Google Challenges Apple with New Podcast Feature on Play Music

Podcasts have been a thing for a while no, and Google has decided to make it official by welcoming podcasters with open arms. Play Music will soon include podcasts after podcasters will respond to Google’s request to upload content before the launch of the service sometime in the coming months.

• Google encourages podcasters to upload their content on Play Music
• Podcasts have recently become more popular thanks to shows like Serial
• Apple is currently dominating the podcast business with its default app

The news was announced in a post on the Android Official Blog, and it aims to provide users with its own collection of podcasts rather than losing users to third-party apps. Google is also rather excited about the mood-based curation that will be available for podcasts, in a very similar to its current music curation; you’ll receive recommendation depending on what you’re up to or how you’re feeling.

Podcasts have been just under the culture’s radar for over 10 years, but they made a fabulous entrance into the mainstream with the help of incredibly popular shows like Serial. President Barack Obama’s appearance on WTF back in June also helped make podcasts more well-known in the media.

However, this isn’t Google’s first attempt to increase interest in podcasting; the company had offered a basic app – before Play Store was a thing – called Listen that chose podcasts from an RSS feed. After Play Store rolled out in 2012, Google decided to kill the independent Listen in favor of the third-party podcasting apps that users could now download.

But after Serial made drew a booming 80 million downloads on iTunes in April this year, Google started changing its mind about releasing a native podcasting app. In spite of Android’s prevalence in the smartphone market – a little over half – iOS is definitely king in the podcast world.

According to a recent study, 82 percent of mobile podcast listening comes from iOS devices. The same study noted that 78 percent of all the iOS podcast listening happens via Apple’s default Podcasts app, so Google’s next step is rather logic: challenge Apple’s supremacy by starting an Android user base interested in podcasting.

Podcasters who want to have their shows included in Google Play Music have it easy: they just have to add their RSS feed to Google’s Podcast Portal, confirm ownership of the content and wait for automatic upload to ensue.
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