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.