YouTube Musichas grown leaps and bounds over the past few years. However, the gradual introduction of podcasts on the platform meant that there was no place left for Google Podcasts. ASeptember announcementconfirmed the inevitable, with Google later revealing that Podcasts would be effectively replaced by YouTube Musicby April 2024. In the meantime, people will have to consider migration plans to port over their content to YouTube Music. Google is now kickstarting that process by letting listeners in the US export their subscriptions from the Podcasts app onto YouTube Music.
Starting today, listeners in the US will find theExport subscriptionsbanner on top of the Google Podcasts web or mobile app (pictured below). From here, it’s as simple as selectingExportunderExport to YouTube Musicand then tappingTransferon YouTube Music, YouTube said in asupport page postandvia X. The team said it would update the thread with more information, such as when other countries gain support for this migration tool.
The newly surfaced banner in the Google Podcasts app
YouTube says that some exported content may not appear on YouTube Music, with listeners finding a “Content is unavailable” message in this scenario. We hope this is remedied by April 2024, when the migration to YouTube Music is expected to be complete. Meanwhile, listeners would be able to shift their subscriptions until July 2024, per YouTube. We expect YouTube to open up the podcast migration tool to more parts of the world in the coming weeks and months.
It only takes a few taps to start migrating your content over to YouTube Music
People always have the option to add a podcast using its RSS feed link, a feature that was in developmentnot too long ago. Lastly, Google says you can use a servicelike Takeoutor download the OPML file for the subscriptions if you want to lookelsewhere for podcasts.
It was pretty clear right from the start that killing off Podcasts and making YouTube Music the “centralized podcast destination” would not be a widely popular decision. One of my personal gripes with this change is the lack of separation between music and podcasts.
But with that being said, we can fully understand the reasoning behind this decision, as Google looks to compete with the likes of Spotify, which offers both music and podcasts in one app. But another major player in the podcasts business, Apple, continues to keep its music and podcasts separate, so maybe there is some merit in not bundling them in the same app/service. It will be interesting to see if this new change will stand the test of time or join thelong list of productsthat have been unceremoniously shelved by Google.
