After doing bi-monthly recaps of new features for the past several years, YouTube Music will now detail launches on a quarterly basis.
We’re moving the frequency of these updates to a quarterly basis, but rest assured that the updates will keep coming!
This matches other YouTube product recaps, with this first quarterly edition covering November to February and the next one coming in June (for March to May).
Notable highlights and expanded details include how the now playing indicator to note what you’re currently listening to is “dynamic, and moves to the tempo of the song you’re playing.” This “sleek, modern equalizer graphic” launched at the end of last year.
There’s also the new Samples shelf, with the YTM team noting how “listeners like yourself preferred the smaller thumbnails as it did not take up too much space on your home feed.”
Back in January, YouTube Music introduced “new genre-focused shelves based on your listening habits.” You’ll see a “maximum of two genre shelves that will show you a personalized pick of tracks, albums and programmed playlists from that genre.”
You’ll also see a ‘More’ option and upon selecting it, you’ll be directed to the genre category page on Explore so you can delve deeper into our music catalog for that genre!
YouTube Music also confirmed the gradient background redesign for Now Playing on Android. It’s coming to iOS devices “in the future.”
On podcast pages, you can now sort episodes by: “Newest to Oldest, Oldest to Newest, Most Popular (for shows uploaded to YouTube only) and Default.”
On smart TVs and gaming consoles, you get new shelves for music videos and “Quick Picks.” Additionally:
…you’ll notice how we’ve changed the thumbnails on topical mixes from square to a more modernized 16×9 artwork. These new thumbnails will feature the first video in the Mix (if the mix begins with a music video) or a 16×9 version of the original feature artist/album art (if the mix begins with a static Art Track Video).
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