SiriusXM and Pandora feedback

[Trevor1]

Sirius XM loses 94k subscribers to the Satellite Radio service and 109k Pandora subscribers.  I hate watching Pandora who was big part of the music streaming revolution slowly die and become more irrelevant by the day.  I fill there are such easy steps to help but at times it seems no one at Pandora is interested in listening.  Simple ideas are , 1. Improve the sound quality immediately, it doesn’t have to be lossless but at a minimum it should match Spotify which is, 320kbit.  That isn’t a big ask in 2024, in fact I can’t understand why it hasn’t happened, it seems inexcusable.  2. Remove dead playlist.  If I go to the For You tab, then to the playlist tab, I will see a number of playlist called, Your Playlist, all of these playlist stopped being updated in March of 2023. Why are they listed? These are dead playlists, they aren’t being updated, they use to be updated every week. If it’s no longer a thing, remove them. It makes it seem the app is being neglected. That is a bad vibe to give your paying subscribers. I could offer a long list of suggestions however, it feels useless anymore.  I love Pandora , if it’s going to survive it may be time to listen to your subscribers. 

Moderator Edit: Edited title for clarity

[Trevor1]

Just saw this headline: Pandora’s Users Are Shrinking. Here’s Why SiriusXM CEO Jennifer Witz Isn’t Worried.  

I had to do a double take and say, I think she should be very worried.   The article begins with this less than optimistic information: “There was a time that Pandora was considered a competitive threat by many in radio, but these days it is little more than an afterthought. Pandora’s user base continues to shrink, sliding to 46 million during the fourth quarter, or a loss of 1.7 million from a year earlier” 

That would make me worry if I was the CEO.  Her reason for not being worried seemed to be based on adds and making them more personalized. That seems to indicate they are focusing on the free service and not the premium subscription service. That is troubling.

The other area she focused on was Podcasting, another bad sign if you are more focused on music. 

I feel they should be worried and I think there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. I feel they have abandoned the Pandora app. It feels like a ghost ship drifting at sea. It needs some attention and they need to give an indication to everyone that they are working to make Pandora better and start making improvements and letting everyone know. Pandora isn’t the only music streaming service and consumers have many choices. 

 

[Trevor1]

“Audio entertainment giant Sirius Xm the home of Howard Stern, reported on Tuesday that it lost 359,000 self-pay subscribers in its satellite radio unit in the first quarter.

The decline from a year-earlier loss of 347,000 self-pay subs resulted from fewer trial starts in late 2023 and higher first-quarter churn. Paid promotional subscribers during the latest quarter fell by 86,000 customers, compared to a gain of 66,000 subscribers in the category last year.”

That information my not be too troubling for many here but the next number should be concerning if you love Pandora 

“SiriusXM, led by CEO Jennifer Witz, also reported self-pay subscribers of its Pandora Plus and Pandora Premium services fell by 64,000 during the first quarter, compared to a year-earlier loss of 7,000 subscribers.”

I have posted many times that I feel Pandora is slowly dying and no one in the company seems to care and unwilling to do anything to stop it. Many of us have offered countless suggestions but they fall on death ears. 

Some very simple and basic thoughts that I would think anyone could agree to, 

1. Sound Quality: It’s 2024 and Pandora still offers the lowest audio quality of any of the major music streaming services and yet Pandora increased the subscription price. Why pay the same or more for lower audio quality?  It’s just ridiculous that this is even an issue in 2024! Increase the audio quality or just continue to watch people cancel their subscription.

2. Bring back the weekly personalized playlist that were called, My Soundtrack, These updated weekly and provided subscribers weekly updated playlist focused on specific genres or moods. 

3.  Gapless playback. It’s 2024, this is a no brainer and available on all major streaming services.

4. Offer a subscription bundle for both Sirius XM and Pandora. That seems like a logical decision and another no brainer 

5. A Sirius Xm/ Pandora app. Why not combine the two services you own into one app or at least make that available as n option for those who subscribe to both.? 

6. Pandora app. Definitely needs an update, it’s been a long time and it seems dated, and in many ways feels as if it has been abandoned 

Pandora continues to lose subscribers and I don’t see it slowing down until some major steps are taken.  There are so many options today for music streaming services, you have to offer at least the same quality or better experience, simply raising subscription prices while offering a lesser quality service, is business suicide.