The world’s largest reservoir of free music would like you to start paying for access. Google Inc. revealed its plans to turn YouTube into a subscription music service. It’s called YouTube Music Key, and it’s Google’s second attempt at challenging Spotify Ltd., the leader in the subscription music industry. Its first music subscription product, Google Play Music All Access, will remain active as a separate, but complementary product.

So what exactly is YouTube Music Key? For now, it’s essentially a nicer version of YouTube that will cost $9.99 a month. How much nicer? The brief advertisements that YouTube users occasionally see before the video they want to watch starts are gone. Music Key is completely ad free. Some users actually enjoy those ads. They’re often entertaining and informational. Many of the ads are movie trailers. Who doesn’t like movie trailers? In any case, for YouTube users who absolutely can’t stand ads, Music Key can help. In addition to ad free music videos, Music Key subscribers also gain the ability to multitask. Music videos will continue to play in the background when users switch to other apps. At that point, it’s just music. You’re paying YouTube to listen to the audio of music videos, instead of paying a company like Spotify to listen to a larger selection of music. Music Key also allows offline viewing. That’s it. For $9.99 every month, you get ad free music, background play, and offline viewing. If that doesn’t sound like a tremendous value, Music Key does have a saving grace bonus feature. It includes access to Google Play Music All Access.

Music Key is being presented as its own product, but does it warrant that designation? Will users who have been listening to free music on YouTube for years switch to a paid subscription for these few perks? Given the fact that Google already has a subscription music product, wouldn’t it have made more sense to roll these perks into the existing service? If Google Play Music All Access members had these additional benefits, it would strengthen the service. Technically, All Access members will get access to Music Key, but the way the new product is being introduced isn’t beneficial for the Google Play Music brand. Consider the approach by the company that many consider to be Google’s greatest adversary, Amazon.com Inc. They introduced Amazon Prime, a membership program that gave users discounted shipping rates for an annual fee. Prime members have gained additional perks, since then. Amazon Prime Video, and Amazon Prime Music give Prime members access to free streaming movies, television shows, and music. They’re marketed as perks for Prime members, rather than separate products. It’s a strategy that’s worked well for Amazon, and Google should take note. Music Key isn’t a strong enough product on its own, even with the discounted $7.99 a month offer that’s good for the rest of the year. Google might want to start over from scratch, and start offering Google Prime paid memberships. Think of all the products they could offer Google Prime perks for.