The End of Google Podcasts: What You Need to Know

Google podcasts going away in 2024- here's what you need to know

While Apple was the OG of the podcast space, podcasts were actually named after iPods, and Spotify was OVER aggressive, investing hundreds of millions, Google/YouTube have been more reactionary.

In fact, The company itself said at podcast movement that they've been more about responding to what podcasters are actually doing. Their new tools are a RESULT of podcasters putting their content on YouTube.

Earlier this year, Google began giving North Americans access to podcasts on their separate YouTube Music platform. They're gonna roll out YouTube music globally, and sunset the Google Podcasts app. It makes sense- they cite Edison research's study that says YouTube is the favorite podcasting platform for 23% of consumers, compared to 4% for Google Podcasts. Those numbers track for me- of 12,000 total downloads of THIS podcast, exactly 3.24% were on Google Podcasts.

So what does all this mean for creators and consumers? Google says they will have tools to let listeners migrate their favorite shows from Google to YouTube music. And without a subscription, you'll be able to consume the pods while using other apps on your phone.

For creators, we don't have an exact time line for when the app will go away. So continue to fish where the fish are. Keep putting your show on Google Podcasts, but also make sure it's on YouTube AND YouTube music. Make sure your show can be found anywhere your potential audience is looking for it .

More:

PodNews recap of this story: https://podnews.net/update/google-podcasts-to-close

Variety magazine: https://variety.com/2023/digital/news/google-podcasts-shutting-down-youtube-1235735517/

Google's announcement: https://support.google.com/youtubemusic/thread/236590252

From YouTube - Creating a Podcast on YouTube Music: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/podcast-destination-on-youtube-music

Find jag on social media @JAGPodcastProductions or online at JAGPodcastProductions.com

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