What you need to know
- After permanently shutting down Google Podcasts, Google shared an interview with YouTube's chief product officer discussing the future of podcasts on YouTube Music.
- YouTube Music aims to be the “ultimate destination” for podcasts for both creators and listeners.
- Unfortunately, the interview didn't do much to address concerns that podcast users have about YouTube Music, such as the lack of core features like new episode notifications.
Like it or not, YouTube Music is the future of podcast hosting at Google. The company shut down Google Podcasts for good earlier this month, and Google will now focus on YouTube Music. In an interview published by YouTube, Johanna Voolich, the platform's chief product officer, explained plans to “make YouTube Music the ultimate destination for podcasters and fans alike.”
Even though podcasts are an audio-first medium, YouTube wants to focus on what it does best: video. YouTube says it has made changes to its YouTube Music app to better support audio-centric content, but also adds that videos can provide additional value to podcasts. “His second take on how we think about podcasts is: [as an] “The eye is an optional experience, which means it can be not only great to hear and listen to, but also great to see,” Vorich said.
Voolich highlighted the possibility for users to start listening to a podcast, watch the video version and finish, or vice versa.
Again, YouTube is banking on its strengths and believes that the platform's experience in building algorithms will help it provide recommended podcasts to its users. “YouTube's secret sauce is our recommendations,” said Rene Ritchie, his YouTube creator liaison, in a blog post. “We help people discover something new and explore more of what they love, while helping podcasters reach new audiences that can only be found on YouTube.”
Apart from the typical features offered by YouTube, Voolich highlighted changes made to YouTube Music specifically for the benefit of podcasters and listeners. “We're rolling out several new features, including support for third-party His RSS podcasts, updates to the Android Auto experience for easier in-car listening, enhanced download options, and customizable playlist sorting.” added in the blog post.
However, the interview didn't address some of the big concerns YouTube Music users have when enjoying podcasts on the platform. There was little concrete mention of the platform's future plans, with the only notable thing being that YouTube Music has no plans to support RSS output feeds anytime soon.
“Over the past year, we've been working to bring all of the traditional podcasting features into YouTube Music,” said Voolich. “The first thing we did was actually bring in the podcast content, but then we could play it in series, continue listening, [and] Has shelves for discovery. ”
YouTube Music still has a long way to go. The platform still lacks important podcast features like new episode notifications and played marks. Presumably those features are coming, but this interview doesn't give much of a concrete roadmap for when we can expect them.
