YouTube Music now allows users to pre-save albums before they’re released

YouTube Music’s latest feature allows users to view and pre-save unreleased albums, another new feature that brings the service closer to parity with other music-streaming options. Reddit users recently initially noticed the change, and Engadget confirmed by checking one of our personal accounts

Previously, upcoming albums weren’t visible on YouTube Music. With the new feature, unreleased albums and their track listings are visible to users, though songs that haven’t been released as singles are greyed out and unplayable. Users can save pre-release albums to their library and download available tracks for offline listening, and the rest of the tracks will be automatically added when the album is released.

However, not all upcoming albums have been added to the library for pre-saving. While Neck Deep’s upcoming album, All Distortions Are Intentional, is visible and available to pre-save, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica is not. More pre-release albums will likely become visible as news of the new feature spreads.

Since its launch in 2018, YouTube Music has been positioned as the eventual successor to Google Play Music, which is set to shut down at some point this year. Google recently rolled out a comprehensive transition tool that allows Play Music users to transition their music libraries to YouTube Music, one of many new features added over the last year. The new pre-save feature brings the app closer to par with competitors like Spotify and Apple Music, both of which have let users pre-save albums for a long time now.