SiriusXM debuted a revamped version of its app on Wednesday, designed to integrate the company’s three business: its flagship satellite service SiriusXM, the music streamer Pandora, and its growing network of podcasts. The app will launch on mobile on December 14th, then start coming to cars next year.
As younger audiences have moved away from traditional and satellite radio, SiriusXM has worked to build up its offerings beyond its flagship service. The company acquired Pandora and Stitcher over the past five years, but it largely kept them as distinct entities. The new app represents the most significant attempt SiriusXM has made in integrating its different offerings.
“We want you to find and listen to the content, whether it is live, on demand, or podcast,” SiriusXM’s chief product officer, Joseph Inzerillo, said at a company presentation on Wednesday.
The new app will feature improved search, which will bring up results across the three audio services. It will feature tailored results based on a user’s previous listening. Inzerillo also said the new app will allow car listeners to access artist stations and podcasts, in addition to the traditional satellite stations. And the car app will pick up where a listener left off on their phone. The result is something that works and looks a lot more like Spotify.
Access to the mobile app will be available as a standalone offering for $9.99 per month, down from the $10.99 per month that SiriusXM currently charges for its “streaming only” package.
In the same vein as Spotify, SiriusXM also announced a partnership with Amazon-owned Audible to bring audiobook content to its service. The partnership is expected to launch in early 2024.
Finding a way to consolidate its disparate audiences is existential for SiriusXM. The company reported last week that it lost 94,000 satellite subscribers and 112,000 Pandora subscribers in the past quarter, following even steeper losses earlier in the year. Podcasting, meanwhile, grew 28 percent year over year, but the primarily ad-based business is much lower margin than the subscription-based models.
The intention, it seems, is exposing its younger (non-paying) podcast audience to its subscription offerings and visa versa with its satellite subscribers and podcasts. The company is doubling down on signing big names to its roster to get their attention.
On Monday, SiriusXM signed former Late Late Show host James Corden to host an exclusive weekly celebrity chat show.
Last year, it acquired Conan O’Brien’s production company Team Coco and its extensive podcast network. And SiriusXM maintains its two-decade relationship with radio superstar Howard Stern. For now, at least, it doesn’t seem like he is going anywhere.
“My enthusiasm for this company is through the roof,” Stern said at the event. “I love it here.”
SiriusXM also used this morning’s event to debut a new logo, which speaks to its shifting audience. The new “SiriusXM” mark removes the radio waves on either side of its name, a reference to its core satellite radio service. Instead, it worked a star into the capital S, meant to promise star-power in its programming.
And here’s the old one: