Google are you listening?
YouTube music is one of those services from Google that competes with Spotify among a few others for music streaming and they've recently added on podcasts functionality to be an all-in-one app similar to Spotify's offering but it's so close yet so far away as I have some issues with YouTube music as a service that are gripes with the music functionality itself and the podcast experience.
1. Why did Google kill off Google podcasts?
Google podcasts had everything going for it, so why did it get sent to the Google graveyard? Sure I had a separate app for music and podcasts but the Google podcasts app had so much in it. Features like seamless Google home integration, silence skip, sleep timer and playlist abilities something the YouTube music app doesn't have and has lacked when Google forced all their users to move to the YouTube music app.
2. YouTube music activity is a nightmare to find in Google's My Activity section of your Google Account
Try finding your activity in the google account section and it's a muddled mess with your YouTube watch history and search history I don't mind having the activity tracked or history but when I want to clear it all for a fresh start it doesn't remove out of your history you have to find it all singally and remove it as removing the history in the YouTube music app just hides it from the app.
3. YouTube music playlists in YouTube why?
Okay so I get it this is YouTube music so you're going to have some crossover but when I only have audio and not music videos having all my music playlists in the YouTube app is a really stupid idea and an annoyance because I keep video playlists in YouTube I don't want to play them and watch a static album art now do I?
4. YouTube music in podcasts is a half baked solution for an all-in-one app
No native support for searching for podcasts, having to add them manually by RSS, no option to make them private for feeds that are paid, you can use an app completely free like antennapod or pocketcasts and get this basic functionality not to mention features mentioned in number 1 that really should be apart of all podcast apps.
Until Google can get their act together and fix these gripes I won't be using YouTube music even for just basic listening to music and will have to stick to paying for a Spotify premium subscription so I can have music on my Google home services and use the ad free version of podcastaddict until YouTube music can fix their issues and add basic functionality but I wouldn't hold my breath over it before they change their minds and move in another direction.