YouTube is Transferring into Podcasts, With New Particulars Revealing its Podcast Platform Plans

YouTube is steadily making strikes into the world of podcasts, with a brand new leaked pitch deck offering extra perception into the platform’s plans to extra immediately incorporate podcasts into the YouTube expertise.

As you possibly can see on this overview, shared by Pod News, YouTube’s presently within the technique of creating a brand new podcast discovery residence throughout the app.

Podcasters would be capable to feed their audio reveals in by way of RSS, with YouTube providing audio adverts, analytics, and extra to assist them showcase their audio choices.

In some methods, it appears unusual for the world’s main video platform to be leaning into audio, however in others, the transfer completely aligns with YouTube’s broader imaginative and prescient of making a extra complete residence base for creators, with the intention to assist them maximize their viewers attain.

Many common YouTubers now have their own podcasts anyway, which they share to the platform by way of in-studio video clips, which basically implies that YouTube already hosts a number of audio-focused content material both manner. On the identical time, YouTube has additionally made music a much bigger focus, with audio-only listening options offering one other means to devour YouTube content material.

In late 2020, YouTube reported that music streaming had reached an all-time high, whereas YouTube Music itself now has greater than 77 million paying subscribers. So whereas visible components stay central to the platform’s broader providing, there’s clearly important curiosity in audio-only content material as effectively, and YouTube additionally added audio only ads back in 2020, as a part of its broader push to maximise YouTube Music.

These adverts, logically, would prolong to podcasts as effectively, offering one other manner for YouTube to supply financial help for creators, and constructing the platform as a extra full providing on this respect.

YouTube hasn’t offered any official launch information for its podcast plans, nevertheless it did hire a podcast executive to steer its efforts final October, whereas extra lately, it’s been offering deals to popular podcasters to movie episodes of their reveals.

It’s fascinating to contemplate how YouTube is altering focus on this respect, and shifting its content material funding away from authentic, studio high quality programming, and into smaller-scale creators as an alternative.

Again in 2015, YouTube launched a significant push to tackle Netflix and industrial TV, with ‘YouTube Red’, which noticed it fund a variety of professionally-produced reveals as a part of its month-to-month subscription bundle.

Work on YouTube Purple included the event of sequence’ like ‘Cobra Kai’, in addition to programming partnerships with big-name stars like Ellen DeGeneres, Kevin Hart, Demi Lovato and Katy Perry.

The view, as famous, was that YouTube was in prime place to maneuver into premium content material, and construct its personal stars into conventional TV and film celebrities. However over time, YouTube has discovered that it doesn’t want to try this, with the most popular creators on YouTube creating extra DIY, YouTube-style content material, which has precipitated a shift in viewer behaviors that’s really negated the worth of conventional TV and film choices.

Which is why YouTube is now investing in creator platforms as an alternative, giving customers the means to construct their very own audiences, in a variety of the way, to maximise their earnings potential within the app.

Which is working, and podcasts will add one other component, offering extra methods for creators to get most worth from their efforts, multi function place.

We’ll hold you up to date on any progress.