What podcasts seemed like in 2024 — actually

In 2024, podcasts have gotten nearer to changing into a video-first medium. Although video podcasts have been round a comparatively very long time, reveals from The New York Occasions, NPR, and lots of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have not too long ago began including a video part with a purpose to achieve new listenership. In reality, 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 are actually dominating TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts after video producers realized they will 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 the best way to make podcasts, and audio producers are determining the best way to make movies.

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

A lot of as we speak’s podcast studios appear to be residing rooms and basements. This isn’t a brand new phenomenon with speak reveals, however a variety of podcasts began out in a residing area, and bigger media corporations have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Pretend crops. Bookshelves. This atmosphere offers a extra “laid again” model of long-form interviewing, which is often the vibe of most chat-style podcasts.

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

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

With wide-shot digital camera angles showcasing all the room, there may be often one thing in the midst of the display screen, 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. Plenty of cursive lettering.

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

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

Although new sorts of mic stands for podcasts have been launched to the market, many reveals are ditching the lengthy, awkward increase poles in favor of getting hosts and friends maintain their microphones as a substitute. This feels a bit extra genuine and intimate onscreen, and lots of stand-up comedians choose this methodology. Nonetheless, it will possibly get a bit awkward with inexperienced friends who speak with their fingers or who don’t know the best way to maintain a microphone with a slender polar sample. 

It may possibly get even worse. When podcasts are audio first however with a video part, you typically see awkward practices caught on digital camera, like this occasion the place every visitor is holding their telephone as much as their face to report their audio whereas wanting immediately 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 funds 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 paying homage to microphone flags on newscaster stick mics, and they’re now being retrofitted for these traditional radio studio microphones. That is probably as a result of it’s simpler 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 a variety of video variations. However when friends are distant and are wanting immediately at their webcam, these massive ear cups stick out very awkwardly — extra so than in the event you’re somebody’s profile view. 

In order that’s what a variety of video podcasts have seemed like via 2024. However how about subsequent 12 months?

I consider that, in 2025, podcast producers will finally 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 rationale for the big headphones and thick microphones overlaying individuals’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear displays. 

New audiences could begin to overlook in regards to the phrase “podcast” and discuss with the chat reveals they watch as simply “reveals.” Media executives will attempt to go for syndication of the applications 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, principally 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 change into too expensive to maintain a video present working a number of instances per week and not using a robust 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.