YouTube Music’s New Personal Radio Is Made for Sharing

Google has added a new personal radio feature to user channel pages on YouTube Music, but it may take a while for you to get it during the staggered rollout.

YouTube Music’s channel pages, launched in April 2023, let anyone host bonus content their followers can enjoy and download. With the new radio feature, the channel owner can share daily music playlists based on their recently played music across all of YouTube. Followers can listen to your personal radio on your channel page, as well as add the playlist to their library. Google says personal radio is “made for sharing” and gets “refreshed daily.” If you don’t have the feature yet, click this link to experience someone else’s personal radio.

Some competing platforms have had something similar, although they’re not quite the same as personal radio. Spotify’s Friends Mix and Blend features, for example, lets you create a shared playlist where you and your friends combine your music tastes by mixing your favorite songs. Although these social capabilities facilitate a form of music discovery, personal radio is restricted to songs based on your listening habits.

Your personal radio is set to private by default to protect your privacy. You can view it by visiting the channel settings by clicking your profile icon and choosing “Your Channel.” Here, you can decide whether your listening stats, such as the top tracks, artists, playlists, and music videos, will be private or public. Likewise, before others can enjoy your personal radio playlist, you must publish it. To do so, click your profile icon and choose “Settings,” select “Privacy & location,” then choose “Channel settings,” and turn on “Enable public personal radio.” Don’t forget to hit “Enable” to confirm changes.

This feature only began rolling out recently, so check back later if you don’t see it on the YouTube Music app or website. Google has acknowledged that personal radio on YouTube Music’s channel pages is not a test but a commercial feature by updating the YouTube Music Help. “When you switch your stats or personal radio to public, anyone can view your public stats or public personal radio,” it reads. “Your public stats and public personal radio will show on your channel for up to 2 years unless you hide them.”

Like every other platform under the sun, YouTube Music is becoming infused with various AI-powered features, including generative AI playlists. YouTube Music recently updated its Android app with the ability to identify songs by humming.

Source: Reddit, 9to5Google via The Verge