What you need to know
- After finally shutting down Google Podcasts, Google gave an interview with YouTube’s chief product officer to talk about the future of podcasts on YouTube Music.
- YouTube Music aims to become the “ultimate destination” for podcasts, both for creators and listeners.
- Unfortunately, the interview didn’t contain much that addressed podcast users’ concerns about YouTube Music, such as the lack of core features like new episode notifications.
Whether we like it or not, YouTube Music is the future of podcast hosting on Google. Since the company permanently shut down Google Podcasts earlier this month, Google’s future focus is on YouTube Music. In an interview published by YouTube, Johanna Voolich, the platform’s chief product officer, explained the plan to “make YouTube Music the ultimate destination for podcasters and fans alike.”
Although podcasts are an audio-first medium, YouTube wants to focus on what it does best: video. YouTube says it has made changes to the YouTube Music app to better support audio-centric content, but adds that videos can add additional value to a podcast. “The second way we think about podcasts is [as an] “Eyes-optional experience,” Voolich said. “So there are things that are great to listen to and listen to, but also great to look at.”
Voolich highlighted the ability for users to listen to a podcast and finish it by watching the video version, or vice versa.
Again, YouTube is leaning on its strengths and believes that the platform’s experience in developing algorithms will be useful in providing suggested podcasts to users. “YouTube’s secret sauce is our recommendations,” YouTube Creator Liaison Rene Ritchie said in a blog post. “They help people discover something new or dive deeper into what they love, and help podcasters reach new audiences that can only be found on YouTube.”
Aside from the typical features YouTube offers, Voolich highlighted the changes made to YouTube Music specifically to benefit podcasters and listeners. “We’ve introduced several new features including support for third-party RSS podcasts, updates to the Android Auto experience for easy in-car listening, improved download options and customizable playlist sorting,” the blog post added.
However, the interview did not address some of the biggest concerns YouTube Music users had about enjoying podcasts on the platform. There were few clear mentions about the platform’s future plans. The only notable thing was that YouTube Music doesn’t plan to add support for RSS out feeds any time soon.
“Over the past year, we’ve been working to integrate all of the traditional podcasting features into YouTube Music,” Voolich said. “The first thing we did was actually just include podcast content, but then also traditional things like the ability to star in a series, keep watching, [and] have a shelf to explore.
There still seems to be a long way to go for YouTube Music. The platform still lacks essential podcast features, such as notifications of new episodes and marking as played. Presumably these features are coming, but this interview doesn’t tell us much about a concrete roadmap for when we can expect them.