Key Takeaways
- Ask Radio is a new AI-based feature on YouTube Music that creates custom playlists for you, based on your prompts.
- In addition to helping you discover new tracks, you can save these custom playlists to your library to access in the future.
- This feature is currently available as part of YouTube Premium. If you’re subscribed to YouTube Premium, you might have access to it.
I’ve tried countless music streaming platforms over the years, but YouTube Music has been my go-to. From an easy-to-navigate interface to seamlessly switching between audio-only and video modes, YouTube Music has always been easy and fun to use. And now, the music streaming giant has introduced yet another feature—the Ask Music tool—that I’ve really enjoyed testing these last few days.
1 Real-Time Music Generation
There are many ways to find new songs on YouTube Music, from checking out your recommended mixes to browsing new tracks via the Samples tab. But all of these involve some level of manual searching. With Ask Music, however, I get a complete playlist of songs that are generated instantly to suit my preference based on my prompt.
If you’re subscribed to YouTube Premium, you will see a prompt introducing Ask Music the next time you open your YouTube Music app. If you missed the prompt, you should still see a purple card in your Home feed that reads “Ask for music any way you like it,” tapping it will bring up the Ask Music interface within the app.
From there, you can either choose one of the suggested prompts or you can type in whatever genre of music you’d like to listen to. You can be really specific here. I found that the AI tech behind this feature does a pretty solid job of curating a suitable playlist.
2 Curated Playlists for Any Mood/Vibe
YouTube Music has some really great features that make it a fantastic music streaming service. One of these is that it suggests music mixes based on the kind of songs I’ve been listening to. Ask Music takes this to the next level by curating an entire playlist that is complete with multiple songs for me to listen to for an extended duration of time.
3 Option to Save the Radio Playlist to Your Library
Not every playlist you come across is going to be a winner, but I found multiple good ones through Ask Music that I’ve saved to my library. If I want to listen to that specific playlist at a later point in time, I can simply navigate to my library and pick the right mix.
4 The “Surprise me!” Prompt Is Great for Discovering New Tracks
While the whole point of Ask Music is to find music tailored to your mood, I also used the “Surprise me!” prompt a few times with good results. I came across genres and tracks I wouldn’t have otherwise, and exploring music outside my usual preferences was refreshing.
I often wonder if YouTube Premium is worth the money. But the fact that I have access to features like this is what keeps me subscribed to it. Although I already have a few curated playlists on my YouTube Music app, there are times I want to listen to something different, and the Ask Music feature really comes in handy in those situations.
I’m not saying it’s perfect, and it can certainly include songs that don’t fit the mood in your playlist, but for the most part, this feature has made it easier for me to discover new music. So, yes, I do see myself using YouTube Music’s Ask Music feature in the future. Since YouTube has termed this feature an experiment, I’ll also be keeping an eye out for any improvements that are made to it.
