There are a lot of changes lately as how and where you can listen to your favorite song. Jay Z is starting up his own pay to listen site and a while back even You Tube, the place that has always been known as the place you can get to see videos and music for free. Nope. Now You Tube has an ad-free music pay service. Hey, a least it is advertisement free. It is called Music Key and is starting as an invitation-only beta, accessible only by the heaviest watchers of the music videos. Sounds very elitists to me or could be a perk to their greatest followers. Meanwhile YouTube’s mobile apps got an update with new music features, and they’re free. Is there any standard in the music field at all anymore these days?

Within the app- the Number 3 most used smartphone app, according to comScore Media Metrix – there’s a new home   page for music and “millions” of new videos that hadn’t been seen on YouTube before, according to Google, which owns YouTube. YouTube has cut new deals with Sony, Warner and Universal Music, along with many independents. In addition to expanding the catalog, you’ll now be able to play full albums which I think is the best feature of all.

Yes, pop star Taylor Swift’s music is on YouTube, but only select tracks from her current smash hit 1989 are available. Should I pay for a service that only gives you their select stuff? Who   decides what I can hear anyway? And Why? The music industry is still all screwed up.  Swift famously yanked the new album from the Spotify streaming music service, saying she felt streaming new music cheapened its value. Only a rich arrogant super star as she has become would say something like that. There was a time in her career when she had hoped her music got any exposure anywhere. She must have forgotten those days already.

We need to go back to the old days. Whenever eight bars of anyone’s song is played anywhere, the artist who originally recorded the song and the writers should get paid something period and all this nonsense would stop. More music is listened to on YouTube than any other website, says James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. Kids come home from school, and instead of listening to the radio, now just click YouTube to hear the latest hits, he says. And I say without the option of being able to hear all the new music out, how will I even know what I want to be a “hit?”  But then again, when I was a kid, I liked to play the flip sides of the hit 45 records my Dad had because those songs were different.

Pop stars Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Psy,  Shakria and One Direction dominate the most viewed YouTube charts, with views in the collective billions. I used to go to YouTube to see the unknown, the not so famous yet people. I guess the biggest wealthiest pop stars have the money to produce the most elaborate expensive videos. There is no such thing as a good singer out there. They now have to be beautiful, a dancer, great smile and put on a really great show besides having a good voice and an interesting song.

The pay service will be on tract to generate $1 Billion dollars yearly in revenues, and profits from $200 million to $300 million says McQuivey.  Who gets to keep all that money? People should support free radio more in my opinion.  What is worse for Taylor is that this service looks a lot like what Spotify offers with video. There is unlimited music that can be listened to on mobile devices {Android and iOS} in the foreground or background and desktop. Beta testers will get access to Key for free for 6 months, and then $7.99 a month under promotional pricing.