SiriusXM, Audio-Up Enter Into Creative Agreement

SiriusXM Holdings Inc. has announced that its subsidiary, Sirius XM Radio Inc., has entered into a new creative programming and strategic agreement with Audio Up, an innovative podcast and audio entertainment production studio.

Under the agreement, Audio Up is expected to create new original scripted podcasts for SiriusXM and its owned audio platforms - which include the SXM App, Pandora, and Stitcher - while also collaborating with SiriusXM to develop new audio entertainment concepts and forge new promotional and distribution synergies across SiriusXM properties, furthering SiriusXM's place as a leader in podcast hosting, production, distribution, analytics, and monetization. 

The agreement gives SiriusXM an exclusive "first-look" co-production option for new Audio Up original podcast concepts, with accompanying options for exclusive distribution across SiriusXM properties, as well as exclusive rights to manage and sell advertising inventory and sponsorship in connection with any podcast produced for SiriusXM through its SXM Media combined sales organization. 

Jared Gutstadt

In addition, Audio Up announced today that it has completed a $12 million Series B funding round led by SiriusXM. Andrew Moss, SiriusXM's Senior Vice President, Business Affairs and Programming Operations, has also joined the Board of Directors of Audio Up.

Audio Up, established in 2020 by Jared Gutstadt, creator of the Jingle Punks creative music agency and Adweek's 2020 Podcast Innovator and Producer of the Year, is a podcast content production studio that has built a slate of distinctive, original scripted audio entertainment featuring marquee names across music (Machine Gun Kelly, 24kGoldn, Miranda Lambert, Nelly), Hollywood (Anthony Anderson, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Alexander, Gary Busey), publishing (James Ellroy, Stephen King), and more.

Forthcoming new Audio Up original podcast series include The Playboy Interview, which presents teleplay-type reenactments of some of the most iconic Playboy Interview conversations in history, featuring Taye Diggs as Muhammad Ali, Rosanna Arquette as Betty Friedan, Gina Gershon as Oriana Fallaci, among others.

"Podcasts have only scratched the surface of their potential as a powerful driver for discovery, and an entertainment medium with virtually no creative boundaries," said Audio Up CEO and Founder, Jared Gutstadt. "With the vast reach and wide diversity of listeners that SiriusXM, Pandora and Stitcher together represent, we not only have a massive new multi-platform outlet for our original programming, but in SiriusXM we have a creative ally who shares our ambitions to keep pushing podcasting forward."

Audio Up is expected to be an additional creative driver for SiriusXM in connecting artists, labels, brands, and creators of all types in developing new audio entertainment programming across SiriusXM channels, and exploring new possibilities for original scripted, podcasts and branded audio content opportunities for advertisers.