SXSW 2027 PanelPicker launches from June 23 to July 26, 2026
Lucas Velez, SXSW Manager of Account Management, shared the upcoming launch date for SXSW 2027’s PanelPicker application process. On Tuesday, June 23 at 2:00 p.m. CT, there will be a live AMA (ask me anything) session for PanelPicker, as well as a SXSW EDU AMA on Thursday, June 25 at 2:00 p.m. CT. SXSW and SXSW EDU will hold office hours through July to answer PanelPicker questions. Sounds Profitable can confirm that Podcast Movement Evolutions will return for SXSW 2027, Monday through Wednesday of the event.
AMP Task Force Introduces Cross-Platform Alternative to the Podcast “Download”
This week, the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting announced its first unified impression framework for audio and video podcasting. The framework gives advertisers and publishers a common way to compare audio and video podcast inventory while preserving the download metric as a delivery signal. AMP members approved four exposure definitions with no dissenting votes:
- Podcast Play: 30 seconds of content played, audio or video, once per user per session.
- Podcast Audience: The number of unique users who had a Podcast Play.
- Ad Impression: A commercial begins playing for the user.
- Ad Audience: The number of users exposed to an Ad Impression.
This new standard is consumption-based, rather than delivery-based, and is inherently designed to work for both audio and video, taking into account both listening and viewing on all platforms. It functions as a supplementary layer of measurement, rather than a sudden currency replacement, allowing for cross-platform comparison without needing individual platforms to abandon existing frameworks.
In addition to exposure definitions, the AMP intends to develop a universal definition for the term “podcast.” The task force will unveil its full guidance at the Oxford Road CAO Summit on July 23, 2026.
Strum and Drang by Tom Webster
In this week’s Sounds Profitable article, Webster shares his current relationship with AI. In a year, that relationship has evolved from experimental ChatGPT use to running multiple open-source LLMs on a local server in his home. With the continual development of genAI tech, he recalls the amount of menial jobs in his lifetime he’s seen made redundant by tech innovation, like paying folks a dollar a page to type up handwritten papers. A quote from the article:
“Finally, I think it’s important to note that consumer attitudes about AI in things like podcasts may not be where you think, and that line is always moving. We are already acclimated to TikTok videos being narrated by seemingly the same two or three voices. I do believe in disclosure; however, I think that, too, will fall away in time (and that won’t take very long) because people are just not going to care.
But this is the one thing you CAN and MUST do, no matter how much or how little you embrace AI: you must care. Claude cannot care. But you can care. You can ensure that the craft is evident, that the hand of the watchmaker is revealed in the workings of the watch, however it is made.”
The constant of AI is the person choosing to post the content. Behind every sloppy email and sketchy article full of genAI tells, there’s a person who decided that was good enough to publish.
Thought Leadership This Week
It’s been a busy week for the Sounds Profitable thought leadership series, so I’ve got two articles to share this time!
First up from Monday: The question B2B brands keep asking that downloads can’t answer. CoHost & Quill VP of Marketing Alison Osborne has a new article for the Sounds Profitable thought leadership series. The world of business-to-business (B2B) marketing is growing. Podcasting needs to mature with it. Osborne argues that podcast measurement still answers outdated questions about “how many.” Download stats matter less now that B2B marketers care more about audience makeup, whether the right people are finding the show, and whether listeners are entering the funnel. They get firmographic data and repeat-consumer behavior from every other channel they advertise in; podcasting has to catch up.
Then on Wednesday, Sport Social Podcast Network published Voices of the World Cup, arguing that the sound of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is just as likely to come from a podcast as from a sports broadcaster. In the four years since the previous World Cup, podcasting has grown into more than a complementary format; it is now “a defining part of how fans experience major sporting events.” According to a new release from BBC Studios and NumberEight, a major U.S. hospitality brand saw a 19% overall awareness lift from a World Cup travel podcast campaign developed with BBC Studios, NumberEight, Barometer, and Veritonic.
As for the rest of the news…
- SiriusXM has signed a non-exclusive deal that brings several popular video podcasts to Fox’s streaming platform Tubi, including Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and The School of Greatness.
- CoHost & Quill Founder and CEO Fatima Zaidi launches a new project by asking ten founders one question. In this first edition, she asks, “If you could go back to year one of your company, what is something you’d do differently?”
- Inside Audio Marketing interviews Acast CEO Greg Glenday about an Acast analysis of 170,000 brand mentions across 12,000 podcasts. Food podcasts accounted for less than 1% of conversations about food delivery companies, despite receiving around half of food delivery podcast ad spend.
- AdExchanger interviewed IAB EVP and general counsel Michael Hahn on why the IAB filed an amicus brief for Baker v. Seattle Children’s Hospital, a case leveraging privacy laws from the 1960s to liken tracking pixels to wiretapping.
