What is a video podcast and how is it different from an audio podcast?

What a video podcast is, in plain words

A video podcast is a conversation show released in episodes, just like any podcast, but it is also filmed. There are cameras on the people talking, lighting designed so they look good, and an edit that cuts between shots. The episode goes out on YouTube or Spotify with picture and, at the same time, as audio in podcast apps.

It is not just any YouTube video, and it is not a live stream. What defines it is the format: one or more people talking about a subject, with continuity, episode after episode. That is why the word still says "podcast": the conversation is the core, and the picture goes with it.

Most people already know it without the name. When you open YouTube and see two people with big microphones in front of them, on a sofa or at a table, in an eight-minute cut from a two-hour talk, that is a piece of a video podcast. It is the format that has grown the most in recent years, and the one brands, creators and companies ask us for most when they want to tell something properly.

The real question most people have is a different one: if I already have an audio podcast, is it worth moving to video? The short answer is almost always yes, because video multiplies the places where people can find you. But it comes with production work you should understand before you start, and we explain it below.

Audio podcast vs video podcast: the real differences

The obvious difference is the picture, but it is not the only one. An audio podcast is something you listen to while doing something else: driving, running, washing up. A video podcast is watched, or at least glanced at, and that changes how it is recorded, edited and published.

In the recording, audio is still the boss. A good video podcast sounds as good as a good podcast: one microphone per voice, separate tracks and a room that does not echo. On top of that come the cameras, usually one per person plus a wide shot, and lighting that shows faces rather than shadows.

In the edit, audio gets cleaned up and tightened. Video also has to be directed: deciding at every moment which shot is on screen, when to cut to the guest's reaction and when to go wide. Add colour grading, an intro, titles and often graphics that explain what is being said.

In publishing, the audio podcast lives on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and the other apps. The video podcast lives there and also on YouTube, today one of the places where most people consume podcasts, and on social media as vertical clips. That is the biggest advantage: one recording gives you the long episode plus a batch of short pieces that bring in new people.

Does the audio listener lose anything? Not if the show is well made. The audio version comes from the same material and still works without watching. That is why the sensible approach is to record with both in mind from day one.

Video podcast examples we know from the inside

The best way to understand a video podcast is to watch a few. Here are shows we have worked on, so we can also tell you what you don't see.

Aladetres is a Spanish video podcast about history, economics and current affairs. We handle all of its post-production: editing every episode, intros with motion graphics and original music, social clips and thumbnails. We have post-produced more than a hundred episodes. When we started, the channel had around 100,000 YouTube subscribers; today it has more than 800,000, and episode 145, with José Luis Cava, has over 2.6 million views. It shows the power of video well: a large part of that audience arrived through YouTube and the clips.

The Sage Steele Show is an English-language interview show we work on with our partner Dull Light in Miami. Each episode starts as two to three hours of footage and we turn it into a finished piece with a cinematic intro, colour, sound and thumbnail. Its most-watched episode has passed a million views.

There are more examples in the same vein: The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast, Sadia Khan's The Brutal Truth, Peter Crone's Finding Freedom and BioHack-It, for which we have made more than 150 reels from its episodes.

What they have in common is that none of them is just a camera switched on. All of them have a clear format, a look you recognise from the first second and a system for getting pieces out of every episode. That is what separates a video podcast that grows from one that ends up in a drawer.

Where a video podcast gets published

A video podcast is published in three places at once, and each one does a different job.

YouTube is the main shop window. People search there for topics and names, and the algorithm recommends episodes to people who did not know you. Both full episodes and longer cuts of ten or fifteen minutes on one subject work well. Thumbnail and title decide much of the result, so they get the same care as the episode itself.

Spotify now supports video podcasts and pushes them more and more. Whoever opens it on a phone can watch or lock the screen and keep listening. In Spain, Spotify has also announced its payment programme for video creators this autumn; we explain it in how much Spotify pays for podcasts. Apple Podcasts and the other apps receive the audio version, made from the same material.

Social media is the front door. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and LinkedIn will not show your one-hour episode, but they will show a well-chosen minute. Those vertical clips, with captions and a strong opening, are what bring new people to the long episode.

The practical order is this: publish the episode on YouTube and Spotify on the same day, the audio version in the other apps, and release clips through the week. With a calendar like that, each recording gives you content for several days without recording more.

For a company there is a fourth place: its own channels, such as the website, the newsletter or the intranet, where the episode works for clients or for the team.

What you need to record a video podcast properly

The minimum for a video podcast that looks professional fits in a short list: one microphone per person, one camera per person plus a wide shot, soft light without hard shadows, a room without echo and someone checking that everything records while you talk. If you want the detail, it is in what you need to produce a podcast.

The temptation is to start with the cameras, and it is a mistake. A beautiful video with bad sound gets abandoned within seconds; a simple video with clean sound holds people for an hour. That is why, on any set we build, the first test day is about audio.

Second comes the format. Before buying anything, be clear about what the show is about, how long it runs, who speaks and how each episode opens. That decides how many cameras you need, what set makes sense and what kind of edit it will require.

Third, and the most forgotten, is post-production. Recording takes an afternoon; editing well, with colour, sound, intro, thumbnail and clips, takes many hours per episode. A lot of video podcasts stall because nobody planned for that weekly work.

There are three ways to solve it: do everything yourself, record yourself and have a team handle the editing, or record in a studio with a technician and have the same team edit it. None is better than the others; it depends on your time, where you are and what you want to achieve.

How we produce video podcasts at Bostak

At Bostak Films we make video podcasts in all three of those ways, which is why we usually start with one question: what do you want the show to achieve?

If you are in or near Barcelona, you can record at our studio in Viladecans. It has three sets ready to go, a technician for the whole session, a 4K camera per person and a studio microphone per voice. You sit down, talk, and within 24 hours you have the footage. If you prefer to record at your office, we bring the kit and set it up.

If you are elsewhere in Spain, in Europe or in Latin America, you record wherever you are and we do the post-production remotely: editing, colour, sound, intro, thumbnails and clips. It is how we work with shows recorded in other countries, and with a good file transfer routine it works just as well.

In every case the work does not end with the episode. We plan each recording to give several pieces: the full show, long cuts for YouTube and vertical clips for social media. We have our own system that turns the horizontal episode into vertical reels, so the team spends its time choosing which moment deserves to go out.

If you have an audio podcast and wonder whether to move it to video, or you are thinking of starting one, the most useful step is to look at it together. Book a free audit: we look at your idea or your channel and tell you what we would do and where we would start. The whole process is explained on our podcast production page.

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