The Google Podcasts app is heading to a farm upstate run by Marc Maron and Sarah Koenig, The app has been round since 2018, however it by no means approached the form of mass adoption loved by rivals Overcast, Spotify and the In different phrases, don’t really feel dangerous when you’ve by no means heard of it.
The complete service is being folded into YouTube and its companion app YouTube Music. That is for good cause, as YouTube’s already a preferred vacation spot for podcast followers. In line with statistics offered by Edison Analysis and YouTube companies 23 % of podcast listeners within the US. Google Podcasts, however, accounts for simply 4 % of listeners, regardless of having podcasts proper within the title. It’s simpler to select up stakes and head to the the place the fish are as an alternative of making an attempt to lure the fish to a random podcast app that no one is aware of about.
YouTube introduced that 2024 will see a major enhance in its “funding within the podcast expertise,” proper after dad or mum firm Alphabet places the kibosh on Google’s devoted app. It appears like YouTube Music will obtain the lion’s share of those investments, with forthcoming “strong creation and analytics instruments” along with streamlined RSS uploads for podcasters.
The corporate guarantees to additionally develop the flexibility to hearken to podcasts in additional places, stating they’ll be out there “all over the place YouTube Music listeners are already consuming their favourite content material — within the background, within the automotive, offline and extra.” Moreover, new “YouTube-only” instruments and capabilities can be coming to podcasts on YouTube Music, although Google stays cagey on the specifics.
As for present Google Podcasts customers, there’s going to be a “easy migration instrument” to assist with the transition to YouTube Music. You’ll additionally have the ability to manually add podcast RSS feeds to your YouTube Music library. The corporate even introduced choices for including present podcast subscriptions to rival platforms, when you simply wish to begin recent. Google’s nonetheless gathering suggestions concerning the migration course of, so a few of these options are liable to vary earlier than subsequent yr.
This isn’t the primary massive transfer YouTube Music has made this yr to shore up a few of these candy, candy podcast {dollars}. Again in April, the app launched the flexibility to look at and hearken to podcasts although you’ll nonetheless must undergo by means of Podcasts on YouTube Music are already full-featured, with offline downloads, background play and the flexibility to change between audio and visible content material on sensible audio system.