Google Podcasts is shutting down quickly, customers urged to switch to YouTube Music | TechCrunch – Techcrunch
Google is shutting down its Podcasts app within the U.S. in a matter of days. The firm has begun warning the app’s customers they’ll desire to migrate their subscriptions to YouTube Music by April 2 to practice and spin their licensed reveals going forward. Users who don’t develop the switch straight will light discover time past regulation to migrate, nonetheless will now no longer be in a position to spin from the Podcasts app straight after this date.
The Google Podcasts app, build in over 500 million occasions on Android devices globally, for over half a decade has supplied a straightforward and streamlined interface for discovering, following and being attentive to podcasts, to boot to instruments to add podcasts by RSS feed. Sadly for fans of the app, the tech broad stated closing September it would initiate to wind down the Podcasts app in early 2024 as share of its broader map to centralize its audio products and companies underneath YouTube.
In 2020, YouTube Music supplied a identical transition technique to switch song listeners away from Google Play Music earlier than its shutdown that identical year. On the choice hand, the Google Podcasts app persisted to be maintained for years as a consequence of YouTube Music wasn’t willing to enhance podcasts except extra only within the near past. By the stop of 2023, YouTube Music was as soon as in a position to enhance podcasts globally, and, by February, they’d the flexibility to add their RSS feeds, too.
The switch to shift podcasting over to YouTube may perhaps well well attend Google turn out to be a bigger participant within the house, no longer only by combining its efforts and sharpening its level of curiosity, nonetheless also as a consequence of hobby in video podcasts — that discover been already standard on YouTube — is on the rise. This week, to illustrate, Spotify solid a take care of Universal Music Neighborhood (UMG) to bring video podcasts to U.S. customers of its streaming app after earlier in March asserting tests of video podcasts in 11 other markets spherical the arena.
Bleeping Computer was as soon as the most important to gape the shutdown date for Google Podcasts within the U.S., and a enhance web page on Google’s effort confirms that customers within the U.S. will only be in a position to make expend of the Podcasts app during the stop of March 2024. Once you omit the in-app pop-ups, Google will offer customers time past regulation to save their subscriptions by allowing them to make expend of the app’s export feature through July 2024.
Google did not straight return a quiz for commentary, nonetheless after newsletter did respond to mutter that whereas it was as soon as light “tracking in opposition to” the April 2 timeline for the U.S., it has no longer shared a timeline for the leisure of the arena but.
From its earlier statements, though, the map is to terminate Google Podcasts globally in 2024.
Updated, 3/29/24, 5:00 PM ET with Google commentary.
