SONIC BOOM

With hundreds of thousands of podcasts competing for listeners, hosts are using IRL events and other strategies to make their shows more of an "experience." Fans dig it

- MARAH EAKIN

EARLY THIS YEAR, during an otherwise bleak couple of days in Brooklyn, New York, thousands of podcast fans enjoyed a special treat: They got to be a part of My Favorite Murder.

No, they didn't become victims of some bound-for-true-crime massacre; they were invited to the Pod Loft, a pop-up version of My Favorite Murder's original podcasting studio. After spending countless intimate hours listening to the show, these so-called Murderinos were finally able to inhabit a version of the room where it happened, one filled with fan art, listening experiences, and tributes to the pod's motto, "Stay sexy and don't get murdered."

The Pod Loft was one of many installations at this year's On Air Fest, which also featured spaces dedicated to Radiolab, The Heart, Object of Sound, and On Being. The Podcast Experience, as it was dubbed, may have seemed like marketing-an "activation," in industry jargon-but it was also an exploration of the genre's future. With about 220,000 podcasts releasing at least one episode per week, creators need new ways to keep fans engaged. They've sold shirts and gone on tour, but if the On Air Fest asked anything, it was this: What's next?

Jemma Rose Brown, one of the event's organizers, thinks the landscape has changed dramatically. "The levers that could be pulled don't exist in the same ways," she says. "Now you have to create a moment, and you have to create a story. Every podcaster should be thinking about innovation and play and experimentation."

Podcasts have always been a deeply personal experience, thanks in part to how most people listen to them: with headphones in, while commuting, cooking, or cleaning. Now, though, the most successful podcasts are the ones that cultivate communities. There's clout and kinship in being a Murderino, a Friend of the Pod, or part of the Daddy Gang.