Design concerns delay rumoured YouTube paid music service

Getting the design just right is reportedly causing the delay for YouTube’s planned music subscription service, according to Billboard. The music magazine and website cited an interview with an unnamed executive who knows of YouTube’s plans that the service will launch in the “second quarter or beyond” instead of a launch earlier in the year. The executives reportedly want the offering to be compelling as soon as it launches and not be eased out as a beta and improved over time, which Google usually does with its products. So, if you’ve been dying to see what it looks like, you will have to wait a bit more.

Digital music sales drop for the first time since opening of iTunes Store

Looks like streaming services such as Pandora and Spotify are hitting digital music sales where it hurts. Billboard reports digital track sales have dropped 5.7 percent to 1.34 billion units for the first time in 2013 since iTunes Store opened 10 years before. Album sales also dropped 0.1 percent to 117.6 million. Streaming services that provide unlimited seem to entice listeners to subscribe to them instead of buying albums that cost roughly the same price.

Solayo: A digital jukebox

New music service Solayo strays a bit from the usual streaming service by letting you cull and build playlists from YouTube videos and Soundcloud tracks. You can play any song you have access to on these services, create playlists, and mix and match the songs. If you want to leave it in the hands of Solayo, there is also a genre-based radio station on the site that you can stream. You can check out the free service here.

Bop.fm aggregates music for easy sharing

New free music service Bop.fm helps make music sharing and listening and easier experience. The music aggregator pulls songs from YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, and Rdio to give you access to songs no matter where you are from the world. It takes away the pesky “this is not available in your location” notice for those living outside of the US and lets you embed or link to tracks directly onto your website.