Podcasts now available on YouTube Music

You will be able to listen to podcasts for free in the background with the new update.

In the US, YouTube Music users can now access podcasts through the app, which offers on-demand and offline streaming without requiring a Premium subscription. This feature was announced by YouTube in February at The Verge's Hot Pod Summit and is gradually rolling out to users.

The YouTube Music app now includes a dedicated podcast tab, enabling users to browse through a wider range of shows, including those previously only available on the main YouTube app. Users can also switch between audio and video versions of a podcast while using the YouTube Music app.

This addition of podcasts is intended to improve the competitiveness of YouTube Music with Spotify, which recently reached 500 million monthly active users. While YouTube Music reported having approximately 80 million Music and Premium subscribers in November 2022, Spotify claims to have around 210 million paying users.

Currently, the podcast feature is only available to YouTube Music users in the US, but YouTube plans to introduce it in other countries in the future. The feature is accessible across iOS, Android, and web platforms.