Branded podcasts for museums

The Louvre, the Centre Pompidou and the Musée Picasso... A large number of museums and cultural institutions have launched branded podcasts. You're going to tell me that this is normal, because "museums were closed"Really? Certainly, successive closures have forced museums, cultural venues and institutions to find other ways of exhibiting, but...

Is this enough to justify the rise of the museum podcast?

To answer these questions, we conducted a little investigation to understand the emergence of audio in the artistic field. Find out more: industry and podcasts

Museum podcast: a love affair that predates covid19

In fact, the love affair between museum podcasts and webradio is nothing new. Indeed, long before Covid19, the New York art center was already offering contemporary art webradio in 2004. A podcast that enjoyed its share of success, ending 5 years later, in 2009.

The podcast-audioguide: the resurrected format

In fact, museums were already using audio tools before the advent of the podcast...Remember? those little "audioguide" headphones you've been given since the 1980s to enjoy your visit with a "guide in your ears"... Today, this format has been resurrected, including the specific features of the museum podcast.The Musée de l'Armée-Invalides has seized on this format with its Digital Guide to the museum's permanent and temporary exhibits.

An alternative to museum closures

I think everyone remembers it... From one day to the next, our lives were turned upside down and we were stuck at home. Remote from museums, with no connection to the cultural milieu - with the exception of Netflix - the podcast re-established some semblance of a link between followers and the artistic. This appropriation of audio has been a natural, obligatory step for cultural venues wishing to :

• Get inside the heads of the right people,
• Giving a second life to works of art,
• Continue to provide a platform for artists to express themselves.

Witness the jingle of the confined museums podcast from the Réseau de musées départementaux de l'Isère: " While this spring of 2020, museums are closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic, those who bring them to life invite themselves into your homes and share with you in audio version the concentrates of humanity of which they are tireless mediators."

Museum podcast: a way to reinvent yourself

When we think of a museum, we think of a physical place, a friendly person who tears up our ticket at the entrance, and its share of guides who speak 12 different languages to help us better understand the works of art. Taking the sound medium in hand is therefore an attempt at innovation for museums.

"So the museum podcast is much more than just an online audio guide."

A way to offer cultural activities:

• A dematerialized form of sound creation,
• Easily accessible on the Internet,
• No time limit

The museum podcast is much more than a simple online audioguide, offering cultural venues a way of inventing new ways of :

• Telling the museum in a different way,
• Delivering a different perspective on an exhibition,
• Capture visitors' attention by varying approaches and formats,
• Make our collections more attractive and accessible to the general public,
• Taking up societal issues (ecology, feminism, LGBTQI+ rights)

This is the case of the :

• LOUVRE, and its podcast "Les Odyssées du Louvre", which has been a thriving success since 2020.
• Musée de l'Homme, produced in collaboration with Slate magazine, on the occasion of the "Nous et les Autres" exhibition, and evoking themes linked to racism.

What are the advantages of a museum podcast for the listener?

For the listener, listening to a museum podcast can help to :

• Extend your visit,
• Explore the museum in a different way (without moving),
• Access works of art at lower prices.

But in reality, for the listener, beyond the educational aspect of following a museum podcast, it's above all the immersive aspect of the podcast that appeals.

The museum podcast offers a more intimate relationship

Indeed, one of the key features of podcasts lies in the immersive aspect of the format. Thanks to the voice, listeners feel much closer to the presenters, and more intimate with the subject under discussion. These podcasts often take the form of an interview with an artistic personality, such as :

• Collectors,
• Museum professionals,
• Visitors,
• Counterfeiters (yes, because their point of view is interesting)

Throughout the interview, their point of view is highlighted, as in the podcast "Le sens de la visite" created by Jérémie Thomas.He describes the museum podcast and its intimate relationship like this:

"Each testimony becomes an art history, each glance illuminates the work with a new meaning and makes art resonate as a sharing."

Still not convinced by the usefulness of the museum podcast? I think you'll change your mind when you see its impact in the Luxury Podcast or the Fashion Podcast.

Avner UZAN