What podcasts regarded like in 2024 — actually Leave a comment

In 2024, podcasts have gotten nearer to changing into a video-first medium. Although video podcasts have been round a comparatively very long time, exhibits from The New York Instances, NPR, and plenty of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have lately began including a video part to be able to acquire new listenership. Actually, Spotify, a significant participant in podcasts, is about to start paying podcasters to carry movies to the platform. 

And after years of producers making an attempt to get audio exhibits 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. In consequence, video producers are determining make podcasts, and audio producers are determining 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 attempt it. Let’s check out present design and tech traits — after which I’ll discuss what I feel might develop over the following yr or so.

Lots of right now’s podcast studios appear like dwelling rooms and basements. This isn’t a brand new phenomenon with discuss exhibits, however lots of podcasts began out in a dwelling area, and bigger media corporations have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Faux crops. Bookshelves. This setting provides a extra “laid again” fashion of long-form interviewing, which is often the vibe of most chat-style podcasts.

Couches and comfortable chairs present up lots on these video exhibits. The spherical desk has been ditched, and leisure is essential — it’s much more comfy 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 picket 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 trying like a dwelling area. That is already seeking to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts. 

With wide-shot digital camera angles showcasing the whole room, there’s normally one thing in the midst 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. Numerous cursive lettering.

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

Microphones are sometimes positioned on ground stands that stretch over the couches (these articulating growth stands have been staples in recording studios for many years). In consequence, the stands usually seem from out of the digital camera body and stick up broadly in entrance of company’ faces awkwardly. Poles protruding at numerous incongruent angles look even messier when you may have a number of company on separate chairs. 

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

It may get even worse. When podcasts are audio first however with a video part, you usually see awkward practices caught on digital camera, like this occasion the place every visitor is holding their cellphone as much as their face to file their audio whereas trying instantly on the viewer. This can be a widespread follow for radio interviews however isn’t nice when video is concerned.

The Shure SM7B microphones are nonetheless actually common on this medium in addition to the funds MV7 mannequin. For the needs of branding, cubes with the identify of the present are sometimes caught awkwardly on the underside of the microphone. That is paying homage to microphone flags on newscaster stick mics, and they’re now being retrofitted for these basic radio studio microphones. That is seemingly as a result of it’s more practical branding on vertically cropped movies than a giant brand on the wall in a studio.

Huge isolating headphones are widespread in radio and podcasts and are nonetheless utilized in lots of video variations. However when company are distant and are trying instantly at their webcam, these massive ear cups stick out very awkwardly — extra so than if you happen to’re somebody’s profile view. 

In order that’s what lots of video podcasts have regarded like by means of 2024. However how about subsequent yr?

I imagine that, in 2025, podcast producers will finally 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 explanation for the big headphones and thick microphones overlaying folks’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear screens. 

New audiences might begin to neglect in regards to the phrase “podcast” and check with the chat exhibits they watch as simply “exhibits.” 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 exhibits will get thinner. 

Extra consumer-priced instruments for manufacturing have entered the market, principally turning a easy desk setup and a MacBook into a totally stocked management room. Hosts are already shifting 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 exhibits develop into too expensive to maintain a video present working a number of instances per week with no sturdy following. Perhaps they may even reduce all the way down to an audio-only format. And maybe that’s the place they may restart a brand new experiment within the audio medium.