Google Podcasts is going away, after just 5 years.
In classical Google tradition they will be removing the Google Podcasts app and service sometime middle of next year, and moving it to YouTube Music, following general footfall.
I know this was said back in February by the executives at Google, but it does seem final with this statement.
Whats not known is, do you need a subscription to YouTube Music to get to the podcasts? An app blending music and podcasts is nothing new, look at Spotify and Amazon Music, hell even iTunes used to have it all in one place.
Personally,
As a podcast listener:
I am a little cold to this, as I am trying to ween myself off watching YouTube. I do too much of it of an evening, as opposed to listening to the plethora of music sent to us at DarkCompass Castle. For me it’s the last big Google Application I use, having moved to DuckDuckGo for Searching, and having my own email domains.
As a podcast producer:
I would think that the dashboards that Google provides will be blended into YouTube Creator Studio. It will probably be a lot easier to monetise. Exclusivity would come next.
Moving this into a paywalled infrastructure wont do the independent producers any good, as listeners would have a pay to hear you on that platform, and if you’ve been producing for some time, it’s doubtful we would get many new listeners that way.
What do you think?