YouTube has announced a test to allow podcasters to “create and measure podcasts in YouTube Studio”.
If you’re in this experiment (we’re not), you can upload a podcast, view podcasts, and mark existing playlists as podcasts (presumably so that they appear on the YouTube podcasts homepage, which is a US-exclusive for now). It also adds analytics. It’s another slow step towards podcasts on the platform.
You don’t need video to be highlighted on YouTube’s podcast homepage, we notice – like Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, which is just a static thumbnail.
On the page, YouTube appears to have rolled out v3 of their podcast icon, which is blue now.
We hope YouTube is genuine about wanting to work with the podcast industry – however, in spite of our regular contact with YouTube’s PR, the company has made no communication about this (or, indeed, any comms about their podcasting features).
We look forward to working with them to help them communicate their plans accurately.