Your Apple TV might finally get a YouTube Music app

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It's been a long time coming.

YouTube Music
(Image credit: Future)

If you're a YouTube Music user who also happens to own an Apple TV, you might be in for some good news because there could be a brand-new app in your future.

Listening to YouTube Music on something like the Apple TV 4K right now means using the YouTube app, but that could be about to change according to a new report.

That report claims that Google is considering a special YouTube Music app for the Apple TV, making the music streaming service a first-class citizen on Apple's set-top box.

Music to Apple TV owners' ears

This is all according to a 9to5Google report that cites an unnamed "person familiar with the matter," but the thinking does add up.

"There’s already YouTube Music on iPhone and iPad, while a 'Music' experience lives inside the main YouTube for TV app," the report begins. "Google is now planning a separate YouTube Music app for Apple TV that should allow for more direct access, starting with a dedicated app icon."

It's also thought that Google is working on making the YouTube Music app work properly with the HomePod and HomePod mini, too. "Another target for Google is supporting how the HomePod can play music from non-Apple Music services, like Pandora, that have taken the time to build out the media integration. Those third-party services can be set as the default for voice commands," the report notes.

There's no timescale on any of this at the moment, it seems. But while YouTube Music must be well behind Apple Music and Spotify on the list of music streaming services Apple users pay for, it's good news that both features are things that Google is working towards.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.