Podcast Movement Opens Public Voting, AdsWizz Extends SoundCloud Deal in Europe & More

Podcast Movement Opens First-Ever Public Voting and Reveals Inaugural Selection Committee for 2026 Conference Sessions

Podcast Movement 2026, taking place September 17–18 in New York City, has opened public voting on speaker session submissions through July 21. With nearly 800 submissions from more than 500 speakers, the initiative marks the first time the conference has made its agenda-building process transparent: 50% of the schedule will be determined by community vote, with the remaining 50% evaluated against a published selection committee rubric designed to prioritize content quality while building a program that reflects the breadth of today’s podcasting industry.

AdsWizz Extends Agreements With SoundCloud and Sonos to Exclusively Represent Their Audio Advertising Inventory Across Europe

AdsWizz has renewed its exclusive sales representation agreements with both SoundCloud and Sonos for audio advertising inventory across Europe, extending partnerships that began in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The SoundCloud deal covers 14 markets (including Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Spain), giving advertisers access to SoundCloud’s 50+ million global users and 40+ million creators. The Sonos agreement extends across all of Europe.

Why Febreze Is Taking on Soccer Stink via Podcasts & Experiences

Febreze’s “Can’t Wash This” campaign targets soccer-related odor with a multi-channel strategy timed to the World Cup finals and the opening of the MLS season. And, of course, podcasting is central to the plan. The brand partnered with What Now? with Trevor Noah for the podcast’s first brand integration outside the studio, with Noah filmed inside the New York Red Bulls’ actual boot room. The campaign extends to experiential boot room tours across five U.S. cities through August 29, NIL deals with college athletes, and artist collaborations. According to Tyler Beck, vice president of North American air care at Proctor & Gamble, Febreze overindexes with multicultural consumers. In particular, African-American and Hispanic audiences, who Beck says spend 25% more on scent products than other consumer cohorts.

“Brands recognize the cultural dominance of podcasts”: global podcaster Mel Robbins talks AI, ad budgets and audience ownership

Digiday profiles prominent independent podcaster Mel Robbins, including on her views on AI in content creation, shifting ad budgets toward audio, and what audience ownership means for creators operating across platforms. Robbins’ profile serves as a useful temperature check from the independent perspective in the business of podcasting as the industry continues to evolve.

Creators and influencers have taken over by Lara O’Reilly

Loyal readers of The Download will remember last year around this time there were scores of “content creators have come to Cannes” articles. This year, AdExchanger highlights 2026 cementing that content creator presence as the new normal. Creator and influencer marketing was firmly at the center of the conversation for consumer brands, B2B tech marketing, and executive personal branding. The broader creator economy trends O’Reilly reports at Cannes are ones podcasting is increasingly positioned to benefit from. After all, every podcast host is, by default, an influencer.

…as for the rest of the news:

Crossed Wires 2026, the UK podcast festival held in Sheffield, doubled attendance to 50,000 across four days, featuring live recordings from major podcast creators and BBC personalities.
Genuina Media argues that the bilingual C-suite in markets like Mexico, Colombia, and Spain is already listening to top English-language shows but most advertisers assume that inventory only reaches US listeners.
Amplitude Media Partners Managing Partner Marques Pfaff has published a note on Megaphone: at present, there appears to be no way to set an impression cap for pre-booked promos — a gap worth monitoring as the ad server transition continues.
Podcast Perspectives has a new episode: Breaking the Silos: Smarter Podcast Growth Through Collaboration. Jeff Umbro, Joni Deutsch, and Trent Anderson break down cross-promotion formats, timelines, and how to use Podchaser’s show database to find collaboration partners.