Sounds True

Awakening Wisdom

Sounds True was founded in 1985 by Tami Simon with a clear mission: to disseminate spiritual wisdom. Since starting out as a project with one woman and her tape recorder, we have grown into a multimedia publishing company with over 70 employees, a library of over 600 titles featuring some of the leading teachers and visionaries of our time, and an ever-expanding family of customers from across the world. In over two decades of growth, change, and evolution, Sounds True has maintained its focus on its overriding purpose, as summed up in our Vision Statement:

Sounds True exists to inspire, support, and serve continuous spiritual awakening and its expression in the world.

Sounds True is an independent multimedia publishing company that embraces the world’s major spiritual traditions, as well as the arts and humanities, embodied by the leading authors, teachers, and visionary artists of our time. Our approach to publishing is not dependent on a single format or technology—rather, we strive with every title to preserve the essential “living wisdom” of the author, artist, or spiritual teacher. It is our goal to create products that not only provide information to a reader or listener, but that also embody the essential quality of a wisdom transmission between a teacher and a student.

Over the years, Sounds True has developed a guiding philosophy that we call “multiple bottom lines.” Our dedication to this principle is embodied in our Mission Statement:

The mission of Sounds True is to find teachers and artists who serve as a gateway to spiritual awakening and to produce, publish and distribute their work with beauty, intelligence, and integrity. We treat our authors, vendors, and partners in the same way we would want to be treated. We work flexibly and efficiently together to create a cooperative, loving environment that honors respectful authenticity and individual growth. We maintain a healthy level of profitability so that we are an independent and sustainable employee-owned organization.

The essential three bottom lines for Sounds True are the integrity of our purpose, the well-being of our people, and the maintaining of healthy profits. All three of these priorities are important in the decisions we make as a company. It is our conviction that each of these bottom lines must be healthy for the company to prosper as a whole.

In our history as a publisher, Sounds True has produced a wide variety of formats in order to fulfill our goal of disseminating spiritual wisdom:

• Spoken-Word Audio: Sounds True publishes more than 500 titles about the spiritual journey, meditation, psychology, creativity, health & healing, self-discovery, relationships, and more. These programs, ranging between 1 and 5 hours in length, are original recordings featuring teachers who present their own ideas, in their own words. Sounds True recordings are almost always unscripted—transcending the level of a normal audio reading to create a vibrant, living connection between the author and listener.

• Audio Learning Courses: With running times from 5-18 hours, Sounds True’s learning courses offer an experience approximate to a college course or continuing-education class.

• Books: Our book division features provocative wisdom from respected teachers who embody what they know and who have tested their work in the fire of their own experience. Additionally, Sounds True’s Integrated Learning Series features books with CDs—interactive learning tools that accelerate personal and spiritual development by bringing together the written word with the direct audio instruction that Sounds True has pioneered for 20 years.

• Interactive Learning Kits: For teaching that is best conveyed through a combination of formats, Sounds True creates our interactive learning kits, providing everything needed for comprehensive study in a single box—usually featuring a thorough study guide, practices on CD and DVD, beautifully designed cards and charts for reference, and other support tools.

• Music: Some spiritual truths cannot be conveyed in words—but are carried instantly to the soul when experienced directly through music. Sounds True features the best international sacred music gathered from many traditions. Each of our musical recordings is intended as a heartfelt offering of the spirit.

• Instructional DVDs: Sounds True videos are content-driven works that embrace both bestselling authors and spiritual teachers. We also publish a line of DVDs for instruction in the physical disciplines of spiritual life.

To maintain our integrity as a business and a publisher, we believe that Sounds True must embody the qualities of consciousness and compassion taught by our authors in the day-to-day practice of our business. We believe in creating a work environment that nurtures creativity, individual expression, and open communication. Sounds True pursues this goal by establishing policies for flexible work schedules, a profit-sharing plan, an ESOP (Employee Ownership) program, quality health and dental benefits, a relaxed (nonexistent) dress code, and compensation programs for helping employees pursue training, volunteer efforts, and spiritual interests outside of work. We also have a pet-friendly office space, so our people can share their workspace with their beloved animal companions.

At Sounds True, we are committed to honoring our relationship with the earth and our community. As part of our environmental commitment—we use 100% wind power in our offices, and use recycled paper for our books, catalogs, and marketing material. We also donate our programs to libraries and charities, and to prisoners through the Sounds True prison audio project.

To learn more about who we are, please see the Sounds True Core Values statement.