What podcasts seemed like in 2024 — actually

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 Occasions, NPR, and plenty of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have lately began including a video element with a purpose to achieve new listenership. The truth is, 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 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 entice youthful audiences who grew up on YouTube. Because of this, video producers are determining make podcasts, and audio producers are determining make movies.

I’ve seen a number of creating traits on this video-first podcasting format. This isn’t shocking; when one producer discovers a components 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 12 months or so.

A lot of as we speak’s podcast studios appear to be dwelling rooms and basements. This isn’t a brand new phenomenon with speak reveals, however a whole lot of podcasts began out in a dwelling house, and bigger media corporations have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Pretend vegetation. Bookshelves. This surroundings offers a extra “laid again” model 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 vital — it’s much more comfy of an surroundings 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 seen are these wood slats on the wall in podcast studios — our personal Vox Media house has gone with this design as properly. These work higher for sound absorption whereas nonetheless wanting like a dwelling house. That is already seeking to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts. 

With wide-shot digicam angles showcasing the whole room, there’s normally one thing in the midst of the display screen, like a TV or an enormous emblem 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 house. Plenty of cursive lettering.

Branding is usually prioritized in video, and most producers assume meaning actually wanting on the emblem 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 properly for vertical video).

Microphones are sometimes positioned on ground 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 friends’ faces awkwardly. Poles protruding at numerous incongruent angles look even messier when you might have 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 growth poles in favor of getting hosts and friends maintain their microphones as an alternative. This feels a bit extra genuine and intimate onscreen, and plenty of stand-up comedians choose this methodology. Nevertheless, it may get a bit awkward with inexperienced friends who speak with their palms or who don’t know maintain a microphone with a slender polar sample. 

It could actually 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 file their audio whereas wanting instantly 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 in style 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 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 emblem on the wall in a studio.

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

In order that’s what a whole lot of video podcasts have seemed like by means of 2024. However how about subsequent 12 months?

I imagine 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 massive headphones and thick microphones overlaying individuals’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear displays. 

New audiences might begin to overlook 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 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 completely stocked management room. Hosts are already shifting out of the studio and into barber retailers, 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 out to be too expensive to maintain a video present working a number of occasions per week with out a robust following. Possibly they are going to even reduce 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.