Google has announced that it plans to discontinue its Google Podcasts app in late 2024, a move geared towards the company’s broader strategy to shift its streaming audience towards YouTube Music.
Earlier this year, Google announced that YouTube Music would start offering podcast support in the United States, with plans to expand this feature globally by the end of the year. Furthermore, the company recently revealed its intention to allow podcasters to upload their RSS feeds to YouTube, with this feature also set to be available by year-end, according to TechCrunch.
This move by Google to consolidate music and podcasts into YouTube Music will align it with several other major players in the audio-streaming industry. Spotify, Amazon, and Pandora, for example, have already integrated both music and podcasts within their flagship applications. As a result, Apple appears to be the primary major player that has yet to combine music and podcasts into a single destination within its offerings.
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Google has expressed its intention to elevate its investment in the podcasting experience on YouTube Music, aiming to transform it into a hub for podcast enthusiasts. This effort will involve introducing features centered around discovery, building a community, and facilitating seamless transitions between audio-only podcasts and video content. This aligns with a similar direction taken by Spotify, which introduced video podcast support to creators worldwide last year, coupled with community features like Q&As and polls, per TechCrunch.
The consolidation move has been slow, following a similar YouTube strategy from a few years back. In 2020, YouTube Music implemented a similar strategy to transition music listeners away from Google Play Music before its discontinuation that same year. This approach helped users migrate smoothly from one service to another while maintaining their music preferences and libraries.
But there was a hurdle: Transitioning podcast users from YouTube to a dedicated app like Google Podcasts can be more challenging because many users already use YouTube as a primary platform for consuming podcasts. This indicates that there may be a preference among users to access podcast content directly on YouTube rather than through a separate application like Google Podcasts.
To establish YouTube Music as the new primary platform for podcasts, Google recognizes the need to transition users away from its existing offering, Google Podcasts. This decision reflects the prevailing listening habits of users. According to Edison, approximately 23% of weekly podcast users in the U.S. indicate that YouTube is their most frequently used service, in contrast to just 4% for Google Podcasts.
Google plans to provide Google Podcasts users with a migration tool as a means to facilitate the transition to YouTube Music. Users will also have the ability to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library, including shows that are not currently hosted on YouTube, according to the company.
Google intends to work on the migration tools in the coming weeks and months before rolling them out to all users.
Additionally, Google will offer support for users to download an OPML file containing their show subscriptions from Google Podcasts. This file can then be uploaded to any app that supports importing, giving users the flexibility to switch to alternative podcast platforms if they choose not to migrate to YouTube Music, according to the company.
“We know this transition will take time, but these efforts will allow us to build an amazing product and a single destination that rewards creators and artists and provides fans with the best Podcasts experience,” a YouTube blog post explained. “For now, nothing is changing and fans will continue to have access to YouTube, YouTube Music, and Google Podcasts. We’re committed to being transparent in communicating future changes with our users and podcasters and will have more to share about this process in the coming months,” it said.