I guess most that will use YouTube music will see it as a convenience type thing. If I was in say android auto and my default search is on YouTube music being able to have it just play the podcast I was looking for would be very convenient.
Google is chasing the “ease of use aspect”. A mobile OS has to have a notes app, a mail app, a chat app (in Google’s case abundance of chat apps) and a podcast app. Google can track your personal podcast preferences, listening habits, etc.
Personally, I would not choose to use any default Google app. There are lots of better alternatives.
Listening to podcasts on closed source, corporate media platforms like Spotify and YouTube are the worst things you can do for podcasting. Podcasting has always been an open ecosystem built on old school technologies and Spotify, iHeartMedia, and YouTube are trying to insert themselves in order to create an additional Chokepoint in the media ecosystem. Even worse, because podcasts are usually freely available it is a great way to get people who subscribe to streaming services to spend their time streaming something the service doesn’t have to pay per stream for, unlike music
If you felt a bit disappointed when YouTube Music only released podcasts in the United States at launch, you’re in for a treat as the feature is finally coming to international markets.
Canada Brazil
International for the US but hardly international for anyone else further than a few thousand kilometres away. Wake me when it launches in Australia lol
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