{"id":104787,"date":"2025-06-09T14:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/?p=104787"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:37:30","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:37:30","slug":"youtube-music-adds-new-banner-ads-to-its-now-playing-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/youtube-music-adds-new-banner-ads-to-its-now-playing-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube Music adds new banner ads to its Now Playing Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 style=\"user-select: auto;\"><span style=\"color: #3366ff; user-select: auto;\">New banner ad tests are appearing on YouTube\u2019s Now Playing view for free-tier users.<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3>A new banner ad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/free-youtube-music-distribution-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">YouTube Music<\/a> looks to be monetizing its free music tier in a new way, as free users have started to notice a new banner ad placement on the Now Playing screen. Traditionally, ads were only placed between every few songs, replacing album art with skippable or unskippable (image or video) ads marked \u2018Sponsored\u2019.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, some users are spotting a static banner ad sitting just below the album artwork and above the song title. This shrinks the cover art and resembles a typical Google banner ad, complete with a clickable link, dropdown options to visit the advertiser\u2019s site, and a \u2018Sponsored\u2019 label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"reddit-embed-bq\" style=\"height:500px\" data-embed-height=\"740\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/YoutubeMusic\/comments\/1l5br4h\/why_are_they_putting_ads_there\/\">Why are they putting ads there.<\/a><br \/> by<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/user\/Ozmond_Human\/\">u\/Ozmond_Human<\/a> in<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/YoutubeMusic\/\">YoutubeMusic<\/a><\/blockquote><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.reddit.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The change was first highlighted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/YoutubeMusic\/comments\/1l5br4h\/why_are_they_putting_ads_there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reddit<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/9to5google.com\/2025\/06\/06\/youtube-music-now-playing-ads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">9to5Google<\/a>, and doesn\u2019t appear to be widely rolled out yet. Instead, it could be part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/youtube-music-now-playing-update\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">broader redesign to the Now Playing screen<\/a> which YouTube Music has been testing since late 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-routenote-blog wp-block-embed-routenote-blog\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"12YTglNy4x\"><a href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/youtube-music-now-playing-update\/\">YouTube Music can&#8217;t leave the Now Playing screen alone<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;YouTube Music can&#8217;t leave the Now Playing screen alone&#8221; &#8212; RouteNote Blog\" src=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/youtube-music-now-playing-update\/embed\/#?secret=12YTglNy4x\" data-secret=\"12YTglNy4x\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3>User feedback<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>User response has been overwhelmingly understanding of the change. While the original poster called the layout \u201cugly and really annoying\u201d, others were more understanding, noting that ads help fund the platform. If you don\u2019t want ads, pay for a premium subscription. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/YoutubeMusic\/comments\/1l5br4h\/comment\/mwght47\/?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=web3x&amp;utm_name=web3xcss&amp;utm_term=1&amp;utm_content=share_button\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">top response<\/a> highlights that \u201cGoogle is a business at the end of the day\u201d and they still need to \u201cmake money to pay the artists, staff and server costs\u201d from their free music tier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/free-youtube-music-distribution-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Get your music on YouTube Music for free with RouteNote. Get started today!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New banner ad tests are appearing on YouTube\u2019s Now Playing view for free-tier users.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":104793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[70,4161,17557],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>YouTube Music adds new banner ads to its Now Playing Screen - RouteNote Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/routenote.com\/blog\/youtube-music-adds-new-banner-ads-to-its-now-playing-screen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"YouTube Music adds new banner ads to its Now Playing Screen - 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