In 2024, podcasts have gotten closer to becoming a video-first medium. Though video podcasts have been around a relatively long time, shows from The New York Times, NPR, and many other podcast networks that have been audio-only for years have recently started adding a video component in order to gain new listenership. In fact, Spotify, a major player in podcasts, is about to begin paying podcasters to bring videos to the platform. 

And after years of producers trying to get audio shows to go viral on social media, podcasts are now dominating TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts after video producers realized they can just film the talent talking. Meanwhile, weekly podcasts are looking to attract younger audiences who grew up on YouTube. As a result, video producers are figuring out how to make podcasts, and audio producers are figuring out how to make videos.

I’ve noticed a few developing trends in this video-first podcasting format. This isn’t surprising; when one producer discovers a formula that works, others are going to try it. Let’s take a look at current design and tech trends — and then I’ll talk about what I think may develop over the next year or so.

Many of today’s podcast studios look like living rooms and basements. This isn’t a new phenomenon with talk shows, but a lot of podcasts started out in a living space, and larger media companies have adopted that aesthetic. Lamps. Fireplaces. Fake plants. Bookshelves. This environment gives a more “laid back” style of long-form interviewing, which is typically the vibe of most chat-style podcasts.

Couches and comfy chairs show up a lot on these video shows. The round table has been ditched, and leisure is key — it’s a lot more comfortable of an environment for talking hours at a time. Both hosts and guests are often on a couch together or sitting in comfy chairs separately. 

Another trend I’ve noticed are these wooden slats on the wall in podcast studios — our own Vox Media space has gone with this design as well. These work better for sound absorption while still looking like a living space. This is already looking to be a signifier of mid-2020 video podcasts. 

With wide-shot camera angles showcasing the entire room, there is usually something in the middle of the screen, like a TV or a giant logo of the show, to create a symmetrical studio look. Neon signs and colored lights are very trendy right now because they add a colorful glow to a more muted studio space. Lots of cursive lettering.

Branding is often prioritized in video, and most producers think that means literally looking at the logo for two hours. This is also an easy way to let a TikTok scroller know what show they are watching (though this typically doesn’t crop well for vertical video).

Microphones are often placed on floor stands that extend over the couches (these articulating boom stands have been staples in recording studios for decades). As a result, the stands often appear from out of the camera frame and stick up broadly in front of guests’ faces awkwardly. Poles sticking out at various incongruent angles look even messier when you have multiple guests on separate chairs. 

Though new kinds of mic stands for podcasts have been introduced to the market, many shows are ditching the long, awkward boom poles in favor of having hosts and guests hold their microphones instead. This feels a bit more authentic and intimate onscreen, and many stand-up comedians prefer this method. However, it can get a bit awkward with inexperienced guests who talk with their hands or who don’t know how to hold a microphone with a narrow polar pattern. 

It can get even worse. When podcasts are audio first but with a video component, you often see awkward practices caught on camera, like this instance where each guest is holding their phone up to their face to record their audio while looking directly at the viewer. This is a common practice for radio interviews but isn’t great when video is involved.

The Shure SM7B microphones are still really popular in this medium as well as the budget MV7 model. For the purposes of branding, cubes with the name of the show are often stuck awkwardly on the bottom of the microphone. This is reminiscent of microphone flags on newscaster stick mics, and they are now being retrofitted for these classic radio studio microphones. This is likely because it’s more effective branding on vertically cropped videos than a big logo on the wall in a studio.

Big isolating headphones are common in radio and podcasts and are still used in a lot of video versions. But when guests are remote and are looking directly at their webcam, those large ear cups stick out very awkwardly — more so than if you’re looking at someone’s profile view. 

So that’s what a lot of video podcasts have looked like through 2024. But how about next year?

I believe that, in 2025, podcast producers will eventually stop following these tropes and try to differentiate themselves. Some producers that were hired to help make the transition to video will start questioning the reason for the large headphones and thick microphones covering people’s faces and opt for smaller lavalier mics and in-ear monitors. 

New audiences may start to forget about the word “podcast” and refer to the chat shows they watch as just “shows.” Media executives will try to opt for syndication of the programs on linear platforms like Roku, Pluto, or Tubi. The thin line between podcasts and TV shows will get thinner. 

More consumer-priced tools for production have entered the market, basically turning a simple desk setup and a MacBook into a fully stocked control room. Hosts are already moving out of the studio and into barber shops, tennis courts, and on sidewalks. AI tools like Descript, Hush, and Accentize can turn less-than-optimal microphone recordings into fuller, beefier broadcast-style recordings. Podcasters whose equipment is less capable of handling uncontrolled recording environments will especially benefit from these postproduction tools. 

And who knows? Perhaps the pendulum will swing back again when budgets for these shows become too costly to keep a video show running multiple times a week without a strong following. Maybe they will even scale back down to an audio-only format. And perhaps that is where they will restart a new experiment in the audio medium. 

Metaphor: ReFantanzio is one of 2024’s best games racking up a stack of Game Awards including best RPG, best art direction, and best narrative. But one category in which Metaphor particularly stood out was its music. The soundtrack, produced by Shoji Meguro – the long-time music director of the Persona series, is one of the outstanding achievements in video game music this year, particularly its battle theme which became a viral hit. In an interview with The Verge, Meguro talked about his work on the Metaphor soundtrack including what went into what is perhaps the coolest piece of video game battle music ever made. 

Meguro, known for his work producing the pop-y, jazzy vibes of the Persona soundtracks, acknowledged that Metaphor’s heavy orchestral / choral sound is not something Persona fans would expect from him and definitely outside his own wheelhouse. He said in order to effectively change gears from Persona to Metaphor, he had to relearn classical music theory.

“But that’s what makes creating this score so exciting,” he said. “When I was first told about Metaphor: ReFantazio, I was told it would be an epic, high-fantasy RPG. And immediately I heard the sound of great orchestras playing and thought this might be an opportunity to write songs I’ve never really written before, which excited me greatly.”

In developing the music for Metaphor, Meguro said that he wanted to evoke a classical, fantasy experience but feature a unique twist that he said fans have come to expect from Atlus games. That twist became what Meguro called a “spiritual musical style” that defines the soundtrack, particularly the battle music.

As it was nominated for Game of the Year, Metaphor’s music made an appearance during this year’s Game Awards.

If you’ve spent any amount of time on gaming social media this year, you’ve probably seen tons of posts talking about Metaphor’s battle music. For a battle theme it goes extremely hard, with one version starting off with an orchestra-backed choir singing with the kind of gusto you’d expect for a meeting with Sephiroth, not something that plays during every minor encounter in the game. Then, somehow, the song goes even harder with the addition of a Japanese monk chanting in a rapid-fire cadence that could go toe-to-toe with Eminem. To further elevate the songs, the chants were written in an original language inspired by Esperanto, a language that was invented in 1887 and designed to be used as an internationally universal secondary language. 

But finding the right voice for the job wasn’t easy. “I was looking for a specific type of voice that could sustain a fast rhythm while reading Esperanto-inspired scripture,” Meguro said. 

His search led him to YouTube, where scrolling through performances was how he found a monk named Keisuke Honryo performing in Nam Jazz Experiment, a musical group that combines jazz with the recitation of traditional Buddhist sutras. “It was so great, I immediately made [Honryo] an offer and luckily he accepted and was happy to be a part of this game.”

But there’s a reason why Metaphor’s battle music is so arresting and it’s not just because of the musical stylings of a Japanese monk chanting in an invented language inspired by another invented language. Meguro had to reframe his thinking in developing the soundtrack, leading to the creation of something truly unique that changes how players perceive the game.

“I’ve always considered game scores to be similar to UI elements, constructs that exist solely to service the player,” Meguro said. “Although the score has to capture the atmosphere of the story for the user, it’s worth reminding ourselves that this music is not actually playing directly within the world the characters are in.”

Meguro explained that in conversations with the game’s director Katsura Hashino, the two discussed ways to connect what players are hearing to what the characters are hearing as well.

He said the thought experiment allowed them to “approach the music composition through a different lens.” The idea wound up implemented in the game itself. In Metaphor’s opening hours, the player’s sidekick casts a spell that allows them to hear music as they roam about the world and, inevitably, get into fights.

That moment dramatically changes the context of all of Metaphor’s music, especially its battle themes. Taking those songs from fun bits of ambience for solely players and turning them into something the characters experience too, explains why the songs go hard as they do. Every fight for us is one more event on the way to the credits, for the characters it’s life or death and it makes sense that the music they hear as they fight for their lives, reflects that gravity. 

Meguro used Metaphor’s music to bring the players further into the game and he’s delighted by how well his work has been received. The two battle songs, called “Warriors in Arms” and “Warriors in Valor” instantly resonated with players, inspiring memes and even animated shorts. 

“That brings me so much joy that fans are responding enthusiastically to the music of Metaphor,” Meguro said. “It’s an honor to get that kind of reaction.”