Amber Neely
Beyond just Google Podcasts, YouTube has begun rolling out a new feature that allows US users to listen to podcasts on the YouTube Music app.
Listeners will be able to hear podcasts on-demand, offline, in the background, and while casting. They will also be able to switch between audio-video versions on YouTube Music.
Like most other podcast apps, YouTube Music will feature curated content in categories like business, comedy, and gaming, as well as suggested podcasts based on a user's listening history.
The announcement also notes that listeners will not need a YouTube Music or YouTube Premium subscription to access podcast content offline or continue streaming it in the background.
The rollout will be gradual, so users may not see the option immediately available. Google Podcasts remains untouched.
YouTube also plans to roll out the feature to other regions at a future date.
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Charles Martin
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
7 Comments
And so it continues... Google will kind Podcasts eventually the same way they killed play music. Play music wasn't great but did the job. Youtube music was extremely buggy initially and now a bit so-so. The same is/will be true for Podcasts->Youtube Music.
It wouldn’t be Google is they didn’t make at least two apps that do the same thing, then not support them properly to the point where they need to make a whole new app that does the same thing as the supposed “fix”. Rinse. Repeat.
I know hating on Google is the popular thing to do on this site, but YouTube Music is actually half decent. When I was on Android, I actually used YTM as my primary music app over Spotify as I was already (and still) paying for YouTube Premium and its Supermix feature didn't have an equal on Spotify.
By contrast, I can count on two fingers the number of times I used Google Podcasts over Pocketcasts. Maybe podcasts moving to YTM will get better coverage? /shrug