How hard is it to keep one brand associated with the one thing they do well? I’d understand it if you only have one brand your trying to expand, like Spotify starting to add video content. But when Google own a wide range of apps each with their own brand and identity, they really don’t need to get everyone in one place like YouTube.
YouTube for me will always be about short video. When they stopped letting my buy movies on Google play, I didn’t start using YouTube and just use Amazon now. When they stopped music, I didn’t start to use YouTube music and stuck with Spotify. And now they are stopping Podcasts, I won’t move to YouTube. I’m not that bothered but I don’t see why they keep doing it, they must hemorrhage users every time and surely the value of YouTube with all these extra features etc is still less than the potential sum of the original parts.
@fne8w2ah IMO there is little reason to use a big platform for listening to podcasts. I would recommend https://podverse.fm/ or just any old RSS reader which doesn't need any account nor is in any danger of being shut down ever.
About two weeks ago I thought about this in regards to google podcasts.
“Well this one will probably stick around long enough that I’ll have moved on by the time google shuts it down. They don’t even host the episodes anyway. They source the metadata and audio files from elsewhere. All they really host is my listening history, queue, and subscriptions. Certainly this is less likely to get the axe anytime soon.”
two weeks later
It really does suck though. I genuinely like the google podcasts app/website. Best one I’ve found so far that works how I like my apps/services to work.
Man I recently switched from podcast addict after years because podcast addict put an annoying nag about permissions changes in Android, plus I always had issues with the playlist/queuing. Guess I’ll go back to it soon
GPM was dope, no two ways about it. I was sad when it closed.
But after moving over to YTM and using it for years, I like the change. It lets me stream music, just like GPM. It lets me play local files and put them in playlists just like GPM. And it lets me put more underground music on my playlists that are uploaded to YouTube, unlike GPM.
The UI and everything you interact with is way better than GPM too.
Not trying to be a Google shill, but I actually love YTM. Podcasts coming just combines two apps I used into one.
I 100% understand what you mean. I still have a hard time trusting Google with their services and host my own RSS reader (TT-RSS) and music (Plex & Plexamp), but I do use YTM for finding new music as well as backing up my personal music like I did with GPM. Not a shill either, but YTM is not a bad product.
I never really used their Podcast app as I assumed it would be closed at some point (and here we are) and really enjoy Pocket Casts. If that ever shuts down, I’ll just use GPodder and roll my own hosting for yet another service. I guess in the end, Google has taught me to be self reliant lol
2 reasons, but the main one is that they had to get separate individual licenses for songs or something and that was likely minimally cutting into their absolutely insane profits, but with YouTube music it’s still just YouTube so only one is needed… idk that’s what I read on Reddit a couple years ago. The other is that their workplace culture is completely fucked and they push new apps instead of updating the old ones.
I’m not saying they should be like apple but sometimes seeing the killed by google list grow is frustrating when you look back and were an active user of a bunch of the things
I think you underestimate how expensive licensing music is. As an example, the vast majority of Spotify’s revenue goes to paying licensing fees and is most of the reason they’re wildly unprofitable
Spent a solid hour trying apps to switch to. Found podcast republic which does everything I want with tons of customisation and a one time payment to ditch the ads. Love it.
They pushed so hard for youtube music, which is nowhere near as good as play music was (had a subscription there…amazing little app, if you even remember that), that I forgot completely about Google podcasts. Spotify really marketed its podcast feature too well so I used that instead.
The desktop apps suck but on mobile it’s the best music streaming service there is, imo. It has a few features I‘d like it to add but other services don’t have some key features that are much more important to me
Honestly I think YouTube music is finally at parity with Google music. I’d prefer some of the fluff to go away (e.g. the comments, samples, & podcasts) but overall it’s gotten much better.
I think you know the answer to that. That was a pretty spectacular feature that I never thought was going to last. Regardless of branding. Hopefully you uploaded your music and transferred it over to YouTube music before the deadline.
It is not an intuitive app to navigate. I would 100% rather have Google music but YouTube music isn’t as horrible as it used to be. That’s not a ringing endorsement but I’m glad it isn’t still a dumpster fire
You must not know many Android users then. Almost all the android users I know (like 90% of them) use spotify. And I think all the apple users I know use it.
That’s just the Google way… still didn’t get over the RSS reader disaster… Anyways, I tried the app a couple of times: it’s not a great app for listening to podcasts. If you like podcasts, try Antennapod, Pocket Casts or Podcast Addict (and please stay away from Spotify).
I never found a single use for RSS because I always found myself just going to the site anyway to read the full thing because 99.999999999% of RSS feeds are trash and it’s easier to just page through the site itself anyway. Podcasts… it feels like a massive waste of time listening to someone discussing something, usually poorly, with tons of exposition, diversions, and other BS. I’d rather just read something instead.
Also, there is this wonderful specialty toy, I think it is called Google. You can search for things and find answers to urgent questions, all by yourself.
Also they host many podcasts and have their own advertising service which can insert ads dynamic ads into the podcast from which the Podcaster is profiting too
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