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YouTube Music officially rolls out podcasts for listeners in the US

YouTube Music is officially adding podcasts to its platform in the United States on Android, iOS and the web. The rollout comes a few months after YouTube podcasting head Kai Chuk revealed that podcasts would be added to YouTube Music soon.
The update allows users watching podcasts on the main app to continue listening to them on YouTube Music. The company notes that all users can listen to podcasts on-demand, offline, in the background, and while casting and can seamlessly switch between audio-video versions on YouTube Music.
“This podcast listening experience is different from our music listening experience where you need a Premium or Music Premium subscription to enjoy some of these features,” the company wrote in a blog post. “This new podcast listening experience complements the podcast video experience on YouTube.”
Podcasts in YouTube Music will be available regardless of whether you have a YouTube Premium subscription. YouTube even notes that paying customers may encounter host-read endorsements or sponsorship messages when listening to podcasts on YouTube Music.
Image Credits: YouTube
YouTube is rolling out the update to all of its listeners in the United States gradually, which means not everyone may see it yet. The company said it plans to bring podcasts to YouTube Music to users outside the United States soon but didn’t provide any specific launch details.
The YouTube Music Home tab now includes a new “Podcasts” tab that takes you to a dedicated feed, which will display your favorite podcasts and recommended episodes.
YouTube is advising creators that if their podcast is audio-only, they should consider uploading a video with a static image or use audiograms or other dynamic video formats. The company notes that it will soon offer creators the option to directly upload their audio podcasts via RSS feeds to both YouTube and YouTube Music.
According to previous reports, YouTube isn’t looking to sign exclusive deals with podcasters, which has been a key strategy at Spotify. YouTube instead seems to be focused on melding the experience of listening to podcasts on video and audio.

YouTube Music contractors win historic union vote

YouTube Music officially rolls out podcasts for listeners in the US by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch
YouTube Music officially rolls out podcasts for listeners in the US

Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series

Among the wave of Spotify announcements coming out of today’s Spotify Stream On event, the company shared some exciting news with podcast listeners — in particular, Batman fans. Spotify is launching a new podcast series “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark,” starring comedian-actor Hasan Minhaj as The Riddler.
As part of Spotify’s exclusive multiyear partnership with DC and Warner Bros, “The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark” will premiere later this year and will see Minhaj reprise his role as the supervillain. Minhaj starred in the 2022 Spotify podcast “Batman Unburied,” which starred Winston Duke as the Dark Knight. Batman/Bruce Wayne will also appear in the new podcast series along with Barbara Gordon and Alfred.
“The Riddler: Secrets in the Dark” is a scripted “Batman” spinoff series that follows an unexpected duo — The Riddler and Batman — as they bring down another villain tormenting the streets of Gotham City.
“Audiences are going to travel back to Gotham City with me in a story that leaves clues, puzzles and shines a spotlight on my personal favorite character, The Riddler,” Minhaj said in the announcement video.

“Batman Unburied” premiered on the audio streaming service in May 2022 and climbed its way up Spotify’s top podcast charts. At one point, it even took the crown from “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which was the No. 1 podcast globally on Spotify in 2022 despite its controversial host.
Plus, Spotify recently launched “Harley Quinn and The Joker: Sound Mind,” which was also a huge hit among fans, reaching the top of the charts in six markets, according to the company.
As Spotify bets on original programming to boost its overall podcast strategy, the DC podcasts are certainly a smart move being that podcasts with recognizable characters, especially from the Batman franchise, will likely perform well in this IP-driven world we live in.

Podcast series ‘Batman Unburied’ set to premiere on Spotify after ‘The Batman’ heads to HBO Max

Speaking of recognizable voices, Spotify also announced today an exclusive video partnership with Markiplier (Mark Fischbach), the popular YouTuber with 34.5 million subscribers and approximately over 19 billion views. The partnership allows for Markiplier to produce exclusive video episodes of “Distractible” and “Go! My Favorite Sports Team.”
“While we love the audio world and still aim to bring you the very best in auditory experiences, by bringing our faces into the mix, we aim to give you an as-yet-unseen dimension to your listening experience. Imagine if you could smell a movie, imagine if you could smell us . . . who knows what the future will bring?” Markiplier said in a hilarious and thought-provoking statement.
Now, instead of just listening to his voice, Spotify users will also get to watch videos of Markiplier alongside his content creator friends Wade Barnes and Bob Muysken.
Another podcast getting the video treatment is “Forbidden Fruits” with actresses Julia Fox and Niki Takesh, which will return for a second season on March 17. The new episodes will be released as an all-video podcast, reflecting the growing trend of video-led podcasting.
According to Spotify, there are over 70,000 video creators on the platform. In April 2022, Spotify expanded the ability for creators to publish video podcasts in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.
Separately, the company revealed that “The Comment Section” hosted by TikTok star Drew Afualo, would be moving exclusively to Spotify on April 5.
During today’s event, Spotify announced an array of new podcaster tools, such as a redesigned Podcasters dashboard that includes an Anchor integration and the launch of a new feature “Autoplay for Podcasts.” Plus, the company is teaming up with Patreon to allow users to listen to Patreon content on Spotify.

Spotify is revamping its podcaster tools, including Anchor, and is partnering with Patreon

Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Comedian Hasan Minhaj returns as The Riddler in new Spotify podcast series

Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results

Google confirmed it’s putting an end to a feature that allowed users to access playable podcasts directly from the Google Search results in favor of offering podcast recommendations. Officially launched in 2019, the feature surfaced podcasts when they matched a user’s query, including in those cases where a user specifically included the word “podcast” in their search terms. But a few weeks ago, some creators began noticing the podcast carousels had disappeared from Google Search results — and now the company is explaining why that’s the case.
The disappearance was first spotted by Podnews.net, which noted in January that searches for podcasts no longer returned any play buttons or links to Google Podcasts itself. When they tested the feature by searching for “history podcasts” they were only provided with a list of shows alongside links to podcast reviews, Apple Podcast pages and other places to stream.
At the time, Google simply told the site the feature was working “as intended.”
But a new announcement in Google Podcasts Manager indicates the feature is officially being shut down as of February 13.
“Google Search will stop showing podcast carousels by February 13. As a result, clicks and impressions in How people find your show will drop to zero after that date,” the message states. Podcasters are also being instructed to download any historical data they want to keep in advance of this final closure.
Of course, as many podcasters already discovered, their metrics had already declined as the feature was being wound down.
To be fair, playable podcasts in search wasn’t a remarkably well-executed product as it didn’t offer a way to do much more than click to play an episode. On YouTube’s Podcasts vertical, by comparison, podcast creators can create an index to the various parts of an episode, allowing users to jump directly to the section they wanted to hear. Plus, users can watch a video of the podcast, if the creator chooses to film.
YouTube has also proven to be more popular than Google Podcasts and other competitors. In a 2022 market survey of podcast listeners, for example, YouTube came out ahead of Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts as users’ preferred podcast platform. Though many podcast market analysis reports don’t consider YouTube when comparing the popularity of various podcast apps, one recent report by Buzzsprout at least suggests that using web browser as a listening app had a very small market share of just 3.5%. And that share had barely increased over the years, despite Google’s indexing of shows.
Reached for comment, Google explained its decision to wind down playable podcasts in Search will allow it to focus on a new addition instead.
“Our existing podcast features will gradually be replaced with a new, single feature, What to Podcast,” a spokesperson told us. They noted the feature is currently live on mobile for English users in the U.S. “This feature provides detailed information about podcasts, links to listen to shows on different platforms, and links to podcasters’ own websites, where available,” the spokesperson added.
According to the help documentation, these recommendations will be personalized to the user if they’re signed into their Google account and will factor in things like the user’s past searches and browsing history, saved podcasts and other podcast preferences. The personalized results can be turned off, however, if the user wants more generic suggestions, Google says.
Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Google winds down feature that put playable podcasts directly in search results

Original Content podcast: ‘Wireless’ shows off Quibi’s Turnstyle technology

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“Wireless” is probably the best showcase so far for Quibi’s Turnstyle technology.
That’s the technology that allows the streaming video app to switch seamlessly between landscape and portrait mode depending on the orientation of your phone. With other Quibi shows, you’re essentially getting two views of the same footage — but with “Wireless” (which is executive produced by Steven Soderbergh), you’re switching between traditional cinematic footage (in landscape) and a view of the protagonist’s phone (in portrait).
In this bonus episode of the Original Content podcast, director Zach Wechter told me that he and his co-writer Jack Seidman wrote the initial script — about a college student played by Tye Sheridan who gets trapped in the snow after a car crash, with only his iPhone to save him — before they decided on the phone-centric format. But when they heard about Turnstyle, “It just felt like a match made in heaven that would allow us to facilitate this idea.”

I wondered whether that required going back and adding a bunch of phone interactions to the story, but said Wechter said, “It was quite the opposite. One thing we found in testing was when the phone plot moved really fast, it would be hard, because there are these two perspectives happening at once.”
So that actually meant “reducing some fo the intriacy of the plot happening on the phone” to ensure that viewers didn’t get lost.

And if you’re wondering which mode to focus on as you watch, Wechter has some simple advice: “Go with your gut.” He said he had a “roadmap” for when he was hoping to nudge viewers to turn their phones — like when there’s a notification sound or Sheridan focuses on his phone — “but I think the most important part of the experience is that we’re not indicating when our viewers turn, that it becomes this sort of passive-but-active viewing experience.”
Wechter described making the show — essentially a feature length film divided into episodes of 10 minutes or less — as shooting “two films that had to dance together” in just 19 days. And he made things even more challenging by insisting that all the phone/FaceTime calls and even the text messages be filmed live, rather than just recording both ends separately.
“When I think about directing and my job, really the most fundamental part of it to me is making the actorss comfortable, and I think that having a scene partner is paramount,” he said. “It was a long conversation about why we couldn’t just have them act off of a recording and shoot it separately — because it took a lot of logistical effort and resources to do it — but it really makes the scenes feel very alive and realistic.”
You can listen to the full interview in the player below, subscribe using Apple Podcasts or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also follow us on Twitter or send us feedback directly. (Or suggest shows and movies for us to review!)

Original Content podcast: ‘Wireless’ shows off Quibi’s Turnstyle technology

Where is voice tech going?

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Mark Persaud
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Mark Persaud is digital product manager and practice lead at Moonshot by Pactera, a digital innovation company that leads global clients through the next era of digital products with a heavy emphasis on artificial intelligence, data and continuous software delivery.

2020 has been all but normal. For businesses and brands. For innovation. For people.
The trajectory of business growth strategies, travel plans and lives have been drastically altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a global economic downturn with supply chain and market issues, and a fight for equality in the Black Lives Matter movement — amongst all that complicated lives and businesses already.
One of the biggest stories in emerging technology is the growth of different types of voice assistants:
Niche assistants such as Aider that provide back-office support.
Branded in-house assistants such as those offered by BBC and Snapchat.
White-label solutions such as Houndify that provide lots of capabilities and configurable tool sets.
With so many assistants proliferating globally, voice will become a commodity like a website or an app. And that’s not a bad thing — at least in the name of progress. It will soon (read: over the next couple years) become table stakes for a business to have voice as an interaction channel for a lovable experience that users expect. Consider that feeling you get when you realize a business doesn’t have a website: It makes you question its validity and reputation for quality. Voice isn’t quite there yet, but it’s moving in that direction.
Voice assistant adoption and usage are still on the rise
Adoption of any new technology is key. A key inhibitor of technology is often distribution, but this has not been the case with voice. Apple, Google, and Baidu have reported hundreds of millions of devices using voice, and Amazon has 200 million users. Amazon has a slightly more difficult job since they’re not in the smartphone market, which allows for greater voice assistant distribution for Apple and Google.
Image Credits: Mark Persaud
But are people using devices? Google said recently there are 500 million monthly active users of Google Assistant. Not far behind are active Apple users with 375 million. Large numbers of people are using voice assistants, not just owning them. That’s a sign of technology gaining momentum — the technology is at a price point and within digital and personal ecosystems that make it right for user adoption. The pandemic has only exacerbated the use as Edison reported between March and April — a peak time for sheltering in place across the U.S.

Where is voice tech going?