YouTube Music will soon introduce podcasts to the application for users in the US.
Kai Chuk, YouTube’s head of podcasting, announced on Thursday that podcasts will soon be available on YouTube Music, reports TechCrunch.
“We will soon start to bring both audio and video-first podcasts to YouTube Music for users in the US, making podcasts more discoverable and accessible, with more regions to come,” a YouTube spokesperson, was quoted as saying.
“This will help make the podcasts that users already love on YouTube, available in all the places they want to listen,” the report added.
Moreover, the report said that YouTube isn’t keen on signing exclusive deals with podcasters, which has been a key strategy for Spotify.
The company appears to want to combine the experiences of listening to podcasts on video and audio so that if someone is watching a podcast on video, they can switch to audio in the middle of an episode to listen on the go.
This user experience may reduce friction, but it’s important to note that not all video podcasts can be seamlessly translated to audio, and vice versa.
Further, the report mentioned that creators will be able to upload podcasts via RSS feeds (Really Simple Syndication) directly to YouTube later this year.
Meanwhile, Google is rolling out a new feature to YouTube Music, which will allow users to create their own custom stations based on specific artists.
Users can access the new “Radio Builder” feature by navigating to the “Your music tuner” section of the YouTube Music homepage in the iOS or Android application.
