What Is an Audio Drama? A Simple Guide to Stories You Hear

An audio drama is a story told entirely in sound. There is no picture and usually very little narration. Instead, characters speak to each other in their own voices, and sound effects and background noise tell you where you are and what is happening. A door creaks, rain hits a window, someone whispers right behind you, and your imagination builds the rest.

You may also hear it called a radio drama, a radio play, an audio play, an audio series or a fiction podcast. They all describe the same basic idea: a story written to be heard.

This guide explains how audio drama works, where it came from, how it differs from podcasts and audiobooks, and the easiest ways to start.

How an audio drama works

A film shows you a scene. A book describes it. An audio drama lets you hear it happen. To do that, it is built from three layers of sound.

• Voices. Every character has their own voice. When two people argue, you hear two people. When someone is on the phone or shouting from another room, it sounds that way.
• Sound effects. Single events: a phone ringing, footsteps on stairs, a car door, a glass breaking. These replace the lines a book would spend describing the action.
• Ambience. The bed of sound under a scene that tells you where you are: a storm, a quiet kitchen at night, a forest, a busy street.

The script is written for the ear. Most of the story moves through dialogue, scenes are short, and description is either cut or carried by sound. Some audio dramas use a narrator to link scenes or to tell the story as a memory, but even then, the big moments play out as scenes you can hear.

A short history of audio drama

Audio drama is older than television. As soon as radio reached people's homes in the 1920s, broadcasters began writing plays for it.

In Britain, the BBC broadcast Richard Hughes's play Danger (later published as A Comedy of Danger) on 15 January 1924. It is often called the first play written for radio. It was set in a coal mine where the lights had gone out, so listeners were in the dark along with the characters, and audiences were encouraged to listen with their own lights off.

In the United States, radio drama filled evenings for decades, until television drew its audience away. The most famous single broadcast is The War of the Worlds, Orson Welles's adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel, which aired on CBS's The Mercury Theatre on the Air on 30 October 1938. It was staged as a series of breaking news reports about a Martian invasion, and newspapers reported that some listeners believed it was real. Historians still argue about how many did, but the broadcast showed how convincing a story in sound can be.

Radio drama never disappeared. The Archers, a BBC drama about a farming community, has been on the air since 1 January 1951 and is often called the longest-running drama in the world. In 1978, BBC Radio 4 launched The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a radio series before it became books, a TV show and a film.

Then podcasts gave the form a new home. Welcome to Night Vale, created by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor, released its first episode in June 2012 and helped start a wave of fiction podcasts. Today audio drama lives on podcast apps, audiobook stores and platforms built just for serialized audio stories.

Audio drama vs podcast

A podcast is a way of publishing audio, not a kind of story. Most podcasts are interviews, news or conversation. A fiction podcast that tells a story with a cast and sound is an audio drama that happens to be published as a podcast.

So every audio drama on a podcast app is a podcast, but most podcasts are not audio dramas. If a show has characters, scenes and a plot, and the people talking are playing parts, it is audio drama.

Audio drama vs audiobook

An audiobook is a book read aloud, usually by one narrator who voices every character and reads every line of description. An audio drama gives each character their own voice and replaces most of that description with dialogue and sound.

Audiobooks keep the author's full text and suit long, relaxed listening. Audio dramas tend to be faster, more immersive and easier to take in short sessions. For a full side-by-side comparison, read Audio Drama vs Audiobook and How to Choose Your Next Listen.

What is a serialized audio drama?

Many audio dramas are serialized: the story comes out one episode at a time, and each episode ends with a reason to press play again. Think of it as a TV series for your ears. Episodes are usually short enough for a commute or a lunch break, and a good cliffhanger makes it very easy to listen to "just one more."

Serialized audio covers every genre: romance, fantasy, horror, thrillers, mysteries and stories about superpowers and secret systems.

Where to start: audio dramas to try on Carry On Audio

Carry On Audio is built for serialized audio drama. Every series has a voice for each character, sound effects and ambience, and the story comes out episode by episode. Episode 1 of every series is free to anyone. Sign in with a free account and the first three episodes of a series open up. Two series are free in full with a free account.

Here are good first listens, by mood.

If you like horror: Close Enough to Touch

A twelve-year-old girl hides under her bed with her little brother while someone climbs the stairs. Then her lost phone calls her, and it is her own voice. Close Enough to Touch is a collection of horror stories told late at night by the fire by the people who survived them, each one a full story. Every episode is free with a free account. For more, see our list of the best horror audio dramas.

If you like a slow-burn mystery: The Story Is AFTERWORD

Mara Voss's husband has been dead eleven weeks when the phone rings, and it is him, seven minutes a day, telling her to stop looking into the night he died. The Story Is AFTERWORD is a thriller that starts like a ghost story and turns into something worse. Every episode is free with a free account.

If you like romance with a dark edge: Where the Wild Moon Breaks

Lena Vale came to Blackridge Mountain to record the sounds of the wild, and the wild answered back. Where the Wild Moon Breaks is an atmospheric paranormal romance about a human, a man hiding a wolf inside him, and a forbidden bond. Find more in Romantasy.

If you like superpowers: ASH AND RAIN or The Unranked

In ASH AND RAIN, a brother and sister hunt monsters in the rain to pay for their mother's medicine, until the System delivers a message from their father, who has been dead for seven years. In The Unranked, Sky Novaire lives in a city where your worth is etched onto your skin, and she has no rank at all. Both are in Superpowers.

If you like a twisty thriller: The Billionaire's Witness

Mara Ellis was only supposed to audit a powerful Boston businessman's accounts. Instead she witnessed a suspicious death, and then he asked her to lie for him. The Billionaire's Witness is a mystery about secrets that reach back into her own childhood. More in Mystery.

Tips for your first audio drama

• Use headphones if you can. Sound is placed around you, and headphones let you hear where things are.
• Start at episode 1. Serialized stories build on what came before.
• Give it one episode. Within ten or fifteen minutes you will know whether a story has you.
• Listen while you do something else. Driving, walking, cooking and folding laundry all go well with a story in your ears.

FAQ

What is an audio drama in simple words?

A story you hear instead of watch or read. Actors play the characters, and sound effects and background noise show you the scene.

Is a radio drama the same as an audio drama?

Yes. Radio drama is the older name, from when these stories were broadcast on the radio. Audio drama covers the same kind of story wherever it is published: radio, podcasts or apps.

Are audio dramas the same as podcasts?

Not exactly. A podcast is a way of publishing audio. Some podcasts are audio dramas, but most are talk, interviews or news.

How long is an audio drama?

It depends on the series. Single episodes are often between about 10 and 45 minutes, and a serialized story can run for many episodes.

Where can I listen to audio dramas for free?

On Carry On Audio, episode 1 of every series is free, the first three open up with a free account, and some series are free in full with an account. Many classic and fiction-podcast audio dramas are also free on podcast apps.