For most of history, art needed a building. You saw the painting if you could get to the museum, and you heard the artist only if you were in the room on the right night.

Podcasting changed that. A conversation recorded once can now reach people who will never visit the gallery, on the drive home or late at night on a phone. For galleries, designers and creative brands, a podcast Dubai listeners actually finish has become one of the most direct ways to take their world to a far larger audience, and to let people relate to it on their own terms.

How podcasting is taking art and culture to a wider audience

Podcasting takes art and culture to a wider audience because it removes two old barriers: getting there, and feeling welcome once you arrive. A podcast costs nothing to hear, fits around daily life and speaks in plain conversation, so people who would never walk into a gallery end up listening to the artist.

A visitor standing alone before a wall of framed paintings

The best-known proof is older than most podcast apps. In 2010 BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum told A History of the World in 100 Objects, one object per episode. By the final week the podcast had been downloaded more than 10.4 million times, and the radio broadcasts regularly reached up to 4 million listeners. A museum collection found millions of people who had never seen the objects in person.

The audience has grown since. Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2026 found that 58% of Americans aged 12 and over had listened to or watched a podcast in the past month, a record, and among people aged 55 and over monthly use rose from 38% to 58% in a single year. YouTube reported more than 1 billion monthly viewers of podcast content in 2025. That is a mass audience by any measure.

The UAE is ahead of that curve. YouGov's UAE Podcast Advertising Report 2026 found that 81% of UAE residents listen to or watch podcasts as part of their routine, the highest of 13 countries surveyed. Sixty per cent prefer video to audio only, also the highest.

Why listeners connect with artists through conversation

Listeners connect with artists through conversation because a podcast lets them hear the person behind the work, including the doubts and the small story behind a big piece. Hearing why something was made is often what makes people care about it.

Two people in headphones talking across a table during a podcast recording

A gallery label gives you a title, a date and a medium. A forty-minute conversation gives you the argument the artist had with themselves before the piece was finished. Talk Art, the podcast the actor Russell Tovey and the gallerist Robert Diament have hosted since 2018, is built on exactly that: artists, curators and art lovers talking plainly about the work they care about.

Research on hosts backs this up. In The Podcast Study 2026, a survey of 1,205 US podcast listeners co-sponsored by NPR, PRX and Crooked Media, 82% said the host was a big part of, or the only reason for, listening to their favourite podcast. And 88% spent at least half their listening time with that one show. People come back for a voice they trust.

For a cultural brand, that is the value: a podcast gives people real time with the minds behind the work, which an exhibition or a social post rarely can.

“A painting waits on a wall for whoever walks in. A good conversation travels further, and helps a gallery reach people it might never have met.”

MAASQ

Dubai's creative scene: the voices worth hearing

Dubai's creative scene has more voices worth hearing than most cities its age. Art fairs, design weeks and gallery districts bring artists, designers and collectors together every season, and most of what they say is heard only by the people in the room.

That room has grown large. Art Dubai's 20th anniversary edition in May 2026 drew more than 25,000 visitors, a record for its public days, with institutions from more than 20 countries. Dubai Design Week 2025 welcomed more than 135,000 visitors and over 1,000 designers. Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz, home to more than 90 galleries and creative concepts, receives around 2 million visitors a year.

The city is betting on it too. The Dubai Creative Economy Strategy set out to raise the creative industries' share of GDP from 2.6% to 5% and to double creative jobs to 140,000.

Our view at MAASQ is that each of those events produces hours of brilliant conversation that disappears when the lights go off. A gallery, designer or cultural space that records those conversations properly turns a few days of attention into a library people can return to all year.

Formats that suit art, design and fashion

The best podcast formats for art, design and fashion are built around a real conversation and filmed well enough to watch. Since most UAE listeners prefer video, every episode should look as considered as the work it discusses.

Four formats suit creative brands especially well:

  1. The artist in conversation. One artist or designer, one host and one body of work, traced back to the first sketch.

  2. The curator's walk-through. A curator takes listeners through an exhibition's ideas piece by piece, so they can follow it before or after a visit.

  3. The two-chair exchange. Two people from different disciplines, say a fashion designer and an architect, on one shared question.

  4. The collection story. One object, garment or artwork per episode, in the spirit of A History of the World in 100 Objects.

Every format works as clips as well as full episodes. A strong forty-minute conversation should give a cultural brand a full video episode for YouTube and Spotify, plus several short cuts for Instagram and TikTok.

What a podcast session in Dubai includes for a cultural brand, and how to book one

A podcast session gives a cultural brand what it needs to turn a conversation into an episode: an acoustically treated room, microphones, lights and cameras, and, if wanted, a team that handles the recording and the edit. In Dubai, MAASQ offers this by the hour at its podcast space in Business Bay.

There are three packages, each booked by the hour with a two-hour minimum:

Package

What it includes

Rate per hour

Space Only: Space + Equipment

Acoustically treated room for two, 2 microphones, 2 professional lights, 2 background options

AED 300

Space + Crew: Full On-Site Production

Everything above, plus 2 cameras and an on-site assistant

AED 500

Full Service & Editing: End-to-End Content Engine

Everything above, with on-site assistants and post-production: 1 long-form edited video or 5 optimised reels

AED 1,000

Sessions run Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 18:00, and are booked online. A gallery recording its first episode might take Space + Crew, so the conversation is filmed without bringing in an outside crew. A brand that wants the edited episode or reels ready to publish would take Full Service & Editing.

For a first episode, our advice is simple. Pick one guest, one question and one piece to talk about. Conversations about something specific are the ones people listen to until the end.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to record a podcast in Dubai?

At MAASQ in Business Bay, podcast sessions are booked by the hour with a two-hour minimum. Space with equipment is AED 300 an hour, space with crew and cameras is AED 500 an hour, and full service with editing, which delivers an edited episode or five reels, is AED 1,000 an hour. Sessions are booked online.

Is a video podcast better than audio only?

For most brands in the UAE, yes. YouGov's 2026 UAE report found that 60% of residents prefer video podcasts to audio only, the highest of 13 countries surveyed, and YouTube has more than 1 billion monthly podcast viewers. Video also gives you short clips for social media from every episode you record.

Can podcasting help a gallery or cultural brand reach new audiences?

Yes. Podcasting reaches people who may never visit a gallery and lets them hear artists and curators directly. A History of the World in 100 Objects, made by BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum, was downloaded more than 10.4 million times, taking a museum collection to millions of listeners who had never seen it.

How long should a brand podcast episode be?

In our view, 30 to 45 minutes suits most conversation formats: long enough for a real discussion and short enough to finish in one sitting. Keep each episode focused on one guest or one idea, then cut shorter clips for Instagram and TikTok so the conversation keeps working after it is published.

What does podcast production include?

Podcast production covers everything from planning an episode to publishing it: the format and guest, the recording with microphones, lighting and cameras, then editing, sound, and cutting clips for social media. With MAASQ's Full Service & Editing package, a session ends with an edited long-form video or five reels ready to post.

Where to start

Choose one conversation you wish more people had heard, perhaps with an artist you represent or a designer you admire, and record it properly. MAASQ's podcast production team can take it from the first mic check to the finished episode, and media production can film the work around it. Book a podcast session online, or start a conversation if you would like to plan a series first. From mic check to viral clip in one stop.

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