Almost six months after announcing they would be coming, and after a false start and some limited testing, it appears Google is finally ready to bring podcasts to Google Play Music.
According to an email sent to NPR podcast network members and forwarded to Android Police, the launch of Podcasts in Google Play Music is set for this coming Monday, the 18th of April (Tuesday in Australia obviously).
Google will launch podcasts on Android and other platforms next Monday, April 18, inside of Google Play Music, a streaming service similar to Apple Music. Please note: this information is embargoed and should not be shared or promoted externally until Monday. NPR has worked with Google to ensure that public radio is represented in the Google Play environment. Learn more about adding your station’s podcasts to this new platform.
The launch of podcasts was announced back in October, but appears to still be aimed at a US-only release track still. Exactly why the new feature will be limited to the US is unknown, but we suspect it’s more a testing of capacity thing rather than a rights issue.
Based on this, we’ll most likely know more about the launch next week.
Source: Android Police.
