More like: Users can pay for a service that allows them to cache songs for offline playback in their YouTube app. It's not free and it's not like users are downloading the MP3s.
Edit: And in fact, this whole thread is kind of a red herring. We already had this same conversation about DRM, and it turned out people did indeed go to paid services when it's easy to use them. It turns out many millions of people will pay to stream music, even when there are many ways to get music for free for a little more effort.
Same thing here. As far as I've heard, it's for offline listening, not download and have a file forever. The file will probably live in your youtube app and it will require breaking into it to get the music for free. I'm sure there will quickly be programs to do that, but most people won't care.
Every penny you contribute to these criminal assholes is hurting the artists you love. The sooner the recording industry goes bankrupt, the sooner we can move on to something better.
(not to mention a quick google for artist - track [zippy|mp3skull|hulk|mp3|etc] typically will give a download link with next to no effort)
This is about an official service offered by Google/Youtube.
If there was a news story about a new video streaming service, would you reply "all the movies are already on the Pirate Bay"?
The point is, you can't just as easily rip content from Spotify, Pendora, or any of the other streaming services.
Enough with this idiotic copyright bullshit. If you don't want people to copy your stuff, stop publishing it! We don't need copyright. Why is the law enforcement that I pay for with my tax money working to prevent alice from copying something bob put out in public?
Now if bob took alice's secret documents, and put them out for the world to see I can understand. However, this copyright mess is out of control. Please... Let's put an end to this nonsense.
Offtopic, but what do you mean YouTube doesn't "allow" downloading in 1080p? If you can watch it in 1080p, you can download it in 1080p.
youtube-dl -x [video link]