Sony Music expands podcast division with purchase of Somethin’ Else
Sony Music Entertainment has acquired audio, TV and social media producer Somethin’ Else, marking a major ramping of its in-house creative production capabilities and the creation of a newly expanded global podcast division.
Somethin’ Else Chief Content Officer and Vice Chairman Steve Ackerman and Somethin’ Else founder, Executive Chairman and CEO Jez Nelson will spearhead SME’s global podcast content and business development strategy.
Ackerman will become Executive Vice President, Co-Head Global Podcasts, overseeing operations in New York and Nelson will run the division’s UK-based podcast operations as Executive Vice President, Co-Head Global Podcasts.
They will both will report directly to SME’s Dennis Kooker, President, Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales and Tom Mackay, President, Premium Content A&R.
“Expanding our relationship with Somethin’ Else brings their best-in-class capabilities and production expertise fully into the Sony Music family,” said Kooker. “Our new global podcast division is key to our plans for a fast-paced expansion in the market, diversifying our creative abilities and providing a home for exciting content that will benefit millions of podcast-lovers around the world.”
“Having collaborated with Somethin’ Else on a number of hit podcasts, we know how impactful their work has been on shaping the marketplace”, added Mackay. “Under Steve and Jez’s leadership, we can now provide a range of expanded collaboration opportunities for the podcast community globally and focus on growing a robust slate of new in-house projects.”
Steve Ackerman and Jez Nelson said: “We’re delighted to be joining Sony Music at what feels like a critical moment in the growth and acceleration of the global podcast industry.
“Somethin’ Else is known as the leading premium podcasting production company in the UK and our ambition is to harness that drive and creativity to make Sony Music a global market leader.
“Sony Music is renowned for always putting the artists first in everything they do, and we’ve seen that culture fully embedded in their podcast offering too. That global expertise, artist first culture, and ability to cut through the noise has huge appeal to podcasting talent and we look forward to harnessing that in this new chapter of our business.”
Somethin’ Else is the UK’s largest independent podcast and audio producer and the BBC’s biggest independent producer of programmes, covering a variety of music genres and flagship speech shows for the broadcaster.