Google Podcasts will be shut down later in 2024 as part of its shift to YouTube Music, the company stated.
After announcing earlier this year that YouTube Music will accept podcasts in the U.S., it will extend globally by year-end and allow podcasters to post their RSS feeds to YouTube by year-end.
Google says it would spend more on YouTube Music’s podcast experience to make it more of a destination for podcast fans with discovery, community, and audio-video switching tools.
With the launch of video podcast support for artists globally last year and community features like Q&As and votes, Spotify has been working on the latter.
Read also: Google, DUBAWA to teach African journalists digital fact-checking
YouTube Music now hosts podcasts
Moving consumers from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music would make it the new podcast home. This idea shows people are listening, the business says. According to Edison, 23% of U.S. weekly podcast consumers utilise YouTube most, compared to 4% for Google Podcasts.
The business will offer Google Podcast users a migration tool and the opportunity to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library, including shows not hosted by YouTube, as revealed last month. In the coming weeks and months, these migration tools will be developed and made available to all users.
Don’t want to switch to YouTube Music? Google Podcasts will let users download an OPML file of their show subscriptions to upload to any app that supports importation.
A YouTube blog post stated, “We know this transition will take time, but these efforts will allow us to build a fantastic product and a single destination that rewards creators and artists and provides fans with the best podcast experience. YouTube, YouTube Music, and Google Podcasts will remain available to fans. It stated it would release more information about upcoming adjustments to our users and podcasters in the coming months.
Google updates Bard to ‘talk to other apps’ for better replies
Google is progressively pushing users to cease using previous products so YouTube Music can compete with Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and others. YouTube Music offered a similar scheme to lure users away from Google Play Music, which will close in 2020. However, podcasts are difficult to promote because most people listen on YouTube rather than Google Podcasts. However, YouTube Music only recently started playing podcasts.
With this shift, only Apple will not have merged music and podcasts. Spotify, Amazon, and Pandora offer audio types in their primary apps.