Google Podcasts Is Shutting Down, as YouTube Invests in Podcasting Features and Tools
variety.comTodd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a six-year run, Google Podcasts will be shutting down next year. Instead, the internet company plans to double down on making YouTube Music the preferred destination for podcasters and listeners.
YouTube announced that in 2024, it will be “increasing our investment in the podcast experience on YouTube Music.” As part of that, later in the year, “we’ll be discontinuing Google Podcasts,” which was first launched in 2018, the company said in a blog post.
Google said that YouTube is already the more popular way to listen to podcasts: About 23% of weekly podcast users in the U.S.
say YouTube is their most frequently used service, compared with 4% for Google Podcasts, according to Edison Research. With the move to shut down Google Podcasts, the company said, it will help Google Podcasts users move over to podcasts in YouTube Music.
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