if you have a plan.
Cutting the cord is easy if you have a plan.

It’s easy.

For some, cutting the cord is simply too difficult.  However, nothing is too difficult in a day and age where a quick Google search can tell you everything from Obama’s age to how far Jupiter is away from the planet that we dwell on.  So being “too difficult” IS NOT a valid excuse.

Options for accessing media:

  • YouTube
  • HuluPlus
  • Netflix
  • Plex

The above list are just a few avenues that you can take to begin cutting the cord.  It is feasible and certainly the way of the future.

Take control of your experience, don’t be the person that creates their lives based on what TV has to offer!

Multimedia, Social Networking, Technology, Video, YouTube

YouTube Comments have changed, now get over it!

There have been countless users of YouTube complaining since last week about the new integration of Google+ within the site.  I suppose that many users do not understand that this only making the site better and certainly adding more of a community aspect.  Yes, people should be held accountable for the things that they post online — just as you are held accountable for the things that you say and do in reality.  The new comment system is not bad it is just an incremental change that happens in tech.  People learn to accept change and move on.  I was one who didn’t like the Microsoft XBox at first, until I gave it a chance.

That is the thing that is missing here, users see the change and instead of giving it an honest try — immediately write it off.  See a video below:

However, for those that understand how YouTube works; they see it’s usefulness (in addition, notifications went out that YouTube was changing how they did comments.)  See an excerpt from TWiT’s This Week in YouTube Ep. 30:


Is it a bad change?  No.  Yet, some have difficult times dealing with change — when in reality it is more streamlined and efficient.

This is something that we all saw coming as +Google is working towards integrating all of their services, which is an excellent thing.  Which is odd because people complain and say they aren’t integrated enough!

Bottom line:  Get over it!  If you hate the new integrated Google+ comments in YouTube — leave the site, that is always an option.  As a creator (TopNotch Male Style Tips) I welcome the change and I hope that my community does as well.