/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25784220/247333_EOY_Package_Check_In_CVirginia_PODCASTS.jpg?w=1536&resize=1536,0&ssl=1 "What podcasts regarded like in 2024 — actually")
World Courant
In 2024, podcasts have gotten nearer to turning into a video-first medium. Though video podcasts have been round a comparatively very long time, reveals from The New York Instances, NPR, and plenty of different podcast networks which have been audio-only for years have lately began including a video element with a purpose to acquire new listenership. In truth, Spotify, a significant participant in podcasts, is about to start out 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’ll simply movie the expertise speaking. In the meantime, weekly podcasts wish to entice youthful audiences who grew up on YouTube. In consequence, video producers are determining methods to make podcasts, and audio producers are determining methods to make movies.
I’ve observed just a few growing developments on this video-first podcasting format. This isn’t stunning; when one producer discovers a components that works, others are going to strive it. Let’s check out present design and tech developments — after which I will speak about what I believe could develop over the following 12 months or so.
Residence design
Lots of in the present day’s podcast studios appear like dwelling rooms and basements. This is not a brand new phenomenon with discuss reveals, however a number of podcasts began out in a dwelling house, and bigger media firms 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.
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Invoice Maher’s basement vibe. Screenshot: YouTube / Membership Random
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Invoice Maher’s basement vibe. Screenshot: YouTube / Membership Random
Couches and comfortable chairs present up so much on these video reveals. The spherical desk has been ditched, and leisure is essential — it is much more comfy than an setting for speaking for hours at a time. Each hosts and company are sometimes on a sofa collectively or sitting in comfy chairs individually.
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Simply chillin’ on the sofa. Screenshot: YouTube / Lesser Recognized Characters
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Simply chillin’ on the sofa. Screenshot: YouTube / Lesser Recognized Characters
One other pattern I’ve observed 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 trying to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts.
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This setup covers a number of podcast tropes however seems so comfy. Screenshot: YouTube / Two Sizzling Takes
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This setup covers a number of podcast tropes however seems so comfy. Screenshot: YouTube / Two Sizzling Takes
With wide-shot digicam angles showcasing the whole room, there may be normally one thing in the course of the display screen, like a TV or a large 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. A lot of cursive lettering.
Branding is commonly prioritized in video, and most producers suppose meaning actually wanting on the emblem for 2 hours. That is additionally a straightforward approach to let a TikTok scroller know what present they’re watching (though this sometimes would not crop properly for vertical video).
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The TV seems a bit crooked. Screenshot: YouTube / The Day by day Beast
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The TV seems a bit crooked. Screenshot: YouTube / The Day by day Beast
Extra consideration to tech
Microphones are sometimes positioned on flooring stands that reach 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 will have a number of company on separate chairs.
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A lot of company, every with their very own puffy chair and mic stand. Screenshot: YouTube / Joe Budden Community
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A lot of company, every with their very own puffy chair and mic stand. Screenshot: YouTube / Joe Budden Community
Though 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 company maintain their microphones as a substitute. This feels a bit extra genuine and intimate onscreen, and plenty of stand-up comedians desire this methodology. Nonetheless, it could get a bit awkward with inexperienced company who discuss with their palms or who do not know methods to maintain a microphone with a slender polar sample.
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You need to maintain this microphone for the whole present. Screenshot: YouTube / The Bald and the Stunning
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You need to maintain this microphone for the whole present. Screenshot: YouTube / The Bald and the Stunning
It could 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 telephone as much as their face to document their audio whereas wanting straight on the viewer. It is a widespread observe for radio interviews however is not nice when video is concerned.
You by no means see individuals use their telephones like this on a video name in actual life. Screenshot: YouTube / The Day by day
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 harking back to microphone flags on newscaster stick mics, and they’re now being retrofitted for these traditional radio studio microphones. That is seemingly as a result of it is more practical branding on vertically cropped movies than a giant emblem on the wall in a studio.
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Get that emblem in there! Screenshot: YouTube / Pod Save America
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Get that emblem in there! Screenshot: YouTube / Pod Save America
Huge isolating headphones are widespread in radio and podcasts and are nonetheless utilized in a number of video variations. However when company are distant and are wanting straight at their webcam, these massive ear cups stick out very awkwardly — extra so than in the event you’re taking a look at somebody’s profile view.
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The distant visitor makes use of no matter headphones they personal. Screenshot: YouTube / The Weekly Present with Jon Stewart
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The distant visitor makes use of no matter headphones they personal. Screenshot: YouTube / The Weekly Present with Jon Stewart
So that is what a number of video podcasts have regarded like via 2024. However how about subsequent 12 months?
The longer term seems extra skilled
I imagine 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 massive headphones and thick microphones masking individuals’s faces and go for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear screens.
New audiences could begin to neglect concerning the phrase “podcast” and consult with 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, 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 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 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 working a number of instances every week with out a robust following. Perhaps they may even cut back right down to an audio-only format. And maybe that’s the place they may restart a brand new experiment within the audio medium.
