What podcasts looked like in 2024 — literally

In 2024, podcasts have gotten nearer to turning into a video-first medium. Although video podcasts have been round a comparatively very long time, reveals from The New York Instances, NPR, and plenty of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have lately began including a video element as a way to achieve new listenership. In actual fact, Spotify, a serious participant in podcasts, is about to start paying podcasters to convey movies to the platform. 

And after years of producers making an attempt to get audio reveals to go viral on social media, podcasts at the moment are dominating TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts after video producers realized they’ll simply movie the expertise speaking. In the meantime, weekly podcasts want to appeal to youthful audiences who grew up on YouTube. Consequently, video producers are determining methods to make podcasts, and audio producers are determining methods to make movies.

I’ve seen a couple of creating traits on this video-first podcasting format. This isn’t shocking; when one producer discovers a formulation that works, others are going to strive it. Let’s check out present design and tech traits — after which I’ll speak about what I believe could develop over the subsequent 12 months or so.

Lots of at this time’s podcast studios seem like dwelling rooms and basements. This isn’t a brand new phenomenon with discuss reveals, however numerous podcasts began out in a dwelling area, and bigger media firms have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Faux vegetation. Bookshelves. This surroundings offers a extra “laid again” type of long-form interviewing, which is usually the vibe of most chat-style podcasts.

Couches and cozy chairs present up lots on these video reveals. The spherical desk has been ditched, and leisure is vital — it’s much more comfy of an surroundings for speaking hours at a time. Each hosts and company are sometimes on a sofa collectively or sitting in comfortable chairs individually. 

One other pattern I’ve seen are these wood slats on the wall in podcast studios — our personal Vox Media area has gone with this design as properly. These work higher for sound absorption whereas nonetheless wanting like a dwelling area. That is already trying to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts. 

With wide-shot digicam angles showcasing the whole room, there may be normally one thing in the course of the display, like a TV or an enormous brand of the present, to create a symmetrical studio look. Neon indicators and coloured lights are very stylish proper now as a result of they add a colourful glow to a extra muted studio area. Plenty of cursive lettering.

Branding is usually prioritized in video, and most producers assume which means actually wanting on the brand for 2 hours. That is additionally a simple solution to let a TikTok scroller know what present they’re watching (although this sometimes doesn’t crop properly for vertical video).

Microphones are sometimes positioned on flooring stands that stretch over the couches (these articulating growth stands have been staples in recording studios for many years). Consequently, the stands typically seem from out of the digicam body and stick up broadly in entrance of company’ faces awkwardly. Poles protruding at varied incongruent angles look even messier when you might have a number of company on separate chairs. 

Although new sorts of mic stands for podcasts have been launched to the market, many reveals are ditching the lengthy, awkward growth poles in favor of getting hosts and company maintain their microphones as an alternative. This feels a bit extra genuine and intimate onscreen, and plenty of stand-up comedians want this technique. Nevertheless, it may well get a bit awkward with inexperienced company who discuss with their arms or who don’t know methods to maintain a microphone with a slim polar sample. 

It might probably get even worse. When podcasts are audio first however with a video element, you typically see awkward practices caught on digicam, like this occasion the place every visitor is holding their telephone as much as their face to document their audio whereas wanting straight on the viewer. This can be a frequent follow for radio interviews however isn’t nice when video is concerned.

The Shure SM7B microphones are nonetheless actually well-liked on this medium in addition to the price range MV7 mannequin. For the needs of branding, cubes with the title of the present are sometimes caught awkwardly on the underside of the microphone. That is harking back to microphone flags on newscaster stick mics, and they’re now being retrofitted for these traditional radio studio microphones. That is doubtless as a result of it’s more practical branding on vertically cropped movies than an enormous brand on the wall in a studio.

Huge isolating headphones are frequent in radio and podcasts and are nonetheless utilized in numerous video variations. However when company are distant and are wanting straight at their webcam, these massive ear cups stick out very awkwardly — extra so than for those who’re taking a look at somebody’s profile view. 

In order that’s what numerous video podcasts have seemed like by 2024. However how about subsequent 12 months?

I consider that, in 2025, podcast producers will ultimately cease following these tropes and attempt to differentiate themselves. Some producers that have been employed to assist make the transition to video will begin questioning the explanation for the massive headphones and thick microphones overlaying individuals’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear displays. 

New audiences could begin to overlook concerning the phrase “podcast” and confer with the chat reveals they watch as simply “reveals.” Media executives will attempt to go for syndication of the packages on linear platforms like Roku, Pluto, or Tubi. The skinny line between podcasts and TV reveals will get thinner. 

Extra consumer-priced instruments for manufacturing have entered the market, mainly turning a easy desk setup and a MacBook into a totally stocked management room. Hosts are already transferring out of the studio and into barber outlets, tennis courts, and on sidewalks. AI instruments like Descript, Hush, and Accentize can flip less-than-optimal microphone recordings into fuller, beefier broadcast-style recordings. Podcasters whose gear is much less able to dealing with uncontrolled recording environments will particularly profit from these postproduction instruments. 

And who is aware of? Maybe the pendulum will swing again once more when budgets for these reveals grow to be too expensive to maintain a video present working a number of instances per week with out a sturdy following. Possibly they’ll even cut back all the way down to an audio-only format. And maybe that’s the place they’ll restart a brand new experiment within the audio medium.