YouTube unveils its Top 10 most-played artists as Music and Premium apps land in HK

(Pictured left to right: Nancy Ting and Sun Lee)

Almost four years after its initial launch, YouTube Music and YouTube Premium have officially launched in Hong Kong, along with several Southeast Asian countries.

The tech giant has just announced the addition of Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines into its portfolio. But while YouTube Premium offers an ad-free experience with background play and offline downloads for millions of YouTube videos, YouTube Music is likely to be the big hit in this region.

"More than one?billion music fans come to YouTube each month to listen to hot favourites and discover new music. It?s also where over two million artists come to share their voices and art with the world. YouTube makes music go global with its diverse content, K-pop is one of the best examples," said?Sun Lee, head of music content partnerships & subscriptions, Korea & Greater China, YouTube.

YouTube Music offers a dedicated app or a web player, in which users can look for?official songs, albums, playlists, and live performances. Users can listen to songs for free in the ad-supported version while choosing to pay for YouTube Music Premium removes ads, provides offline downloads and allows users to play music and videos in the background while toggling between apps.

?YouTube Music provides a personalised music experience for Hong Kong users with hotlists featuring local talents, namely Cantonese pop songs, theme songs of local TV shows and films, indie, or Cantonese classics," said?Nancy Ting, head of consumer marketing of Google Hong Kong.

According to Google, songs of Taiwanese singer Jay Chou were the most played music by Hong Kong users over the past 12 months, while?local singer Eason Chan came second.

Most played artists in Hong Kong for the past 12 months and their origin

1. Jay Chou - Taiwan

2. Eason Chan - Hong Kong

3. G.E.M. - China

4. BLACKPINK - South Korea

5. Hins Cheung - Hong Kong

6. BTS - South Korea

7. TWICE - South Korea

8. Joey Yung - Hong Kong

9. Alan Walker - Norway

10. Dear Jane - Hong Kong

"YouTube Music also allows local artists to share their music and connect with music lovers across the globe, while hotlists for K-pop, Mandopop, international songs are also available. YouTube Music is a reimagined music streaming service that combines music and videos in just one app with rich and diverse multimedia music content, including music videos, behind-the-scenes, live performances, and more," Ting added.

Currently available in more than 70 countries,?Google has been rapidly expanding YouTube Premium and Music worldwide this year. In September, users in the Middle East countries got access to the service, including Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman.