HBO's Bill Simmons outs Google podcast plans

Google tipped podcasts for Play Music back in the fall, but it looks like the company is finally prepping for their debut. Thanks to HBO's Bill Simmons, the Twitterverse now knows that Google Play's "podcast platform" is due to launch this month. Of course, there's a chance Simmons is just blowing hot air (he's been known to do that from time to time), but if a group outside of Google's ranks knows about an arrival date, it's likely big-name content producers. The tweet has since been deleted, so you can draw your own conclusions there.

Simmons, who started Grantland (RIP) at ESPN, has loads of listeners for his current self-titled podcast which launched ahead of his HBO show that's set to debut this year. If his facts are correct, we should be hearing from Mountain View soon enough. Despite laying the groundwork to bring podcasts into Play Music last year, only a handful of the more popular podcasts were said to become available there. Here's to hoping that changes, so we'll be able to stream all of our favorites