Inside JBL's Sound Bodega at SXSW, and what it means to be SXSW's audio sponsor

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Sound is not something seen or often thought about by the average person or event attendee, but it has a large and important presence at events like South by Southwest. If you walk down the streets of downtown Austin during the festival, you’ll hear music from many directions — from live shows and concerts to speakers in shops with the doors open.

A lot of that can be attributed to JBL, the “Official Audio Brand of SXSW 2025.”

The audio brand had a presence at SXSW through a few different activations and events. JBL partnered with Rolling Stone to present Rolling Stone’s Future of Music Showcase, and there were JBL activations on the University of Texas at Austin campus as well as a panel discussing creator partnerships.

The JBL Sound Bodega also took over 3Ten at ACL Live, where Anderson. Paak, AKA DJ Pee Wee, appeared to spin a DJ set.

This was JBL’s first year at SXSW, though the audio company was set to have activations during the 2020 festival before COVID-19 disrupted plans. Since, the company had been working on bringing its SXSW sponsorship to life.

KXAN had an inside look at the Sound Bodega and talked to Denise Daly and Andrea Seib with JBL about what it means for JBL to be at SXSW, and what all the brand had planned.

JBL said in a press release ahead of the spring festival that its mission for SXSW was to “transform music moments into community and bring people together to play, socialize, and explore through audio.” The brand also launched new portable speakers — the Flip 7 and Charge 6.

Seib, who runs brand marketing and consumer engagement at JBL, said SXSW was the perfect setting to achieve those things.

“First and foremost, we’re here to launch our amazing new portable speakers, and we thought there’s no better way to do it authentically than in a music environment, and I think specifically South by Southwest, supporting emerging music artists across, sort of all platforms,” Seib said. “So really, being able to sort of show up in a space where we belong, and be able to do a bunch of different things, again, like the launch of the speaker, supporting artists, and then really, like bringing our brand to life through a really fun experience for consumers.”

JBL partnered with Rolling Stone as the presenting sponsor of the Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase, one of the most popular and successful music showcases at SXSW. What that means for JBL is the audio company provides sound for the showcase itself, as well as doing a media partnership and activation onsite at the concerts.

“We feel like it’s the perfect partnership,” Seib said. “We really belong in music. They are music, and they just bring a lot of new artists to the table for us, and we’re providing for them — the sound. Which, again, perfect, perfect partnership.”

Rolling Stone’s showcase highlights emerging artists and coincides with the magazine’s “Future of Music” print issue, which will be on newsstands in April. The showcase includes talent featured in the third annual Future 25 list. Included on this year’s lineup were Benson Boone, Megan Moroney, Ivan Cornejo, Rema and several others.

JBL also runs its own emerging artist platform called JBL Music Academy, which occurs once a year. One of the artists from the 2024 class, Jess Meilman, is on the Sound Bodega lineup. JBL also sponsors the Tomorrowland music festival in Europe.

“We’re really excited to be able to support artists in a way where we’re running these programs and they’re plugging into it, and they’re creating content for us, but really giving them lots of opportunity as well,” Seib said. “So, really excited to create platforms for artists to be able to really plug into and create that opportunity for them and exposure.”

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