You can now search for music on YouTube Music in a brand-new way. It has its own tab in the YouTube Music app and is titled Samples. Samples is similar to TikTok, but it only features brief clips from music videos. It might work given how music discovery works in 2023.
The program will try to present you with a variety of music you might like when you access the customized Samples feed. If you find anything you like, you may tap it to listen to the song, see the whole video, put it on a playlist, or even use it as the soundtrack for a quick movie. YouTube has an edge in this scenario because you can only do all of those things in one app. (Consume more podcasts as well.
The mechanisms of discovery are what keep YouTube Music and its competitors alive. These companies are attempting to replace the fact that “You can listen to Taylor Swift here” as a competitive advantage by being the place where you discover, trade, and connect with music. Of course, TikTok is the key player here; for some, it is so crucial to music discovery that the “Top Hits” and “TikTok Songs” playlists on Spotify regularly resemble one another in an uncomfortable way.
The mechanisms for discovery are the lifeblood of YouTube Music and its rivals. These businesses are attempting to become the site where you find, exchange, and interact with music because the benefit of “You can listen to Taylor Swift here” is no longer applicable. TikTok is the main player here, of course; for others, it’s the main source of music discovery to the point that Spotify’s “Top Hits” and “TikTok Songs” playlists frequently resemble one another in an unsettling way.
You might also think of Spotify’s most recent redesign, which had some of the same goals and design philosophies as Samples. Even though the redesign was met with quick criticism, the company has continued to explore new strategies for using TikTok’s operations to introduce users to new music. Samples should be much less controversial because it is merely a tab in the app, but it is another example of how helpful the quick vertical scroll has been in assisting users in finding new information.