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Comment by munchler | Hacker News Reader

> Google cited a statistic from Edison Research that said about 23 percent of podcast listeners in the US say YouTube is their primary podcast platform

I assume this means YouTube Music, not plain YouTube? The article (and Google itself) is confusing in this regard. It mentions YouTube, YouTube Music, and also something called YouTube Shorts. Am I supposed to know what all these things are and how they differ from each other?

> YouTube Music is a subscription app, and nobody’s going to pay $10 a month for a podcast app

Is it? I just logged onto https://music.youtube.com/ and started listening to a podcast for free. But apparently there's also a YouTube Music Premium service that costs $11/month.

It's really difficult to keep all these products straight, but this article isn't helping any.

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No, plain YouTube. A lot of what people call "podcasts" don't exist as audio-only version, they are just YouTube videos. Even if they are audio-only YouTube videos.

I did not know this either until I heard a former friend who did me dirty started a podcast and my friend and I couldn't find it. A mutual friend suggested checking YouTube because "that's where most people put podcasts." Sure enough, it's on YouTube but not as an audio-only RSS feed.

>Is it? I just logged onto https://music.youtube.com/ and started listening to a podcast for free. But apparently there's also a YouTube Music Premium service that costs $11/month.

Eventually they won't let you listen when the screen is off unless you have a YouTube music subscription. Id you don't mind keeping the screen on you can listen for free.

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't know that either. I wouldn't even call it a "podcast" at that point, but I guess the definition is changing.

>I wouldn't even call it a "podcast" at that point, but I guess the definition is changing.

Yeah, it's a generational thing.

My friend and I who couldn't find the podcast were all like "WTF? That's not even a podcast! It's a YouTube video!" Our mutual friend (who is more than a decade younger than us) was like "YouTube is where everyone goes for podcasts, I don't see problem?"

When I really, really think about it there isn't much difference between a YouTube video essayist like Shaun (https://www.youtube.com/@Shaun_vids) who I usually "watch" without visuals and a podcast. So the distinction is... blurry, and ultimately not important.

Then there's podcasters who put a video of them recording the podcast up as a YouTube video.

And there's OSW Review (https://www.youtube.com/@OSW) who call themselves a "video podcast" but I definitely wouldn't want to listen to in audio-only format. So what's the difference between a "video podcast" and a "YouTube video?" Nothing.

Sure it is. The whole reason for why YouTube Music exists is that YT is very convenient for uploading and sharing audio tracks (and to defy copyright restrictions). There are huge amounts of "videos" with no graphical elements, that only exist to stream sound. And so, many podcasts upload their episodes to YouTube because it's a truly ubiquitous, universal platform for audio and/or visual needs.

I'd say plain YouTube, a lot of podcasts put them up as videos,not to mention the ones that also have a video component as well.

It's probably proper YouTube, as many major podcasts record video of the show and post it there. I'd be very surprised to hear YTMusic was popular in any metric.

You could be right, but (as the article says), trying to listen to a podcast on the vanilla YouTube app is extremely frustrating, since you can't play audio in the background. Is it still a podcast if you have to watch it like a video? It's hard for me to imagine that 23% of "listeners" in the US do that.

>Is it still a podcast if you have to watch it like a video?

Maybe.

I often listen to YouTube video essays while falling asleep or doing chores. I don't watch the video portion during this time, but it's playing on the phone which is face down and probably in another room. Sometimes even while driving, I'll have the phone face down in the glove box.

Can't really do this if I'm walking, but that's not my major use case.

Ultimately it's just "audio that people are listening to in some way."

YT Music makes it easier to just listen to the audio part of it... that includes music videos posted on YouTube proper.

No, it means what it said: plain YouTube. One of YouTube Music's main selling points (vs. say, the old Google Play Music) is that it incorporates YouTube, so you can, say, add YT mixes to your YTM playlists.

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