YouTube has today announced that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium will be available in Nigeria immediately. The service, which offers a premium version of YouTube as the name suggests was only available in one African country (South Africa) before today.

The objective of YouTube Premium is to offer an ad-free experience to users, at the same time opening up a better user experience by allowing users to continue playing a YouTube video after the app is closed even when the phone is locked. It also allows offline streaming through downloads of all videos on YouTube.

There’s also the benefit of YouTube original shows, which is a collection of series produced by YouTube touching on various subject matters for both entertainment and educative information.

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Alongside YouTube Premium, the company also announced the availability of YouTube Music in Nigeria. This version of YouTube opens up a new experience to music lovers on the platform. YouTube Music has a set of additional features such as:

• Custom music recommendations
• Smart search that allows you to search for songs using lyrics even if they are wrong
• Seamless transitions between songs
• Background playback
• Offline download

Pricing

When it comes to what matters, the pricing, YouTube announced that YouTube Premium will cost 1100 Naira (around KES 307) and 1700 Naira (around KES 470) for a family plan. While YouTube music will be free with limited features, getting full access to YouTube Music Premium will set you back 900 Naira (around KES 250) and 1400 Naira (around KES 390) for the family plan.

However, getting a YouTube Premium plan gives full access to YouTube Music as well.

Kenya Next?

While there’s no official communication as to whether the two new services will be available in Kenya, our speculation is that the services will soon launch in the country.

We reached out to Google Africa and we shall update the article once we get a response from them.