SiriusXM, while being a legacy brand, is also looking toward the future of satellite radio in a streaming world. And today at a celebrity-packed event in New York City – ushered in by none other than Howard Stern – SiriusXM took a 90-minute look at its history, present and where it’s going in 2024 and beyond.
Satellite radio was perhaps a little ahead of its time, allowing subscribers – yes, subscriptions radio — To listen to music, sports and talk radio anywhere in the country. It (brilliantly) made deals with automakers to put its work into new cars with free trials. And this happened between the advent of modern smartphones and the introduction of proper streaming media services like Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. Today, SiriusXM is in the neighborhood of 34 million subscribers.
The reboot is more than just a new look, new channels, and a newly updated app. This is the new future of everything SiriusXM touches.
“We are thrilled to introduce the world to the new SiriusXM brand that brings to life the best of what we have and welcomes a new generation of listeners while staying true to our roots,” said Suzie Watford, SVP, Chief Growth SiriusXM. official said in a press release. “Our new brand platform, Closer, reflects the unique nature of our offering, giving true fans the opportunity to delve deeper into what they love.”
The event also saw live appearances from Conan O’Brien, Kevin Hart, Shaggy, Maren Morris, Ashley Flowers and Andy Cohen, a performance by Kelly Clarkson (covering Miley Cyrus). flower), as well as recorded excerpts from John Mayer and James Corden.
A demo in a Cadillac Lyriq EV showed off a new interactive take on Sirius (This is one that’s baked into the car itself, not just running on top of the existing OEM infotainment system, like CarPlay or Android Auto.) In addition to a smart, stylish traditional app experience that offers categorized results and now-playing Displays screens, new in-car experiences even allow interactive polls — safely, officials said. And sports programming will be able to point listeners toward live games as they are happening.
The Lyric demo was largely an unreleased beta system and see what’s possible, not necessarily what the SiriusXM experience will look like in every car in the future. And we’ll have to see what happens to the traditional app experience for Android Auto or CarPlay as part of the 360L platform that blurs the lines between satellite and streaming. In any event, it looked great and very modern.
There was also a demo of the SiriusXM app, which will be at the forefront of the reboot when it launches December 14 on Android, iOS, and Amazon. Again, this is a welcome and natural improvement when it is available for some time.
SiriusXM also announced the launch of three new music channels. Alt2K sounds like this – alternative rock of the 2000s. Flex2K does the same for hip-hop, and The Flow covers R&B hits from the 2000s and 2010s. And that’s on top of new channels from Shaggy, Clarkson, Mayer, Dolly Parton, Smokey Robinson and podcast company Audiochuck.
And as part of the rebrand, the SiriusXM dog mascot now has a name – Stella.
Look for lots of new stuff on December 14th, and even more to come in 2024.
