Seriously. Fewer and fewer people are using Google as a search engine anyways. I know it’s miniscule, but people are aware of Duck Duck go, and aware of Google’s spy apparatus, hence why in any survey or poll they conduct they ask the user’s opinion on how well they think Google is doing with their private data. I always score them the lowest possible.
What we should be concerned with is how many websites and third party logins use Google.
What value would oss bring here when it’s the content that matters most? I’m actually really interested to know because I too really liked this app/service.
Podcasts are (generally, Spotify excluded) on an open standard. They’re just RSS feeds. So, the content can be aggregated by anyone. So it’s primarily the UI that will be different between different podcast players.
Podcasts are already hosted by a variety of independent services. Google doesn’t host any podcasts, at least as far as I am aware. In this case it really is a frontend-only problem.
The RSS feed points to the already hosted files. A lot of people host podcasts on services like libsyn or podbean. I don’t think you can really host podcasts on Google; maybe hacked together on drive or something.
When I switched to android I was looking for Play Music to buy some new songs and it had shut down shortly after I purchased my pixel. Real disappointing since I prefer to just buy a song here and there instead of subscribing to a streaming platform.
Some artists provide a digital download on their websites but it’s uncommon. If there’s a viable alternative to Play Music I’d love to hear about it!
The first two have a good mix of major labels and indies, so are probably your best bet after Amazon/iTunes, meanwhile Bandcamp is great for more niche and potentially upcoming artists. So far as I can tell there isn’t really just one storefront to go with for buying music unless you’re okay with the aforementioned big names.
Hey thanks for the reply! I’ll be sure to check these out. I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
I tried Amazon but I was having trouble finding albums or songs to download specifically. Has to be my mistake since I see it recommended everywhere. Amazon Music is just a streaming service as far as I know?
I don’t use Amazon for music much myself, but last I did, I think the way I found the download options was to search for the albums themselves as if I was trying to buy a physical copy, which much like books and other stuff, will often present a digital purchase option when available.
I stopped using it because it just felt way clunkier to deal with, which was even before they got into music streaming if memory serves (or at least, before they had prioritized it).
I want to eventually transition from using Spotify to something like that, but my only question would be if I can save the songs locally on my device to use a music player of my choice?
All of the sites I linked to offer digital downloads of purchased music to play locally, so yes! I specifically sought these out because I prefer to have local files analogous to owning physical media, as I really don’t like perpetually renting media (i.e. subscription services).
Obviously I can’t know what you have tried before, but I’d highly recommend Pocket Casts. I’ve been using this since at least 2014 (looking at a support chain that I had opened) and can’t imagine losing the features they’ve got. It’s shifted owners a few times and their mobile apps are now open source should you be interested in that.
Is pocket casts usable on pc? The “pocket” part of the name makes me think no, but I used Google podcast to listen to stuff on my pc primarily. It’s a pain to track podcasts I want to listen to and am actively listening to because every podcast company has their own website.
They have a website version but it’s a paid offering, with it being part of a subscription now. It used to be a one-off purchase. Regardless, I haven’t used it before.
Worth noting that in October they’re increasing their annual subscription price from $9.99 to $39.99, which is when I’ll be finding another podcast app. I love Pocket Casts but it doesn’t provide $40 worth of functionality for me.
I’m not sure what you would export, just your listening history and favorites? Pocket Casts doesn’t host the actual audio files themselves, those are all available elsewhere online. I doubt there’s an easy way to port your existing subscriptions and such to another app, that would require them all to use a standard format for that data and there’s not really any incentive for that.
Yea, I figured out how to export it, but it doesn export what episodes I’ve.listened to, so I have to go back through my lists and transfer that (I like listening to back catalogs of my favorite podcasts.
I actually paid for the lifetime app membership a long time ago, so luckily this won’t impact that, but not paying $40usd for just desktop use.
Being able to configure exactly how far the jump forward/backward buttons take me individually makes it so much easier to skip sponsorships. Plus, it’s just a great app.
It's likely not financially viable to have separate teams for their many products that all have similar features. Consolidating makes more sense because they can actually afford to maintain development.
Honestly, they should just roll YouTube Music into the default YouTube app, as well. And they probably will at some point. It just doesn't make sense to have these services - which are basically all the same, functionally-speaking - spread out across multiple apps.
Honestly, they should just roll YouTube Music into the default YouTube app, as well.
I don’t think I could disagree more. I use both and listening to music and watching videos are entirely different activities for me and I want the apps to do different things in different ways.
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
It’s so wild that Google would rather weaken their own brand than just keep a secondary frontend around. It would require minimal maintenance cost (given the size of their company, just have 1-2 fulltime devs working on keeping it in shape and updated), and it could access the exact same backend as the Youtube Music app.
Weird.
And don’t misunderstand me, I really don’t like Google Podcasts for podcasts, but I also admit that having a separate app for podcasts is superior, as you listen to them very differently than you listen to music. Spotify amiably shows how their recommendation algorithms absolutely cannot handle someone listening to both, anyways.
I actually don’t think it’s a bad decision. I think merging it with YouTube is a good thing. They could integrate tightly with YouTube since they already added a “podcast” feature and you could seemlessly switch between Video and Audio.
But to a user, what would the benefit be? Would the UI also change depending on content played to expose the controls specialized for each type of media?
You could listen to an epsiode on YouTube then pause and listen to it on YouTube music.
Would the UI also change depending on content played to expose the controls specialized for each type of media?
They already kinda do that on YouTube (with YouTube premium). When you watch a music video, you have music controls in the normal YouTube app and a button to switch to YouTube music
Tbh, they should rather make a new app called "YouTube Podcasts)
It combined two apps I already use. The UI of YTM is better than the podcast app anyways. Not a crazy huge benefit, but there’s no detractor for me because I already use YTM heavily.
They probably want to monetize on podcasts too, in the same way they do on videos and music. At the moment, Google Podcast is completely free and ad-free.
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.
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
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
I use YTM exclusively for music streaming. The interface has been getting worse over time, but the podcasts integration is pure dogshit and they should be embarrassed. Basically it’s a subscription to a youtube channel in the back-end and they might add RSS support some day in the far future. Their only focus now is on allowing creators to add an RSS feed for ingestion, not for users to do the same.
This is a moronic idea, and Google is ruining one of their only good app experiences.
Navigating any playlists you created now requires clicking on the library at the bottom, then playlist at them top. I’m also a GPM refugee and the YouTube music app is a shit choice for podcasts.
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.
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