YouTube has taken up the subscription challenge to Apple, Spotify and Pandora, launching a new music video service, Music Key.

The ad-free Music Key service will offer audio and video streams, as well as full albums from some the world’s biggest artists, through deals with hundreds of major and independent music labels.

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Available on Android, iOS and desktop computers, the service will come in free and paid subscriptions models, with early subscribers able to sign on for the first six months free and then receive a reduced rate of $US7.99 a month.

YouTube Music Key launched in a test, or beta, mode, in Britain, Spain, Italy, Finland, Portugal, Ireland, and the US with free trial periods.

“Thanks to your music videos, remixes, covers and more, you’ve made YouTube the biggest music service on the planet,” the Google-owned YouTube music team said on Wednesday in a blog post.

YouTube Music Key is designed to let users listen to music without ads; to keep playing music videos even if device screens are locked or other applications are in use; and to play music even when not connected to the internet.

Subscriptions to the new YouTube Music Key will come with access to Google Play Music service for mobile devices.

The service is being launched first with invitations sent to big music fans, then will be made available worldwide, according to Google, which bought the video-sharing platform eight years ago in a deal valued at $US1.65 billion.

YouTube recently inked a deal with a group of independent record labels as part of the behind-the-scenes work to provide content for Music Key.

YouTube struck an agreement with Europe-based rights agency Merlin after months of negotiations, the Financial Times said on Wednesday in a report citing sources familiar with the matter.

Record labels representing 95 per cent of the music industry have already signed up to the new terms but Merlin, which represents more than 20,000 labels from 39 countries, had been holding out.

Google said “hundreds of major and independent labels” have partnered with YouTube as it expands into a subscription service.

The California-based internet titan echoed an earlier statement that hopes YouTube will serve as “a global platform for fans and artists to connect, and as a revenue source for the music industry”.

YouTube earlier this year threatened to block the videos of artists such as Adele and Arctic Monkeys on its free site if they did not sign up to terms of the subscription service.

YouTube is the world’s biggest online source of free streaming music and the site has about a billion users a month.