What podcasts regarded 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, exhibits from The New York Occasions, NPR, and lots of different podcast networks which were audio-only for years have lately began including a video element so as to acquire 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 attempting to get audio exhibits 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. In consequence, video producers are determining how one can make podcasts, and audio producers are determining how one can make movies.

I’ve seen a couple of creating tendencies on this video-first podcasting format. This isn’t stunning; when one producer discovers a method 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 might develop over the following 12 months or so.

A lot of immediately’s podcast studios seem like residing rooms and basements. This isn’t a new phenomenon with discuss exhibits, however plenty of podcasts began out in a residing area, and bigger media firms have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Faux vegetation. 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 cozy 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 development 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 trying like a residing area. That is already trying to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts. 

With wide-shot digicam angles showcasing the complete room, there may be often one thing in the midst of the display screen, like a TV or a large 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 trying 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 usually doesn’t crop properly for vertical video).

Microphones are sometimes positioned on ground stands that stretch over the couches (these articulating increase stands have been staples in recording studios for many years). In consequence, the stands usually 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 have got 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 increase poles in favor of getting hosts and company maintain their microphones as an alternative. This feels a bit extra genuine and intimate onscreen, and lots of stand-up comedians desire this methodology. Nonetheless, it may get a bit awkward with inexperienced company who discuss with their palms or who don’t know how one can maintain a microphone with a slender polar sample. 

It may possibly get even worse. When podcasts are audio first however with a video element, you usually see awkward practices caught on digicam, like this occasion the place every visitor is holding their cellphone as much as their face to document their audio whereas trying straight on the viewer. It is a widespread apply 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 identify 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 possible as a result of it’s simpler 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 plenty of video variations. However when company are distant and are trying straight 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 plenty of video podcasts have regarded like by means of 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 had been employed to assist make the transition to video will begin questioning the explanation for the massive headphones and thick microphones masking folks’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear displays. 

New audiences might begin to neglect in regards to the phrase “podcast” and discuss 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, mainly turning a easy desk setup and a MacBook into a completely 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 exhibits develop into too pricey to maintain a video present operating a number of occasions per week with no sturdy following. Possibly they are going to even reduce all the way 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.