YouTube Music will also offer podcasts, but will not replace Google Podcasts

Google has decided to also offer podcasts in YouTube Music, but Google Podcasts will also remain. As with the existing range of music, there will be the option to watch a podcast, if video is available.

Unlike podcasts on YouTube, it is free for users to listen to content on the YouTube Music app with the screen off. Content creators who post podcasts on the platform will also be given the option to give their podcasts an icon indicating that the broadcast is suitable for listening only; some podcasts come into their own better with images. Despite the partial overlap in services, Google not planning to to merge Google Podcasts and YouTube Music soon.

Podcasts should be available on the platform first in the US, reports YouTube to TechCrunch. The country will get this form of content ‘soon’. No information is available about when other countries will be next.

TechCrunch also writes that YouTube Music has no intention of arranging exclusive shows or anything like that for itself. A major competitor, Spotify, does make this its tactic, with big names such as the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

YouTube Music, here without podcasts