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Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

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Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#161

Post by 12907835202 »

ashishb wrote: post #158

After the demise of Google Play Music, I wrote https://musicsync.ashishb.net When the rumors of Google Podcasts being killed started circulating, I added podcast support to my app. In many cases matching or doing better than the Google Podcasts in terms of useful features.

Podcasts doesn't seem like something I would want to manage myself. An album I grab once and keep forever.

A podcast I grab everyday and keep until I've listened.

Your link seems to mostly talk about uploading and managing it myself. I'm guessing podcasts don't actually work like this?

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#162

Post by nickthegreek »

smsm42 wrote: post #160

In a year or two somebody would realize that YT is for videos and it doesn't make sense to keep music and podcasts there, and a new Google service is born... It's the circle of life.

The amount of people who use YouTube to listen to music around the world is massive.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#164

Post by ashishb »

12907835202 wrote: post #161
ashishb wrote: post #158

After the demise of Google Play Music, I wrote https://musicsync.ashishb.net When the rumors of Google Podcasts being killed started circulating, I added podcast support to my app. In many cases matching or doing better than the Google Podcasts in terms of useful features.

Podcasts doesn't seem like something I would want to manage myself. An album I grab once and keep forever. A podcast I grab everyday and keep until I've listened. Your link seems to mostly talk about uploading and managing it myself. I'm guessing podcasts don't actually work like this?

You just have to add RSS feed URL or you can even search and subscribe to podcasts inside the app. And the new episodes will be fetched regularly to your phone. The media file won't be downloaded unless you enable that.

Sorry the unclear description. I'll fix it.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#165

Post by sangnoir »

JeremyNT wrote: post #137
fourseventy wrote: post #100

We have gone full circle. I started with Google Music which had both music and podcasts at the time. Then they took podcasts out of Google Music and made me install a second Google Podcast app just to listen to my podcasts. Then they shut down Google Music and forced me to move to YouTube Music. Now they are shutting down Google Podcasts and integrating that back into YouTube Music. Like WTF.

It's amazing how incompetent they seem in this area. They even shut down another podcast app before your journey began, called Google listen. Luckily, although you might want Google's proprietary music player to access their subscription content, there's absolutely no reason to use a Google podcast app. I am a fan of Antennapod[0], which is available on F-Droid. [0] https://antennapod.org/

> t's amazing how incompetent they seem in this area

You may be surprised at how competent they look internally. If I were a betting man, I'd say each of those transitions went into a promotion/performance packet. I count at least 3 product teams competent at developing podcast features, and were likely rewarded for it.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#166

Post by xp84 »

izacus wrote: post #104
ghusto wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" isn't misleading, that's exactly what's happening. The fact that they're trying to force people onto YouTube Music isn't relevant for me.

That's an utterly strange response - it's a difference between UI just moving somewhere else and losing service availability. It sounds like you just want to rant?

Podcasts are already in YTM though. Nothing’s moving. They’re killing off a product, plain and simple. Whether that’s no big deal or a big deal is up to every individual. I am assuming anybody who wanted to use YTM for podcasts already is, and it’s not a stretch to say people will probably be annoyed.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#167

Post by xp84 »

andybak wrote: post #115
ghusto wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" isn't misleading, that's exactly what's happening. The fact that they're trying to force people onto YouTube Music isn't relevant for me.

> The fact that they're trying to force people onto YouTube Music isn't relevant for me. With all due respect, it's probably relevant to other people.

Arguably it’s no more relevant than is the fact that there are a dozen other podcast apps out there. The podcast feature in YTM already exists and is distinct.

This change means X number of people need to go looking for some alternative, and given Google’s lack of ability to keep any product alive long-term besides Gmail, YouTube, and Search, YTM should arguably be the absolute last one on your list to consider, since we all know it (or its podcast section) will be replaced with something else within the next five years, just like nearly every Google product.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#168

Post by xp84 »

pentagrama wrote: post #123

I really like the simplicity of Google Podcasts, it does one thing and pretty well. I'm also a Spotify user and despise have podcasts mixed with music, so bloated and clunky (also Spotify performance isn't good), music and podcasts are different usecases for me, I'm on different mood. I don't want to jump to YouTube Music, and the last time I did a research, I can't find a simple Podcast app that is free, simple, ad-…

Minor question: Why not use the PWA using a different browser engine? Since it’s in its own window anyway. I hear Safari is gaining them this year though I never touch Safari. Edge has it, and Chromium probably does right?

I wholly agree however, that mixing music and podcasts in one app is stupid though!

If by any chance you’re an Apple person, I’d recommend Overcast. It’s a measly $10 or so per year for ad-free but really, anything free is going to either have ads or be tied to some annoying larger monetization strategy like Apple or Google have. So I don’t think it’s worth putting “free” in your criteria.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#169

Post by xp84 »

jaderobbins1 wrote: post #127
pentagrama wrote: post #123

I really like the simplicity of Google Podcasts, it does one thing and pretty well. I'm also a Spotify user and despise have podcasts mixed with music, so bloated and clunky (also Spotify performance isn't good), music and podcasts are different usecases for me, I'm on different mood. I don't want to jump to YouTube Music, and the last time I did a research, I can't find a simple Podcast app that is free, simple, ad-…

I think the point about separation of Music and Podcasts is an important one for me as well. I really don't like mixing the two, they have two different use cases imo. Drives me nuts how much Spotify pushes podcasts when I just want to listen to some tunes.

Spotify thinks if they can get you into Podcasts, which they don’t have to pay a dime for, it will improve their bottom line, since you (probably) can’t simultaneously listen to music that they do have to pay for. Kind of a funny motivation to enter the podcast market, but probably a good business move, as awkward and annoying, and seemingly irrelevant to their brand and core competency as it is.

Re: Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024

#170

Post by xp84 »

rickdeckard wrote: post #150
pcthrowaway wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on Google Play Music (and now YT Music) for ~8 years. YT Music has a different catalog (by my estimation it's less complete than GPM's was) and also lets you pull up songs/videos from youtube (which can't be downloaded for offline listening like other songs, and are just kind of mixed in with everything else). Artist and album descriptions are largely gone, and so is the ability to view your listen count of…

I can confirm that the catalog is less complete in YTM because back when they shut GPM I took the effort to migrate my playlists and I lost quite a few songs of them in the progress, and even more then within a year (of which YTM can't even tell me the title anymore, it's just an unavailable item)

Yeah, originally GPM actually had the ability to actually upload your whole music library, matchable or not, and let you listen from the cloud. All of that was available without a subscription fee!

I migrated my account too, since I have YT Premium anyway, but I don’t even know if that’s a feature anymore or how to access that aspect of my library, like, to add new songs from MP3s I own.

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