Google Podcasts, the podcasting platform that has been around for 5 years, is set to be sunset next year.
According to Google, starting in 2024, all its podcast efforts will be on YouTube. Particularly, YouTube Music.
“Looking forward to 2024, we’ll be increasing our investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music — making it a better overall destination for fans and podcasters alike with YouTube-only capabilities across community, discovery and audio/visual switching,” the company says in a post by the YouTube team on their blog.
“Later in 2024, as part of this process, we’ll be discontinuing Google Podcasts. As part of this process, we’ll be helping Google Podcasts users move over to Podcasts in YouTube Music. This matches what listeners and podcasters are already doing: according to Edison, about 23% of weekly podcast users in the US say YouTube is their most frequently used service, versus just 4% for Google Podcasts.”
The use of YouTube Music for podcasts by Google is strategic. While, overall, some podcasters (including ourselves with our 24Bit podcast) do upload video podcasts on YouTube, something that Google is very much encouraging and hoping to tap into further by making YouTube its podcasts hub, it is also looking out for those that only upload audio podcasts. So, while YouTube is now Google’s main podcast platform, the specific use of the music version of the site is because podcasters will be allowed to upload audio-only podcasts.
Just like the YouTube Music app has allowed users to play music/audio files stored locally on their devices, users will be able to add to their podcast subscription feed podcasts that are not hosted on YouTube by just keying in their RSS feeds (talking about RSS, remember Google Reader?). This is in addition to, of course, those that are already on YouTube.
“In the coming weeks and months, we’ll gather feedback to make the migration process from Google Podcasts to YouTube Music as simple and easy as possible. Once we feel the migration tools are ready, we’ll release them along with clear guidelines on how they work,” Google says.
While all of this is good (though a little disheartening since I personally loved Google Podcasts), it is worth noting that for Kenyans, it is a wait-and-see game. This is so because as of the time of publication, YouTube Music is not available in the country and it remains to be seen whether YouTube will accelerate its availability around the world in time for the official demise of Google Podcasts next year.
Google Podcasts joins a long line of Google products and services that have been sunset after just a few years of being available.
Last year alone, Google killed two YouTube products: YouTube Originals, an in-house production house tasked with supporting creators to produce high-quality content for the platform like renowned YouTube tech content creator Marques Brownlee (popularly known as MKBHD)’s Retro Tech series and, YouTube Go, a stripped-down version of the YouTube app meant for devices with lowly system resources running Android Go.
Other notable products and services axed in 2022 include Duo, the video-calling app that was sunset in favour of Meet, another video calls and meetings app offered by Google.
This year we have already seen (how can we forget this when we dedicated so much of our time covering it and really hoped it would one day come to Kenya) Stadia, its cloud gaming platform that never got to see its full potential, exit the stage and join the long list of products and services in the Google graveyard.
And, in case you had forgotten, it is still this year that we said goodbye to Stories on YouTube.
If there exists a heaven for products and services, it is really my hope that Podcasts ends up there. And sits right across the table from Androidify, Datally, Google Trips and many others we have even forgotten we once depended on heavily. In case you’re weeping by this point, you can lay your flowers at this cemetery, wipe your tears and be emotionally strong for the next one. It won’t be long before we’re back with another heartbreak.
