To strengthen its distribution of podcasts, YouTube has just discreetly opened a page dedicated to this form of audio content. Accessible only to certain users for the moment, it bodes well for the platform’s ambitions in this area.
It is well known, everything always ends on Youtube. This has been the case with videos for a long time – you can find everything there, including movies and TV shows ! –, but also for audio content, and in particular music albums, which are found there in full, alongside pirated recordings. And it’s not over because Google seems to be more and more interested in podcasts. Thus, despite the fact that Google’s streaming platform is not particularly invested in this area, unlike its competitors, a study by Cumulus last May revealed that the platform already outperformed Apple Podcasts in practice and Spotify. Enough to give ideas to go further by giving it more importance, to become once again essential. And that’s precisely what seems to be happening, with the page dedicated to podcasts that YouTube has just quietly set up.
Podcasts: increasingly popular audio content
Although they have been around for a long time, podcasts have become very fashionable in recent years, especially among young people. It must be said that these digital audio contents – it is also available in video format – can be listened to absolutely everywhere and anywhere when thanks to RSS feed technology, whether on computers or mobile devices. They therefore correspond perfectly to our current lifestyle. VSis a bit like the sound equivalent of TV series that can be found on replay or in video-on-demand services (SVOD) like Netflix, Disney+ and AmazonPrime Video : we listen to them by episode, on demand, when we want, thanks to specialized platforms.
Apple was the first tech giant to take notice when it launched Apple Podcasts in 2005. In 2019, it was the turn of Spotify to enter this market by acquiring studios, technology and successful agreements with stars like Joe Rogan and Alex Cooper. Recently, the audio platform has even started to modify its home screen, which will distinguish music from podcasts, in order to allow better navigation and more discoveries. However, despite these initiatives, it is good Youtube which retains the monopoly, and the company intends to devote more resources to it.
Youtube Podcasts: a new dimension for the streaming platform
Google has already sniffed out the public’s interest in this form of audio content. Since 2018, the Internet giant has already been offering its own podcast app, Google Podcasts, available on both Android and iOS. But this time, it is with his YouTube platform that he intends to go further. As noticed 9to5Google, Youtube quietly set up a Podcasts category at the end of July in order to attract more users’ attention to this format. It features trending shows and channels that already have millions of subscribers, like the podcast H3 or the Logan Paul podcast. This category is available on Youtube.com/podcasts or via the Explore page – in the app or browser, just below of Welcome – where is a new tab Podcasts. It’s right next to the tabs Trending, Music, Movies & Shows, In Live, Games, News, Sports, Learning and fashion and beauty.
If the Podcasts page seems online for a few weeks, it is currently becoming accessible to a wider audience – although only the United States is currently concerned. Consequently, the podcasters should receive more visibility, and therefore attract a new audience. Enough to encourage them to publish more of their work on the platform. Available on both desktop and mobile web, the video giant’s Podcasts page is pretty rudimentary so far. It comes in the form of carousels, which can be expanded via ‘View All’, with ‘Popular Episodes’, ‘Popular Podcast Playlists’, ‘Recommended’ and ‘Popular Podcast Creators’. The rest of the page contains links to different categories: comedy, true crime, sports, music and television and film. But, even in its still embryonic form and although its future is still unclear, this new YouTube feature could well pose a serious threat to Apple and Spotify, and ensure the video giant’s hegemony in this field – even if it means absorbing Google Podcasts.