Sirius XM is serious about being a part of digital audio’s future

In 2004, Sirius was satellite radio’s biggest brand. Amid some financial woes, Sirius Satellite Radio merged with rival provider XM Satellite Radio in 2007 in hopes of restoring balance to their books. They rebranded their new service as Sirius XM Radio and made a strong joint offering to subscribers. Even though the satellite service provider once suffered from financial turmoil, it continues to report subscriber growth and even purchased internet streaming giant Pandora for $3.5 billion in 2019.

 

Most recently, Sirius XM injected a $75 million investment in SoundCloud, the world’s largest open audio platform. According to the press release, “the agreement enables advertisers and brands to purchase SoundCloud’s U.S. ad inventory directly through Pandora, leveraging the company’s direct sales capabilities, targeting data, and audio programmatic platform. Together, SoundCloud and Pandora’s combined U.S. audience offering reaches more than 100 million unique listeners, creating the largest digital audio advertising marketplace.”

 

It’s easy to see that Sirius XM is “serious” about the future of digital audio and is continuing to make strategic moves to remain a big player in the space.