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.
> 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.
benefit of google podcasts compared to antennapod is that with google podcasts I can start a podcast on one device and later continue where I left off on another device (e.g. listen on mobile then switch to desktop).
I loved Google Play music. Used it for years. Switched to Spotify when they shut it down and I don't particularly like Spotify, but I have enough custom playlists on there now I'm probably not going to switch unless something forces me to
100% agreed. I was a paying customer for years, but finally switched to Apple Music when Google shut it down. A significant downgrade, IMO, but not as bad as YouTube Music at the time.
This is what really annoys me. For certain there will be people at g noticing this constant bouncing about so that some pointless product manager can get their promotion and bonus. They are noticing the damage this does to them. And it's even possible they are highlighting it. But they are completely unable to do anything about it.
Bingo. This is the reason. The higherups that approve promos are mostly tech-illiterate, so if you're a manager that oversees maintenance/fix work that isn't new and shiny and sexy and dressed up with marketing, you're never getting promoted and neither are your reports.
Tbh I think the moves make sense to a certain degree. Users like apps focused on specific experiences so if a user group is big enough or growing enough it makes sense to cater to that. Podcasts were briefly looking promising so spinning them off into a separate product probably seemed like an easy way of acquiring users who only cared about podcasts. Now it's the present though and it turns out podcast momentum was a shortlived trend in terms of commercial relevance and that a completely separate app is a waste of resources. Sorry to be harsh to the podcast fans but in reality I'm amazed they even preserved them at all when there's no shortage of podcast content published to YouTube already because of its reach. If people are already cross-promoting that much anyway you may as well just merge them over.
Full circle is splitting it off again to Google Listen. Either way I wanted to migrate to podcasts for a couple years but they never had opml support. I just hope they might take it slightly more serious now, add some playlists and transcription since it's part of youtube. But knowing Google.
Google executive leaders must have been worried that users might start trusting Google's apps again, so hatched this plan to maintain Google's well-known reputation.
When looking at business leaders, it's best to assume scary competence and that they always know what they're doing. After all, if they weren't impossibly better than us mere mortals, why would the market have granted them such high-paid CEO jobs?
The way they keep killing apps (affects android) and the way they killed their line of pixel laptops is the primary reason why I will not be migrating off of the iPhone/Mac continuity combo anytime soon. I really like when my apps and services don’t get canceled and when a lot of them just kinda work consistently across the two computers I use most. Can’t get that from google and Microsoft gave up on phones so…
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-free, and has desktop web+native phone app support like Google Podcasts.
I guess I have to have to pay _other_ subscription now :/. Will try YouTube Music but I'm quite sure will not like it.
Note aside: I have YouTube Premium subscription for the ad-free experience, and has YouTube Music included, but to listen to music I prefer Spotify Premium _only_ because has a desktop app, I just can't have Spotify on my browser tabs, and since I use Firefox I can't install the pwa-webapp. If I can have installed the desktop app/pwa-webapp I'm sure I will dich Spotify for sure. Sorry for the unrelated rant but I just remember that.
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.
I once tapped on a podcast link that someone sent me that opened in Spotify. I was haunted by podcast recommendations for months, if not years afterwards. I honestly wouldn't care if there was a completely separate tab in the app that didn't influence recommendations.
I’ve suffered through it just like you. I recently reinstalled Overcast after using Castro for quite a while. But, I’m still not completely satisfied with any of these apps.
I actually prefer that Spotify have both podcasts and music in their app. I would be more annoyed if I had to use a separate app for the two use cases. In my view, both are audio entertainment, so it makes sense. I can see how this would annoy some people though.
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.
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.
Sure, I can answer your question :) Tes, I tried to use YouTube Music with Chrome since it supports PWA installation, but it wasn't a good experience, the browser get synced with my Google Account and I don't like it, also my keyboard keys to change volume and tracks didn't work (with the Spotify app they work), maybe now they work, I know that PWA support in Chromium was pushed and evolving a lot recently.
Maybe I should try other chromium-based browser just for that, but also don't feel to have logged in my Google Account in other browser (if YTM has a desktop native app will be similar haha but IDK), hope Firefox desktop at some point support PWA installations. And maybe I'm old, but for products that I interact all day (spotify, figma, slack) I just like native desktop apps detached from browsers, even if they are Electron apps which are essentially a webapp wrapper.
About the Overcast suggestion, I'm a Windows/Ubuntu/Android person, I guess Overcast isn't for me, but I'm willing to pay $10/year for a product like Google Podcasts, I will look for products soon.
Also, Google Podcasts is free and ad-free, I never even see a promoted podcasts or something like that. But than can be one reason why Google shut it down. Google Keep is similar, simple, free and ad-free, I love it, hope they don't shut it down!
HN moderators: why was title changed from more accurate "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024 with listeners migrated to YouTube Music" to misleading "Google Podcasts to shut down in 2024" ?
"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 HN title has always been the current one, nobody changed anything here. When I wrote the title, I was actually about to post another link (https://www.androidpolice.com/google-podcasts-discontinued-a...), but I would rather not write “will die in” (as used in the headline of Android Police), so I went for “to shut down in”.
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.
I love the balance between simplicity and utility. Ability to download podcasts for later, queue them up into a playlist, cast to a device, easily search through thousands of existing podcasts but able to add the RSS if needed, timeline for recent podcast episodes, etc
Yepp. Google Podcasts hit the right spot in terms of auto playing my next podcast that I don't have with other apps I've used. Managing all podcasts across devices made switching phones seamless. I'll actually miss it.
But I've wanted to switch to a more open option so I'll have to figure those things out elsewhere.
Google drastically needs portfolio management. The qualifications for this position should be very low, some very basic common sense would do.
I suppose they can get away with all of this because the concept of competing for a customer doesn't really exist at Google. They can toy around without any consequences because they have a money printer.
Also, at Google's current size, anything producing less than 1B in revenue per month is frankly not that interesting. Small stuff.
I think part of the problem is, almost all their products have been free... launched as free and remained free without clear monetization plan, except to grow userbase.
There was no strong disincentive for pulling the plug on products without paying customers.
For the past few years, they've been trying to 'correct' that and in the process pissing everybody off.
The state of podcasting software is kind of sad now. The initial concept behind podcasts with RSS feeds was so neat and freeing, but podcasts have been reigned into private services due to user convenience and existing market share for audio. Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds. There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though, continuing to push us into private apps.
I guess I'm not helping but I literally can't for many podcasts now.
> There are just so many podcasts that aren't available via an RSS feed anymore though
If I need a proprietary app to access a show's feed, then IMHO it should not be considered a podcast (and I refuse to listen to it).
That being said, I remain cautiously optimistic about the podcasting ecosystem. A huge number of high-quality shows remain freely available (and many shows sustain an independent revenue stream). Despite the creeping centralization, podcasting still feels very independent when compared to things like Youtube/Tiktok.
Huh? I use Apple Podcasts, and used Google Podcasts before I switched to iPhone. Haven't seen an issue like that. Everything I care about seems to be available on everything, and it's easy to add RSS feeds (e.g. from Patreon) in both apps. Maybe you should try using a less hostile app?
That doesn't refute the original point, though. Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts are products that embrace the open podcasting model. Spotify and Youtube Music do not, and these are the products that the original comment is referring to, where you are not able to add a subscription using an RSS feed.
> Having Spotify handle podcast management for me is great and it's handy but I would much rather have an agnostic app with inputs for RSS feeds.
What about the Spotify app keeps you using it, even though (1) they're a parasitoid on the open podcasting ecosystem and (2) have successfully destroyed the original, open meanings of "podcast" and "podcasting"?
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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/
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.
YT Music is absolute garbage for anyone who cares about music. It's impossible to manage a library.
When looking at business leaders, it's best to assume scary competence and that they always know what they're doing. After all, if they weren't impossibly better than us mere mortals, why would the market have granted them such high-paid CEO jobs?
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-free, and has desktop web+native phone app support like Google Podcasts.
I guess I have to have to pay _other_ subscription now :/. Will try YouTube Music but I'm quite sure will not like it.
Note aside: I have YouTube Premium subscription for the ad-free experience, and has YouTube Music included, but to listen to music I prefer Spotify Premium _only_ because has a desktop app, I just can't have Spotify on my browser tabs, and since I use Firefox I can't install the pwa-webapp. If I can have installed the desktop app/pwa-webapp I'm sure I will dich Spotify for sure. Sorry for the unrelated rant but I just remember that.
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.
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.
Maybe I should try other chromium-based browser just for that, but also don't feel to have logged in my Google Account in other browser (if YTM has a desktop native app will be similar haha but IDK), hope Firefox desktop at some point support PWA installations. And maybe I'm old, but for products that I interact all day (spotify, figma, slack) I just like native desktop apps detached from browsers, even if they are Electron apps which are essentially a webapp wrapper.
About the Overcast suggestion, I'm a Windows/Ubuntu/Android person, I guess Overcast isn't for me, but I'm willing to pay $10/year for a product like Google Podcasts, I will look for products soon.
Also, Google Podcasts is free and ad-free, I never even see a promoted podcasts or something like that. But than can be one reason why Google shut it down. Google Keep is similar, simple, free and ad-free, I love it, hope they don't shut it down!
Dead Comment
It sounds like you just want to rant?
With all due respect, it's probably relevant to other people.
Deleted Comment
But I've wanted to switch to a more open option so I'll have to figure those things out elsewhere.
I suppose they can get away with all of this because the concept of competing for a customer doesn't really exist at Google. They can toy around without any consequences because they have a money printer.
Also, at Google's current size, anything producing less than 1B in revenue per month is frankly not that interesting. Small stuff.
There was no strong disincentive for pulling the plug on products without paying customers.
For the past few years, they've been trying to 'correct' that and in the process pissing everybody off.
I guess I'm not helping but I literally can't for many podcasts now.
If I need a proprietary app to access a show's feed, then IMHO it should not be considered a podcast (and I refuse to listen to it).
That being said, I remain cautiously optimistic about the podcasting ecosystem. A huge number of high-quality shows remain freely available (and many shows sustain an independent revenue stream). Despite the creeping centralization, podcasting still feels very independent when compared to things like Youtube/Tiktok.
> Maybe you should try using a less hostile app?
Great advice.
What about the Spotify app keeps you using it, even though (1) they're a parasitoid on the open podcasting ecosystem and (2) have successfully destroyed the original, open meanings of "podcast" and "podcasting"?