YouTube Music copies Spotify in copying TikTok. The new Samples tab in the mobile app is a vertically scrollable feed of music videos.

YouTube Music unveils Samples, a new personalized music discovery feature that shows a seamless feed of short form music video segments. Powered by YouTube’s massive catalogue of music videos, Samples hopes to help you discover new music, whether that’s the latest release from an up-and-coming artist or a deep cut from a legacy artist.

YouTube Music’s Samples has the potential to boost artists too, introducing their music to a whole new audience.

Samples is rolling out this week to all Free and Premium users globally. You’ll find it on the YouTube Music app for iOS and Android, as a new tab in the navigation bar along the bottom. There are buttons to the right of the video clips (just like on TikTok), letting you Like the song, Add it to a playlist, view Shorts that use the sound, Share it outside of YouTube Music, Play the video in full, or tap the three dots for more options, like starting a new radio station. Tapping the text at the bottom brings you to the artist page.

The vertically scrollable feed of vertical videos is almost the exact same feature as the redesign Spotify unveiled at their Stream On event earlier this year. This immediately drew comparisons to TikTok and the feature was met with backlash. With Samples being contained within a new tab on the music streaming app, this implementation is far less controversial. YouTube certainly has the advantage of having all the relevant features under one brand, from music and music videos to short-form videos. TikTok are hoping to compete with their own new music streaming service rolling out – TikTok Music.

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