YouTube Premium Podcasts
A tiernew this weekYouTube finally acts like a real podcast app — AI discovery, adaptive speed, and audio-first controls, all locked behind Premium.
Kai's verdict
Catching up to Spotify and Apple Podcasts features that have existed for years isn't a revolution, but if you're already paying for Premium, these are genuinely useful additions — especially Auto speed and on-the-go mode. (Verdict pending Phi's full review.)
Strengths
- Massive podcast library with 1B+ monthly listeners already on the platform
- Ask Music AI recommends podcasts by mood, genre, or shows you already like
- Auto speed dynamically adjusts playback — faster for slow speech, slower for dense info
- On-the-go mode delivers a true audio-first layout without losing your place in a video
Weaknesses
- Every feature is Premium-only — free users get nothing new
- Ask Music podcast recommendations limited to select countries with no confirmed US/UK rollout
- iOS users have to wait months; Android-first rollout leaves half the market behind
Best for
YouTube Premium subscribers who already listen to podcasts on YouTube and want Spotify-style smart playback without switching apps.
Pricing
~$15.99/mo (Premium)
All three podcast features (On-the-go mode, Auto speed, Ask Music for podcasts) are exclusive to YouTube Premium subscribers. Price recently increased from $13.99 to $15.99/mo in the US.
Alternatives worth knowing
Spotify AI Remix
ARemix and cover your favorite licensed songs with AI, straight inside Spotify — no shady copyright gray zones required.
NotebookLM
SGoogle's research notebook. Turns your docs into a podcast.
smol-audio
AA free, open collection of Colab notebooks that makes fine-tuning Whisper, Parakeet, Voxtral, Granite Speech, and Audio Flamingo 3 actually approachable on commodity GPUs.