Even though it started out as a video streaming site, since its earliest days YouTube quickly became one of the top places to find music on the Internet. Now Google has embraced that long-running tradition, introducing on Thursday a dedicated place to get all the tunes available on YouTube: the YouTube Music app.

YouTube Music is the answer to years of music lovers wanting a way to access the humongous catalogue of music available on YouTube without using the flagship video-centric app.

In combination with the new YouTube Red membership option -- a $10 per month subscription service introduced by the company in late October that allows users to watch videos without ads -- YouTube Music is also Google's answer to Spotify, Pandora, and now Apple's subscription streaming music efforts.

As it stands now, the YouTube Music app offers fewer music-centric features than competitors like Spotify and Apple. There are no playlists to create and no live-DJ run radio options on offer like Apple's Beats One.

But YouTube is betting its simpler, hands-off approach will be attractive to music fans that put more of a premium on discovery than self-building catalogues of personal favorites.

It's chief feature, the first thing you see when you open the app, is a "station" personalized for each YouTube account, based on previous YouTube music they've liked or watched.

"My station" combines the input you've already given YouTube and then creates an endless playlist of music based on your preferences. It's a one-click automatic entertainment option. As the YouTube blog announcement put it, "a simple tap and you're on your way, enjoying your favorite music and discovering new artists effortlessly."

There are also genre stations available based on your preferences and history, all of which were surprisingly spot-on the minute I signed into the app. And as with regular YouTube, you can "like" tracks to further personalize the algorithmically driven stations.

If you're an avid music listener and have any experience with the YouTube apps on mobile devices, you already know the one unanswered question about YouTube Music that's hanging in your mind: Can I finally turn off my smartphone screen while listening to music?

The bad news is that you cannot -- at least with the free version of the app, available for iOS and Android.

But that's where the YouTube Red membership becomes much more valuable than simply avoiding video ads, because that $10 subscription will let you access YouTube Music's screen-off "audio mode" -- where YouTube Music keeps playing even with the screen off, or while you're using other apps. The Red subscription also comes with another bonus: offline playback.

And in fact, according to YouTube's announcement, YouTube Red's "audio mode" will work for any video on YouTube as well, so if you've been hankering to listen to an audiobook or never see PewDiePie's face again, that's a good option.

YouTube Music is available starting Thursday, and Google is promoting a free 14 day trial of YouTube Red along with it.