[kevmoo1]

There's some consolidation here. Podcast support in YouTube music is a real thing.

There is SO much overlap between YouTube Music videos and listening to music. There is also overlap between YouTube podcasts and listening to podcasts.

Trying to align here makes a lot of sense. Tricky to pull off, sure, but it's not a dropped ball.

[nikkwong]

There are many podcasts that exist on Google podcasts but aren’t listed on YouTube music. Maybe around 20% of my podcast collection doesn’t exist on YouTube music; and they aren’t fringe podcasts either. Many are very mainstream. This makes YouTube music an inadequate replacement

[microflash]

You can directly add podcasts by their feed URL. They don't have to be on YouTube music. The discovery for such podcasts is non-existent, though.

[mindslight]

Consolidating products makes sense to an engineer, but in general companies seek to create many redundant brands to confuse the market. For example Faceboot+Instagram, or how entire store aisles are filled as a simulation of more choices than just P&G and J&J.