Google recently revealed that as part of a larger transition to switch its streaming listeners over to YouTube Music, the Google Podcasts app would be shut down later in 2024. Earlier this year, the firm claimed YouTube Music would start supporting podcasts in the United States; this support would spread to other countries by year’s end. More recently, the company said it would add support for podcasters to submit their RSS feeds to YouTube by year’s end.
Google has now announced that it intends to continue investing in the YouTube Music podcast experience to make it a more popular destination for podcast enthusiasts with features centered on discovery, community, and toggling between audio and video podcasts. With the launch of video podcast support for artists globally last year, along with community features like Q&As and votes, rival Spotify has also been working on the latter.
To make YouTube Music the new home for podcasts, customers will need to abandon Google Podcasts, which is the existing option.
The business observes that this strategy reflects how people are now listening. According to Edison, 4% of weekly podcast listeners in the U.S. believe Google Podcasts are their most often used service, compared to 23% who say YouTube.
The firm will provide Google Podcast users with a migration tool and the option to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library, including shows that aren’t currently hosted by YouTube — something it had previously said was in the works — to assist users with the shift to YouTube Music. The development of these migration tools will continue over the next few weeks and months, and they will eventually be made available to all users.
If users choose not to switch to YouTube Music, Google will also enable the ability to download an OPML file of their show subscriptions from Google Podcasts, which they can upload to any app that supports importing. In an effort to make YouTube Music more of a rival to services like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others, Google has been gradually converting consumers away from earlier offerings.
Prior to Google Play Music’s closure that year, YouTube Music provided a similar transition plan to lure music listeners away from the service. However, because so many users prefer to listen to podcasts on YouTube rather than the specialized Google Podcasts app, podcasts have a more challenging product. However, until recently, YouTube Music wasn’t prepared to accept podcasts.
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