YouTube Music

YouTube Music now appears to be usable if you travel to unsupported nations

Damien Wilde | Oct 21 2019 - 5:13 am PT

Restrictions placed upon YouTube Music mean that even if you live in an eligible nation, you might notice problems when you travel to regions where the streaming service is not officially supported.

When heading abroad, the app would often notify users that it won’t work when in an unsupported country — even if you wanted to listen to offline of downloaded playlists. According to Android Police, those travel restrictions appear to have been eased.

Other music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music still allow access to offline playlists and tracks without the same geo-restrictions when traveling. AP reports that people have confirmed that they can access YouTube Music in Taiwan and Belarus — two regions where the service is not yet available.

They also note that unconfirmed reports have come from Puerto Rico and Algeria, where again, YouTube Music is not available officially. The confirmed reports are from paying subscribers living in a supported nation, who have traveled abroad and still had access to all of the benefits of the streaming service.

That means, full track streaming, background play, offline downloads, and everything that comes with a standalone YouTube Music Premium account. It is, however, unclear if this stretches to YouTube Premium as of yet. Even Google’s own support pages seem to contradict the claims.

One states that “if you leave these [supported] countries/regions, you won’t be able to access YouTube Music Premium benefits.”

Conversely, another explicitly addresses traveling with YouTube Music:

“YouTube Music Premium members get access to their paid membership benefits and their music library in the YouTube Music app, even if you are in a country/region where YouTube Music is not available. The music content that is available to you at home will travel with you for 6 months so you can keep enjoying your listening experience. Your downloads will also remain available to you for 30 days without an internet connection.

Your paid membership benefits (such as offline listening, background play, ad-free listening, etc.) will only apply in the YouTube Music app while you are traveling. These benefits are not currently supported for traveling members in other apps and services.”

Both statements muddy the water a little but this could simply be a slow support page policy update process. What isn’t quite clear is what the six-month access limitation really means. We’ve reached out to Google for clarification and will update should we hear back.

At least you now know that when you travel, YouTube Music should work just as it would at home during your vacation or business trip. If you have seen restrictions or noticed anything being available that previously was unavailable let us know down in the comments section below.