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 relatively long time, reveals from The New York Occasions, NPR, and plenty of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have lately began including a video part so as to acquire new listenership. Actually, Spotify, a serious participant in podcasts, is about to begin paying podcasters to deliver movies to the platform. 

And after years of producers attempting 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 will simply movie the expertise speaking. In the meantime, weekly podcasts wish to appeal to youthful audiences who grew up on YouTube. Because of this, video producers are determining find out how to make podcasts, and audio producers are determining find out how to make movies.

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

Lots of in the present day’s podcast studios appear like dwelling rooms and basements. This isn’t a new phenomenon with discuss reveals, however a whole lot of podcasts began out in a dwelling area, and bigger media firms have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Faux crops. Bookshelves. This setting provides a extra “laid again” type of long-form interviewing, which is usually the vibe of most chat-style podcasts.

Couches and comfortable chairs present up rather a lot on these video reveals. The spherical desk has been ditched, and leisure is essential — it’s much more snug of an setting 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 nicely. 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 fashionable proper now as a result of they add a colourful glow to a extra muted studio area. A number of cursive lettering.

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

Microphones are sometimes positioned on flooring stands that reach over the couches (these articulating growth stands have been staples in recording studios for many years). Because of this, the stands typically seem from out of the digicam body and stick up broadly in entrance of company’ faces awkwardly. Poles protruding at numerous incongruent angles look even messier when you’ve 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 favor this methodology. Nevertheless, it could possibly get a bit awkward with inexperienced company who discuss with their fingers or who don’t know find out how to maintain a microphone with a slender polar sample. 

It will possibly get even worse. When podcasts are audio first however with a video part, 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 file their audio whereas wanting straight on the viewer. It is a frequent apply for radio interviews however isn’t nice when video is concerned.

The Shure SM7B microphones are nonetheless actually fashionable on this medium in addition to the budget MV7 model. 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 basic radio studio microphones. That is possible as a result of it’s simpler branding on vertically cropped movies than an enormous brand on the wall in a studio.

Massive isolating headphones are frequent in radio and podcasts and are nonetheless utilized in a whole lot of video variations. However when company are distant and are wanting straight at their webcam, these giant ear cups stick out very awkwardly — extra so than in the event you’re somebody’s profile view. 

In order that’s what a whole lot of video podcasts have regarded like via 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 had been employed to assist make the transition to video will begin questioning the rationale for the big headphones and thick microphones overlaying folks’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear displays. 

New audiences could begin to neglect concerning the phrase “podcast” and seek advice from 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 shops, 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 tools 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 turn into too pricey to maintain a video present operating a number of instances per week with no sturdy following. Perhaps they are going to even cut back right down to an audio-only format. And maybe that’s the place they are going to restart a brand new experiment within the audio medium.