I finally stopped ignoring my YouTube Music subscription—these 5 features changed everything

For a long time, my YouTube Music Premium subscription felt like something I rarely used since it was tied to the subscription I have for NotebookLM. However, I never made it part of my daily routine. The whole experience felt separate from the kind of smooth, personalized audio I really wanted for my commutes, workouts, and workdays. My initial disinterest has completely changed thanks to the features that convinced me to use the full potential of my subscription. Look through these, and you might find a reason to cancel Spotify.

Ad-free background play

Listen with your screen off

The free version of YouTube Music has two big downsides: constant ads and the fact that music stops if you minimize the app. If you try to check a text or lock your phone, your audio cuts out. Premium fixes this, letting you lock your screen or switch apps without the music stopping.

This is great for saving battery and mobile data, and it also prevents accidental screen taps while you’re at the gym or commuting. Background play also removes the ads that usually interrupt the free tier. You can listen to long DJ sets, fan-made mashups, or full albums without commercials ruining your experience.

This makes your daily listening much smoother and keeps you from being pulled out of the moment. If you need a constant soundtrack for your workday or a workout, this feature turns the app into a dedicated audio player instead of something that’s always hogging your screen. Since I pay for Premium already, I’d rather use Music than other software that charges for this same feature.

Automated smart downloads

Your music is ready even offline

This tool automatically saves your favorite tracks and recent mixes to your phone overnight using Wi-Fi. It works in the background while you sleep, so you’ll have music ready for flights or places with no internet signal. Instead of you picking every song, the app learns what you like and updates its offline library periodically.

On Android, it’s called Smart Downloads, while iPhone users will see it as an offline mixtape. You can set the app to download up to 500 of your most-played songs and personalized playlists. If you’re worried about phone memory, you can limit how much storage the app uses. The default is usually 1GB on Android or 2GB on iOS, but you can change this with a slider in the settings.

To keep these downloads active, you just need to connect your device to the internet at least once every 30 days to verify your premium status. It’s not much of an issue because you likely have your phone connected to the web often anyway.

Hyper-personalized supermixes

A radio station built for you

With over 100 million songs out there, it can be tough to pick what you want to play. The Supermix feature takes care of this by looking at your listening history to make an endless radio station that fits your mood. It uses models that check out both your long-term favorites and what you’ve been playing lately.

This helps the app figure out if you need high-energy music for a workout or something calm for studying, all without messing up its overall recommendations for you. The Supermix is a 100-song playlist that updates constantly. It’s different from Spotify’s Discover Weekly since it gives you more songs and refreshes way more often.

It isn’t limited to one genre, so you’ll get a blend of old favorites you might have forgotten and new artists that suit your taste. It’s a great choice when you are driving and just want to refresh your current queue. I tend to prefer switching between Quick Picks and Supermix.

Speed dial pinning

Keep your favorites at the top

Speed dial pinning puts your most-played albums and playlists in a grid right at the top of your home screen. If you’ve got a specific mix or a playlist you listen to often, you can pin it so you won’t have to search for it.

To do this in the mobile app, just tap the three dots under a playlist or album and pick the option to pin it to your speed dial. Having this grid right there makes it way faster to start your music. It cuts down on the time you’d normally spend scrolling through your library or using the search bar.

This gives you more manual control over your home screen, letting you pick what shows up instead of just seeing what the algorithm suggests. You can update this grid whenever your musical interests change, making sure your current favorites are always one tap away. While this may not be a game-changer for everyone, I prefer quick access whenever I can get it.

Deep YouTube catalog access

More than just official releases

YouTube Music connects to the main video platform, giving it a much larger library than competitors like Spotify. While other services only have official studio albums, the app includes live performances, fan covers, and unreleased mixtapes.

You can find things like acoustic sessions, long DJ sets, and artist mashups that aren’t available anywhere else. If a clip exists on YouTube, you can save it right to your music playlists. The service has over 100 million official tracks, but those sit right alongside millions of community uploads.

This makes it a great choice if you like finding rare tracks or live concert recordings. Premium users can also toggle between the high-quality audio and the music video with one tap. When you switch to the audio-only version, the app removes any long introductions or background noise from the clip so you just hear the music.

Also, many artists who are just trying to make it have their music here, and you can find old YouTube gems like Sam Hart.

YouTube Music is a better service than it gets credit for

YouTube Music Premium has many great features that are easy to ignore if you already have another music subscription. However, you really should start looking at it more seriously before you waste months not using this service, as I did. To me, every minute is valuable, and I like YouTube Music because it respects my time, anticipates my needs, and gives me a huge, personalized library that other services struggle to match.

Subscription with ads: No, plans are ad-free
Live TV: No
Price: Included with YouTube Premium ($14/month; $8/month for students) or $11/month standalone ($5.50/month for students)