Google Podcasts shutting down in 2024 for YouTube Music
https://9to5google.com/2023/09/26/google-podcasts-youtube-music/Open linkView original on lemmy.world425
Comments176https://9to5google.com/2023/09/26/google-podcasts-youtube-music/Open linkView original on lemmy.world
Oh boy, can't wait for Youtube Mail and Youtube Maps next
it'll all end with YouTube Search
I wish this were more implausible, but at this point I'm getting worried.
Seriously. Fewer and fewer people are using Google as a search engine anyways. I know it's miniscule, but people are aware of Duck Duck go, and aware of Google's spy apparatus, hence why in any survey or poll they conduct they ask the user's opinion on how well they think Google is doing with their private data. I always score them the lowest possible.
What we should be concerned with is how many websites and third party logins use Google.
Let's just rename Google to Youtube and get it over with
Youtube is basically their entertainment brand. So that really doesn't make sense.
People are just resistant to change because the GPM to YTM transition sucked when they released a half baked app
Yeah I guess so. YTM sucked ass when it came out. But now I would say it's better than Spotify.
Classic google. Add this to the Google app graveyard.
link to graveyard
Oh man, Google surveys is dead? That stuff was useful for so many things, I'm legitimately saddened by its loss.
Are you mixing it up with Google Forms? I think most people would never have used surveys, whereas forms is pretty popular. And they sound the same.
Ohh whew. I definitely was.
I liked Google surveys when I had an Android phone. I did a survey here and there and it would pay for my Duolingo subscription
I think that's google opinion rewards. Or at least Google opinion rewards is the same thing.
Oh yeah you're right. In that case, I'm not surprised Surveys is dead. I had never heard of that one
That site has a bit of inflation to it.
Like, some of those things are just standalone apps that got merged into other products. Like Fitbit coach is now just part of the Fitbit app.
Never surprising to hear of yet another Google service shutting down.
google
one app
does one thing
google
why is this so hard to understand
It's likely not financially viable to have separate teams for their many products that all have similar features. Consolidating makes more sense because they can actually afford to maintain development.
Honestly, they should just roll YouTube Music into the default YouTube app, as well. And they probably will at some point. It just doesn't make sense to have these services - which are basically all the same, functionally-speaking - spread out across multiple apps.
I don't think I could disagree more. I use both and listening to music and watching videos are entirely different activities for me and I want the apps to do different things in different ways.
The UI and use case for a video platform and a music app are very, very different
My phone makes phone calls and browses the Internet. There are things that can do multiple things.
The use case is not different. There is already music on YouTube. I rarely watch YouTube but I listen to it a lot. You're not actually upset about the new app, you're excited to shit on a company with harmful practices and you're grasping at any argument you can find.
No, I use both YouTube and YouTube music and they need different UIs and ways of navigating. While you could cram all of YouTube musics UI into a subsection of YouTube, it really doesn't make sense to do so. I'm not just shitting on Google just because, I'm saying that the needs of music listening and YouTube video watching are different for many people.
Honestly sounds like you don't even need youtube, just YouTube music if all you ever use it for is listening.
They "need" different UIs? Really you've never used an app or device that can do 2 things?
Come on, that's obviously a silly opinion. You're just grasping at straws and I don't really understand why.
Clearly Google doesn't follow that logic because they have numerous competing chat apps. Even Google Maps has chat...
Man, I really did like Google Podcasts.
It was way better than the other podcast apps. And coming from iTunes, it was a smooth transition.
This sucks. Open source your shit, Google, and I promise we'll keep it going.
Google's graveyard is quite big. At this point am reluctant to use any of their services in fear of it disappearing.
RIP Play Music, YT music is ass.
When I switched to android I was looking for Play Music to buy some new songs and it had shut down shortly after I purchased my pixel. Real disappointing since I prefer to just buy a song here and there instead of subscribing to a streaming platform.
Some artists provide a digital download on their websites but it's uncommon. If there's a viable alternative to Play Music I'd love to hear about it!
For buying music, besides the big names like Amazon/iTunes, you might consider:
7digital UK or 7digital US, if in neither country, I think it should try to point you to the relevant storefront for yours if they have one.
Qobuz, which appears to be available in more countries.
Bandcamp for indies and experimental music.
The first two have a good mix of major labels and indies, so are probably your best bet after Amazon/iTunes, meanwhile Bandcamp is great for more niche and potentially upcoming artists. So far as I can tell there isn't really just one storefront to go with for buying music unless you're okay with the aforementioned big names.
I want to eventually transition from using Spotify to something like that, but my only question would be if I can save the songs locally on my device to use a music player of my choice?
All of the sites I linked to offer digital downloads of purchased music to play locally, so yes! I specifically sought these out because I prefer to have local files analogous to owning physical media, as I really don't like perpetually renting media (i.e. subscription services).
Hey thanks for the reply! I'll be sure to check these out. I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
Either way I appreciate the input!
I don't use Amazon for music much myself, but last I did, I think the way I found the download options was to search for the albums themselves as if I was trying to buy a physical copy, which much like books and other stuff, will often present a digital purchase option when available.
I stopped using it because it just felt way clunkier to deal with, which was even before they got into music streaming if memory serves (or at least, before they had prioritized it).
AntennaPod is your FOSS podcast friend
Thanks for the resource! This looks amazing!
Would be nice if more companies just open sourced the stuff they don't need or don't want to maintain anymore.
Even if no one picks it up, at least it got another chance.
Would never happen.
Obviously I can't know what you have tried before, but I'd highly recommend Pocket Casts. I've been using this since at least 2014 (looking at a support chain that I had opened) and can't imagine losing the features they've got. It's shifted owners a few times and their mobile apps are now open source should you be interested in that.
Worth noting that in October they're increasing their annual subscription price from $9.99 to $39.99, which is when I'll be finding another podcast app. I love Pocket Casts but it doesn't provide $40 worth of functionality for me.
antennapod
Yea, using their app online is worth $10 a year, but $40? For what's basically a front end? They are out of their mind.
Do you know if you can export your podcasts from Pocket casts?
I'm not sure what you would export, just your listening history and favorites? Pocket Casts doesn't host the actual audio files themselves, those are all available elsewhere online. I doubt there's an easy way to port your existing subscriptions and such to another app, that would require them all to use a standard format for that data and there's not really any incentive for that.
Yea, I figured out how to export it, but it doesn export what episodes I've.listened to, so I have to go back through my lists and transfer that (I like listening to back catalogs of my favorite podcasts.
I actually paid for the lifetime app membership a long time ago, so luckily this won't impact that, but not paying $40usd for just desktop use.
Does Antenna have a desktop app?
Not as far as I know. You would have to use a desktop client that syncs with gPodder... like gPodder
Didn't know that was a thing! Thanks for the link.
Is pocket casts usable on pc? The "pocket" part of the name makes me think no, but I used Google podcast to listen to stuff on my pc primarily. It's a pain to track podcasts I want to listen to and am actively listening to because every podcast company has their own website.
They have a website version but it's a paid offering, with it being part of a subscription now. It used to be a one-off purchase. Regardless, I haven't used it before.
Podcasts didn't work with SD cards, yt music does, can't say I'll miss it.
What value would oss bring here when it's the content that matters most? I'm actually really interested to know because I too really liked this app/service.
Podcasts are (generally, Spotify excluded) on an open standard. They're just RSS feeds. So, the content can be aggregated by anyone. So it's primarily the UI that will be different between different podcast players.
Sure but the hosting of that content isn't something a front end can solve.
Podcasts are already hosted by a variety of independent services. Google doesn't host any podcasts, at least as far as I am aware. In this case it really is a frontend-only problem.
The RSS feed points to the already hosted files. A lot of people host podcasts on services like libsyn or podbean. I don't think you can really host podcasts on Google; maybe hacked together on drive or something.
Google isn't hosting the podcasts.
Most of them are hosted by a service offered by Spotify.
It is both funny and sad that Google has more or less trained me to never use their apps.
At this point, I purposefully don't use them because I assume they'll soon be cancelled.
About two weeks ago I thought about this in regards to google podcasts.
"Well this one will probably stick around long enough that I'll have moved on by the time google shuts it down. They don't even host the episodes anyway. They source the metadata and audio files from elsewhere. All they really host is my listening history, queue, and subscriptions. Certainly this is less likely to get the axe anytime soon."
*two weeks later*
It really does suck though. I genuinely like the google podcasts app/website. Best one I've found so far that works how I like my apps/services to work.
Man I recently switched from podcast addict after years because podcast addict put an annoying nag about permissions changes in Android, plus I always had issues with the playlist/queuing. Guess I'll go back to it soon
It's so wild that Google would rather weaken their own brand than just keep a secondary frontend around. It would require minimal maintenance cost (given the size of their company, just have 1-2 fulltime devs working on keeping it in shape and updated), and it could access the exact same backend as the Youtube Music app.
Weird.
And don't misunderstand me, I really don't like Google Podcasts for podcasts, but I also admit that having a separate app for podcasts is superior, as you listen to them very differently than you listen to music. Spotify amiably shows how their recommendation algorithms absolutely cannot handle someone listening to both, anyways.
They probably want to monetize on podcasts too, in the same way they do on videos and music. At the moment, Google Podcast is completely free and ad-free.
I actually don't think it's a bad decision. I think merging it with YouTube is a good thing. They could integrate tightly with YouTube since they already added a "podcast" feature and you could seemlessly switch between Video and Audio.
Sooner or later I expected that to happen.
But to a user, what would the benefit be? Would the UI also change depending on content played to expose the controls specialized for each type of media?
You could listen to an epsiode on YouTube then pause and listen to it on YouTube music.
They already kinda do that on YouTube (with YouTube premium). When you watch a music video, you have music controls in the normal YouTube app and a button to switch to YouTube music
Tbh, they should rather make a new app called "YouTube Podcasts)
I don't know how anyone on Android uses Spotify. That app is such dogshit.
Also rip forever Google play music
Honestly I think YouTube music is finally at parity with Google music. I'd prefer some of the fluff to go away (e.g. the comments, samples, & podcasts) but overall it's gotten much better.
Can I upload my entire 600gb+ library to it for free and access it anywhere anytime?
Auto cache? Redownload so it acts as a backup?
I think you know the answer to that. That was a pretty spectacular feature that I never thought was going to last. Regardless of branding. Hopefully you uploaded your music and transferred it over to YouTube music before the deadline.
Yea I think all my music is on there, but the app is such garbage and unnavigable, I bought a 1tb micro SD card and said fuck that shit.
It is not an intuitive app to navigate. I would 100% rather have Google music but YouTube music isn't as horrible as it used to be. That's not a ringing endorsement but I'm glad it isn't still a dumpster fire
Word I might check out out again.
You must not know many Android users then. Almost all the android users I know (like 90% of them) use spotify. And I think all the apple users I know use it.
I know many Android users who use it and I don't know why. Apple music and Tidal music is better in every way.
The Spotify app is so bad it's embarrassing.
So first you say you don't know any Android users that use Spotify, now you're saying you know many Android users that use Spotify.... so which is it?
Naw dude learn to read. I said I don't know how people use it. I didnt say I don't know anyone.
Nice edit, bro.
Yeh it's dogshit but so is apple music.
The desktop apps suck but on mobile it’s the best music streaming service there is, imo. It has a few features I‘d like it to add but other services don’t have some key features that are much more important to me
I only found and started using this app a couple of months ago wouldn't have imagined it was on its way out
Typical Google
I miss google play music. Never really liked youtube music
I 100% understand what you mean. I still have a hard time trusting Google with their services and host my own RSS reader (TT-RSS) and music (Plex & Plexamp), but I do use YTM for finding new music as well as backing up my personal music like I did with GPM. Not a shill either, but YTM is not a bad product.
I never really used their Podcast app as I assumed it would be closed at some point (and here we are) and really enjoy Pocket Casts. If that ever shuts down, I'll just use GPodder and roll my own hosting for yet another service. I guess in the end, Google has taught me to be self reliant lol
It wasn't good. Used it a few times and I really didn't like it.
PocketCasts and AntennaPod are wayy better
Does anyone know why they shut it down? The replacement was worse on every single account. And by such a significant amount too.
2 reasons, but the main one is that they had to get separate individual licenses for songs or something and that was likely minimally cutting into their absolutely insane profits, but with YouTube music it's still just YouTube so only one is needed.. idk that's what I read on Reddit a couple years ago. The other is that their workplace culture is completely fucked and they push new apps instead of updating the old ones.
I'm not saying they should be like apple but sometimes seeing the killed by google list grow is frustrating when you look back and were an active user of a bunch of the things
I think you underestimate how expensive licensing music is. As an example, the vast majority of Spotify's revenue goes to paying licensing fees and is most of the reason they're wildly unprofitable
YouTube music is great, give it a go
i bet they discontinue youtube-music in 2026 by selling it to sony
google discontinued something? shocking
That's just the Google way... still didn't get over the RSS reader disaster... Anyways, I tried the app a couple of times: it's not a great app for listening to podcasts. If you like podcasts, try Antennapod, Pocket Casts or Podcast Addict (and please stay away from Spotify).
In the end: good riddance.
AntennaPod is the best.
Hell yeah, AntennaPod is so good. It's better better than most paid and ad supported alternatives I've tried and the best part it's FOSS.
https://www.f-droid.org/packages/de.danoeh.antennapod/
Antennapod + Gpoddersync FTW
One use for RSS feeds is to distribute podcasts to multiple apps. I believe most podcasts apps are just RSS readers combined with an audio player.
Using IFTTT to send starred RSS items to pocket is really useful even still!
I use RSS to help decide if an item is worth reading or not based on the title
Why did you say "stay away from Spotify"?
Because Spotify uses (not their own) podcasts to generate revenue, but doesn't pay the creators.
Every podcast does that.
Also they host many podcasts and have their own advertising service which can insert ads dynamic ads into the podcast from which the Podcaster is profiting too
Source: trust me bro
You might actually hear a podcast host say that if you listen to enough podcasts. I have heard it in the Bits und so podcast, directly from the host.
Also, Spotify bought their own studio (Gimlet), for that they are obviously paying the creators.
Also, there is this wonderful specialty toy, I think it is called Google. You can search for things and find answers to urgent questions, all by yourself.
So it actually does pay the creators.
It pays the creator if the creator offers pay to view content. So technically, it takes money from the creator's subscribers.
Such a bad idea. Podcasts seek forward and interface actually worked. Zero chance the migration to YouTube is smooth.
I use YTM exclusively for music streaming. The interface has been getting worse over time, but the podcasts integration is pure dogshit and they should be embarrassed. Basically it's a subscription to a youtube channel in the back-end and they might add RSS support some day in the far future. Their only focus now is on allowing creators to add an RSS feed for ingestion, not for users to do the same.
This is a moronic idea, and Google is ruining one of their only good app experiences.
Navigating any playlists you created now requires clicking on the library at the bottom, then playlist at them top. I'm also a GPM refugee and the YouTube music app is a shit choice for podcasts.
Sure, a video app makes much more sense for podcast delivery!
Many podcasts have a video component, so it actually does if implemented correctly.
Honestly, podcasts on YouTube are better if you have sponsorblock
They are mimicking Spotify. How they have music and podcasts built into one app.
Sure they will integrate YTM into YT, using just a tab to switch.
They already do this on my google TV. The YTM app just opens YT with a music tab. Won’t be long before the mobile apps follow.
Spent a solid hour trying apps to switch to. Found podcast republic which does everything I want with tons of customisation and a one time payment to ditch the ads. Love it.
Been using Podcast Republic forever now. (~7 years)
The developer did so much during the time. It allows you to do so much.
I've been using PocketCasts for years but I've been thinking about jumping ship. I'm going to give republic a shot. Thanks
I'm grandfathered in with lifetime premium on PocketCasts which makes it difficult to consider jumping ship.
I didn't even know they have a subscription now, bought the app with reward points probably 5+ years ago
Try Podcast Republic and Podcast Addict, both are awesome.
PA is more for power users.
PR is more for regular users.
Tried both and settled with AntennaPod when there were rumours of Google Podcasts shutting down a few months ago.
I now value more export/import features. I also enjoyed AntennaPod's queue options more.
Antennapod rocks as well.
I wasn't able to settle with it for some minor reason I can't recall, but it was a great app.
Might try it, does it have skip silence, per cast playback speeds and configurable start and ending skips?
Yep, I don't use all of those features so I had a quick look and yes it has all of those.
Thanks for checking that man you're the best. I'll definitely get some podcasts transferred over and try it out after work tonight
Alternative recommendations?
I've been quite happy with antennapod. Discovery is kind of a pain in the ass, but it's open source, and management and playback have been solid.
I second all of this. I started using AntennaPod a couple months ago and like it. It handles "chapters" in podcasts better, too. Searching is fiddly though.
How's migration to a new phone? That's what caused me to leave podcast addict, it was so bad.
You have various options to export the data. One of those exports subscriptions, listened episodes and queue to another device. I have used it several times and it works well.
What issues do you have with podcast addict? I just recently migrated to it and so far it seems fine
I've been migrating seamlessly for years using PA
I got a new phone, copying the data over was a terrible experience and ended up failing. Specifically, copying over downloaded podcasts.
It's great and the main reason I first started using it. There is a database export and import option which transfers nearly everything. It transfers subscriptions, settings, history, etc. I think the only thing that doesn't transfer is downloaded episodes.
PocketCast is also OpenSource. Today I switched over and it's also pretty good.
I honestly can't really decide which one I find better. Try them out for yourself.
Biggest issue with pocket casts is it cannot deal with authenticated feeds.
I for example subscribed to Darknet Diaries on Patreon and the bonus episodes do work.
I don't listen to more premium podcasts. I just hate that you can't manually update the URL so far.
Also the "time listed" stats on AntennaPod are way superior, but PocketCats syncs between devices and has a web/desktop client.
yea, they did get patreon exclusive feeds working, but any other don't.
I just don't like that everything has to go through them.
used to be a big pocketcasts fan, but I dislike being completely dependent on their servers.
Pocket Casts
AntennaPod on Android and Overcast on iOS have been my go-to options.
For Android: It depends on your needs. For better user experience I'd say PocketCasts. For best customization Podcast Republic, Podcast Addict. AntennaPod was for a while the only open source project, PocketCasts is now open source too. If that matters to you, go with those. I like AntennaPod, specifically the sleep timer. However it has some downsides: discovery / search sucks and it's hard to access the queue quickly if your phone uses gesture navigation.
For iOS: pocket casts, overcast
Recently learned you can disable just the left back gesture. Amazing quality-of-life improvement.
Antenna pod.
Try Antennapod
Podcast Addict
@ocassionallyaduck @binarybomb Migration is migraine
It's been super easy the two times I've done it.
Excellent app
@binarybomb @fne8w2ah A long time ago I used Pocketcasts which is very good but not open source.
FOSS options are AntennaPod or Podverse depending on your needs.
AntennaPod is very popular but Podverse is newer and rapidly developing and it includes a great web player. I'm using Podverse currently, which works with or without an account.
You could also use any RSS reader, and just use Podverse to search and find podcast feeds to subscribe to.
I like Podbean.
PodcastGuru. Sounds cheesy, but I really like it.
Goad I never jumped onboard.
Podcast Addict for the win
In my case Pocket Casts, but yes.
Another killedbygoogle
Man they really want me to switch to Spotify
Spotify sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as YouTube music does. I lost a few tracks in the conversion but it works so much better that it was worth it.
I ended up hitting YTM, then Spotify, then settled on Tidal after Google Play Music shut down. Nothing beats what GPM had
Awww for fuck's sake. Why do they always cancel the good apps???
Google podcast is an awful app (also it was pretty expected that they will kill Google podcasts and replace it with YouTube music since that was hinted in the last few years)
That's your opinion. I really like that app.
Why? There are so many better podcast player out there
Such as?
edit: nvm the next comment string answered my question
I been using itfor for years realy loved the layout.
Same. And now the history of what I've listened to will be gone 😕
You can grab it via https://takeout.google.com/
Why do they keep doing this? Google reader was so damn good.
This sucks. I use it a lot. I picked it over other apps for a reason. Don't make me change my habits!
Laaaaaaaaaaaaaame.
How hard is it to keep one brand associated with the one thing they do well? I'd understand it if you only have one brand your trying to expand, like Spotify starting to add video content. But when Google own a wide range of apps each with their own brand and identity, they really don't need to get everyone in one place like YouTube.
YouTube for me will always be about short video. When they stopped letting my buy movies on Google play, I didn't start using YouTube and just use Amazon now. When they stopped music, I didn't start to use YouTube music and stuck with Spotify. And now they are stopping Podcasts, I won't move to YouTube. I'm not that bothered but I don't see why they keep doing it, they must hemorrhage users every time and surely the value of YouTube with all these extra features etc is still less than the potential sum of the original parts.
Litetally no podcast app I've tried has a search feature a tenth as good. I use antenna pod but still kept google podcast for its search feature.
PocketCast?
2 of the original big 4 for us podcast folks down! Stitcher what? A month ago?
Stitcher died?? I hadn't even heard that news.
Yeah like 1-2mo ago. Very recent
I have never used it. Always used Podcast Addict for podcasts. Spotify made it all clunky
At least from everything I've read they've thought about migration and will actually let you use RSS, I was worried they weren't going to add that functionality to youtube music
Hopefully it will be better for when it comes to Android Auto, as GPM is my go to in the car.
@fne8w2ah IMO there is little reason to use a big platform for listening to podcasts. I would recommend https://podverse.fm/ or just any old RSS reader which doesn't need any account nor is in any danger of being shut down ever.
Such a shame
Finally. That's exactly what I expected. The app hasn't been updated for years, they removed the Google podcast widget on the Google search and added a "Podcast" category to YouTube.