YouTube is strengthening its commitment to hosting podcasts on its platform. During the Podcast Movement conference, YouTube’s product lead, Steve McLendon, revealed that the platform will soon introduce support for RSS uploads for podcasters by the year’s end. This new feature, which was under invitation-only beta testing, marks a significant development in YouTube’s podcast strategy.
Furthermore, YouTube has confirmed its plans to incorporate podcast support into YouTube Music by the end of the year. While podcasts were initially introduced on YouTube Music for users in the U.S. across various platforms, including iOS, Android, and the web, the expansion to other markets had not yet occurred.
During the same event, the company unveiled its plans to empower users with the capability to include RSS feeds, including private ones, in their library on YouTube Music. This strategic move positions YouTube Music as a stronger contender against dedicated podcast applications such as Apple Podcasts and Overcast. Notably, this feature also places YouTube Music ahead of Spotify in terms of accommodating private RSS feeds.
Interestingly, Spotify stands as the sole major podcast application that has yet to embrace this functionality. Instead, it guides users to its proprietary podcast subscriptions. However, in practice, many users choose to subscribe through other means to access private content and then manually integrate those feeds into their preferred podcast players. Recently, Spotify made a partial concession on this matter by partnering with Patreon, a widely-used platform among podcasters. This collaboration allows fans to access exclusive Patreon feeds within Spotify’s application.
YouTube has been steadily advancing its podcast aspirations for a while now. Notably, it integrated a dedicated podcast homepage into its main navigation options on the video platform last year. Furthermore, plans were unveiled to incorporate audio ads into podcasts marketed by Google and its partners.
In a concurrent move, while YouTube extends its podcast presence by adopting RSS feeds, Spotify is encroaching on YouTube’s domain by facilitating video podcasts. Towards the end of the previous year, Spotify broadened the availability of its video podcast publishing tools to creators globally. Initially introduced for Spotify Originals and specific shows like the exclusive “Call Her Daddy,” this expansion marked Spotify’s venture into video podcasting.
In relation to YouTube’s podcast-related developments, Triton Digital announced the integration of YouTube podcasts into Triton’s Podcast Metrics. This integration empowers publishers to access metrics for both YouTube videos and audio podcast episodes within the same platform.
