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What you need to know
- YouTube Music has a new feature that indicates whether a song is a cover or a live recording.
- It comes in the form of a label that only appears on the search results screen.
- The new feature doesn’t seem to be available everywhere and it appears it’s currently part of a test.
YouTube Music has a new way to tell you right in the search screen whether a song is a cover or a live recording.
The new feature was first noticed by a Reddit user, and we’ve seen it on one of our devices as well. When searching for “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” which was originally performed by Garth Brooks, the app displays some results with the labels “live” and “cover” next to the artist’s name to properly mark songs that are not original .
These labels are similar to the “E” label that has been around for a long time to clearly identify explicit numbers. However, they only appear on the search results screen when finding a song, specifically in the “More from YouTube” section. Strangely, the same label is not visible in the Songs or Community Playlists section.
In addition, navigating to the album where that song is located no longer displays the same label.
Android Police notes that the results can be inconsistent, with some actual covers not displaying the correct label. This suggests that the feature is currently being rolled out in phases. It is also possible that this is just part of a broader test by the platform.
Some of the leading music streaming services, such as Spotify, do not have a similar feature. Prior to this update, it was difficult to distinguish covers from original songs without listening to them, so the new feature will be greatly appreciated.
That said, it’s worth noting that not all covers are listed as such on YouTube Music, as not all cover artists have received permission from the copyright holders of the original songs.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72317748/699783480.0.jpg "On This Day (27 May 2016): Three Lions on the Wear")
