The promotion of podcasts on YouTube began with a new Podcasts page. On youtube.com/podcasts, some people will see a 404 error, while others will see a landing page with podcast content. The page was first spotted by 9to5Google over the weekend, but has apparently been slowly rolling out since last month.
The podcast page doesn’t do much right now. It shows “Popular Episodes”and “Popular Podcast Playlists”for random shows, and that’s about it. Clicking still gives you the normal YouTube interface. It’s a skimpy first step, but it’s all part of a plan that includes a major push for podcasts from Google’s media brand.
Google already has a podcasting product called “Google Podcasts”which has grown very slowly out of its search division in 2016. However, it only started to become a viable service around 2020 when the iOS app was finally launched. Before that, there was Google Play Music Podcasts from 2015 to 2020. Before that, there was Google Listen based on Google Reader, which existed from 2009 to 2012. YouTube Podcasts will be Google’s fourth podcasting platform.
The endless turnover of Google products is tiring, but YouTube is Google’s strongest media brand, so switching to YouTube podcasts makes a lot of sense. Podcasts are already on YouTube, and it would probably be helpful to help this style of content grow with more findability, an audio-only player, and a separate content feed. This custom content vertical strategy that YouTube already has will follow in the footsteps of other (to varying degrees of success) YouTube verticals such as YouTube Music, YouTube Kids, and YouTube Gaming. Assuming the company is once again following its established “vertical”strategy, we’re only seeing the start of YouTube’s podcasts.
Some of Google/YouTube’s biggest competitors, such as Spotify, Amazon and Apple, have spent millions (or billions) on podcast-related technology and exclusive deals, and YouTube is trying to keep up. YouTube recently appointed an executive “podcast host “role with a mandate to “manage the high volume of existing podcasts and relationships on the YouTube platform.”The company is also offering to cover the costs of launching popular podcasts that want to transition to video. The supposedly leaked YouTube presentation for podcast producers also promised improvements for creators, such as RSS download support, search and discovery improvements for podcasts, more analytics, and audio-only ads.