- Launched in 2018, Google will retire Google Podcasts in 2024.
- YouTube Music will take its place as the destination for podcast creators to upload and share their shows.
- YouTube says it will help creators move from one platform to another once it has garnered feedback from users.
At Google, launching a product appears to be more of a public beta test than a full launch. Far too often the company launches a product only to kill it off a few years down the line.
The most recent example of this is Google Podcasts which will disappear from the face of the internet in 2024. What will happen to all the content that has filled Google Podcasts since it launched in 2018? It will move to YouTube Music.
The YouTube team says that it will help creators move their content across from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music.
As of time of writing podcasts are supported in YouTube Music but only in the US. The firm says this will change at the end of this year and podcasts will be available only on YouTube Music globally.
“We want to make sure we get this right and will give fans and podcasters plenty of time to make the transition. For users, it means a simple migration tool and the ability to add podcast RSS feeds to their YouTube Music library, including shows not currently hosted by YouTube,” YouTube explains.
“For those who prefer a different listening platform, the tools will also include an option to download an OPML file of their show subscriptions, which they can upload to an app that supports their import. For podcasters, this means providing robust creation and analytics tools, as well as RSS uploads, in addition to making your podcasts available everywhere YouTube Music listeners are already consuming their favorite content–in the background, in the car, offline, and more,” it adds.
Of course, there will be edge cases and YouTube says it will be gathering feedback with a view to helping creators migrate from one platform to the other.
YouTube says that 23 percent of podcast listeners are searching for that content on YouTube compared to just four percent on Google Podcasts. This isn’t great and Google is clearly trying to capitalise on the podcast market which is expected to bring in as much as $2.28 billion in advertising revenue this year in the US alone per Variety. Furthermore, the iab projects that this revenue will nearly double by 2025.
Investing in more visibility for creators then is a move that makes sense for Google given that creators draw in listeners which in turn drives up the potential for advertising revenue gains. YouTube is also a burgeoning ecosystem for short video content and having a way for folks to share short clips from their podcast, full video podcasts and a pure audio podcast is an attractive offer, potentially more attractive than what Spotify can offer.
