Pack your bags, it’s almost time for Advertising Week Europe! This year Sounds Profitable will be in attendance as the host of The Business of Podcasting space, with sessions scheduled for March 24 and 25th. Read the full session schedule here.

Structure

We designed this event to be the home base for the podcast industry within the larger SXSW event. Even with no promotion by SXSW directly, our event was consistently active at all times, nearing capacity at others, and on Saturday night fully hit capacity with a full night dedicated to celebrating the launch of Companion that included a live acoustic performance by Andy Grammer and a conversation with Penn Badgley.

Our programming throughout the weekend was intentionally curated to spark curiosity, drive discussion, and of course, entertain. 

We saw morning keynotes from the likes of YouTube and Apple on new developments for the industry as well as one from our very own Tom Webster unveiling new industry research. We kept it going long after dark with live podcast recordings and performances from the Table Read podcast, Scalable from Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg, and the Broken Record podcast with special guest Maya Hawke.

Sunday evening, we closed out the weekend with the help of Oxford Road who used the SXSW opportunity to introduce the inaugural Indie PaC awards. The event was hosted by Killer Mike and top creators like Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO), Tim Ferriss (The Tim Ferriss Show), and Hala Taha (Young and Profiting) were all in the room to take home their awards.

Not only did we see familiar partner and past attendee faces, but we also saw companies that touch the podcast industry and haven’t participated notably in Podcast Movement or any podcast specific event before making their way over for one thing or another. And the number of new people doing incredibly interesting things that we got to meet was a major highlight for me. The positioning within SXSW really set the bar for who and what to expect out of an event asking for your attention there.

The space absolutely was designed to support people being there the entire weekend. Eleven partners had dedicated meeting tables (which came in at twice the size but looked too cool to swap out) along with an entire private lounge from Oxford Road and Libsyn, a full service and free coffee/espresso bar (thanks to the sponsorship of Locked On Podcast Network), a killer podcast recording studio right on the patio made possible by Nomono, Simplecast, and the The Podcast Academy (especially Ti King). Heck, we even had free breakfast tacos.

But we didn’t ask all of you to pay high hotel and airline prices to just hang out in our space. Podcasting was the center of the conversation at SXSW, more so than AI this year, making it easy for everyone who had limited to no experience at larger-than-podcasting events to easily break into conversation. Without a convention center, SXSW spread throughout the city, so people were constantly wandering around exploring both the cool things about Austin and specifically SXSW opportunities. (Honestly, it reminded me a bit of why I enjoy Cannes Lions so much. While an official pass got you into a few unique things, the best of what I came across didn’t require one.)

In the same way you’re asking more from us, we’re asking more from you. Building a hub inside of SXSW gave all of you the opportunity to go out there and explore while having a place to bring back people to. It was your event as much as it was ours, and that was visible by the number of people who brought new friends and faces into the space to hold meetings and show off what podcasting is all about. 

As we think tactically about the value of every event we go to, we need to ask: What new opportunity does this provide us directly and indirectly? We’re confident that what we provided this first year embodied that goal completely.

None of these goals would have been achieved though without the support of our sponsors:

Acast, ADOPTER Media, AdsWizz, Airwave Media, Amazon Music, ART19, Audacy, Castbox, Colture, Companion Network, Display.io, ESPN, Locked On Podcast Network, Magellan AI, MowPod, Mynt Agency, Nielsen, Nueva Network, Nomono, NPR, Oxford Road, Red Seat Ventures, Right Side Up, SAG-AFTRA, Simplecast, Soundstack, Supporting Cast, Texas Hill Country Podcast Network, and YouTube.

Driving the Industry Forward

There’s no one company dominating podcasting, which means there's no one company setting the course for the future of podcasting and deciding where we all go. That’s why the teams at Sounds Profitable and Podcast Movement take seriously the opportunity we have to push things forward and get your buy-in. The industry demanded change from the previous format and growth in how they navigate our collective entry into the greater media space. Our teams are just lucky enough to get to provide that for all of you.

September will mark six years running Sounds Profitable, and the one thing we’ve done the worst at is explaining why the number of partners keeps growing every single month, but hopefully this event shows that. Every single one of the 200+ partners of Sounds Profitable had their logo in two places at the event, because they’re the backbone that made this happen. They’re the people that not only directly benefit each month from partnership but financially support our attempts to go bigger and better without having to cave to the pressures of a typical event company. They’re the ones who bought-in further to these ideas and helped make them a reality. They’re why all of this is a success, because this is their event. 

Six years in, Sounds Profitable and Podcast Movement are stages and spotlights now. We’re connective tissue and consulting. Opportunity and support. Research and advice. Because we have buy-in from such a vast network of partners from around the world, we’re able to take action to do what the industry needs instead of waiting until we’ve sold something to justify the costs of doing something big.

So while we prepare for NYC, which we’re excited to share in full details very soon, this is our ask to you: Reach out to us to learn more about what being a partner is all about and why it's a good fit for you. Look through that list of partners and ask your peers and friends why they find being a partner of Sounds Profitable so valuable. Reply to this email to find out more. 

While there’s zero chance of us slowing down, the only reason we’re able to take these risks and chances is because of our growing base of partners, which we’d love for you to be a part of.