Does it have actual quality audio like Spotify or just the regular YouTube “usually not too bad, sometimes even quite acceptable” type stuff?
Mixed.
It combines the whole YouTube database of videos (with their quality, from low to high) plus a separate archive of songs, specifically only music. I can’t assure that the audio quality, in that case, is 320 kbps, but it’s high, I believe more than 192.
On YouTube itself, youtube-dl tells me this for a recent video:
$ youtube-dl -F https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AsXeazkRN8
[youtube] 7AsXeazkRN8: Downloading webpage
[youtube] 7AsXeazkRN8: Downloading video info webpage
WARNING: video doesn't have subtitles
[info] Available formats for 7AsXeazkRN8:
format code extension resolution note
249 webm audio only DASH audio 59k , opus @ 50k, 8.68MiB
250 webm audio only DASH audio 75k , opus @ 70k, 11.02MiB
171 webm audio only DASH audio 117k , vorbis@128k, 18.23MiB
140 m4a audio only DASH audio 129k , m4a_dash container, mp4a.40.2@128k, 22.82MiB
251 webm audio only DASH audio 144k , opus @160k, 21.72MiB
278 webm 256x144 144p 99k , webm container, vp9, 30fps, video only, 15.33MiB
160 mp4 256x144 144p 123k , avc1.4d400c, 30fps, video only, 9.16MiB
242 webm 426x240 240p 227k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 21.46MiB
133 mp4 426x240 240p 405k , avc1.4d4015, 30fps, video only, 21.03MiB
243 webm 640x360 360p 409k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 43.95MiB
134 mp4 640x360 360p 706k , avc1.4d401e, 30fps, video only, 42.86MiB
244 webm 854x480 480p 761k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 75.35MiB
135 mp4 854x480 480p 1090k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 66.11MiB
247 webm 1280x720 720p 1506k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 112.60MiB
136 mp4 1280x720 720p 1514k , avc1.4d401f, 30fps, video only, 103.02MiB
137 mp4 1920x1080 1080p 2429k , avc1.640028, 30fps, video only, 153.55MiB
248 webm 1920x1080 1080p 2644k , vp9, 30fps, video only, 185.73MiB
17 3gp 176x144 small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2@ 24k, 14.12MiB
36 3gp 320x180 small , mp4v.20.3, mp4a.40.2, 39.38MiB
18 mp4 640x360 medium , avc1.42001E, mp4a.40.2@ 96k, 80.18MiB
43 webm 640x360 medium , vp8.0, vorbis@128k, 109.38MiB
22 mp4 1280x720 hd720 , avc1.64001F, mp4a.40.2@192k (best)
So either M4A@192 or Opus@160 is the best, with Vorbis@128 as a potential competitor as well. Oddly enough Opus and Vorbis sounded much better despite the lower bitrates. This of course wasn’t entirely unexpected; in A/B tests I’ve done in the past Vorbis@128 hugely outperformed my expectations by often being transparent and pleasant when it wasn’t. But it was still quite shocking to me just how incredibly bad the M4A sounded. I’m supposed to be able to tell it apart as inferior, not to have my ears assaulted. So I took a look at the spectograms:
Opus (cutoff seems to be ~20 kHz):
M4A (cutoff 16 freaking kHz):
Vorbis (cutoff seems to be closer to 18 kHz):
tl;dr
- Opus@160 (sounds pretty good, not quite transparent but borderline)
- Vorbis@128 (sounds okay)
- Opus@70 (doesn’t sound too bad)
- M4A@192 (sounds — W. T. F. IS THIS HORRIBLE POS THAT CRAWLED OUT OF NAPSTER)
Now I wonder if the times that I thought YouTube sounded like cow droppings I was somehow automagically served this lovely M4A@192 stream…
3 Likes
The other shady thing about YouTube/Google Play is that they have a bot that creates YT videos of virtually every song ever released without getting permission from the artist.
I’ve heard of musicians complaining that their content is getting streamed for free and have a hard time fighting it because its done by Google itself, not just some user who uploaded copyrighted material.
The bot even found my old band and created YT playlists/videos for each song! I don’t mind because I’m not expecting any money from it, but for bands trying to make a living off their music this is really, really evil. 
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Is it videos that look like this?
I´ve been wondering about those, they obviously look like bot-made and they pop up like crazy lately.
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Exactly. A lot of them even have 0 views too.
@discobot fortune, Is this you trying to take over the world?
Signs point to yes
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Well, I could think of worse apocalyptic scenarios tbh.
I just checked for the name of a late friend of mine´s band but it seems they still have everything on their own channel.
1 Like
I know there are bots galore posting all kinds of weird junk, but I didn’t realize YouTube ran their own as well.
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Seen lots of those by this dude. Great selection of classic themes!
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The Korobejniki song is the (Nintendo?) Tetris theme song? 
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You must be the only person outside of Russia that knew the song without knowing that it was also the Tetris theme.
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I might indirectly know of it because of Tetris but it’s a famous Russian folk song?
Yes it is, but your question made it look like you didn’t know it was “the Tetris theme”. Which is how like 99% of the people in this planet know that song 
I didn’t know it was the Tetris theme, or at least not consciously. I just mean it might’ve become more well-known than it was before ca. 1990 because of Tetris.
That´s a bit like knowing the Horst Wessel Lied but not from Wolfenstein 3D…okay bad example!
I think knowing the Wolfenstein 3D rendition at all puts me in a bit of a niche. But no, that’s not where I know it from. 
Like knowing NIN but not Quake? (Never played it, only multiplayer 2 & 3.)
But that´s different. That russian tune is really not that popular…or is it? Comrade?
It might’ve been on TV or at the music school, where they would’ve said this much more famous song is evoking a similar feeling or was inspired by it:
Also pinging @Sushi in case it’s not popular in Belgium, because this is top quality entertainment.