Brian Fauteux, Associate Professor Popular Music and Media Studies, University of Alberta
From music to film, subscriptions have become essential. The average number of subscriptions an American consumer maintains is four and a half, spending nearly US$1,000 a year. The average Canadian household pays for two and a half streaming TV platforms.
As I explore in my new book, Music in Orbit: Satellite Radio in the Streaming Space Age, well before subscriptions became the norm for streaming media, satellite radio companies Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Radio convinced radio listeners to become radio subscribers at the turn of the new millennium.
The companies were marketed as radio beyond radio, expanding the range of channels available to listeners and using celebrities to convince subscribers of the value of these new services.
What is satellite radio?
Sirius and XM merged to form SiriusXM in 2008 and it’s now the only satellite radio service available. Satellites are used in a broad array of communications undertakings, but SiriusXM is a unique digital radio service delivered by satellites in the geostationary orbit just over 35,000 kilometres above Earth.
Under media conglomerate Liberty Media, SiriusXM stands as one of a few massive music companies that operate in the internet-streaming-online audio-radio nexus, after having rolled out internet streaming options and purchasing American internet radio company Pandora.
The first attempt to establish satellite radio came from a company named WorldSpace, founded in 1990, which covered areas in Africa, the Middle East, a large part of western Europe, Japan, China, Southeast Asia, India and Iran. WorldSpace filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
XM launched the first American digital satellite radio service in September 2001. Sirius followed in early 2002. In 2005, the companies began service in Canada, developing a slate of Canadian music channels and bringing Canadian artists to an international audience by satellite.
When the services launched, the radio industry was focused on change. In 1999, reports claimed that radio was in prime position to take advantage of “the new media age.” With the massive investments in time, research and money that Sirius and XM had put into launching satellites and establishing receivers, industry partnerships, offices and personnel, the two companies were able to capitalize on the theme of change.
From radio listener to radio subscriber
To convince everyday radio listeners that a subscription was worthwhile, the music on satellite radio had to be perceived as exceptional. The new services were said to offer 100 “super-niche” channels, with music formats that could be “splintered to appeal to never-before practical audience niches, thanks to the advantage of serving a nationwide audience, rather than the greatest common denominators in a given locale.”
One XM television commercial from 2002 boasted a “revolutionary new kind of radio that delivers more choice, better sound and coast-to-coast coverage.” After a satellite flashes across outer space, the commercial depicts violins, a jukebox, a grand piano and vinyl records raining down from the sky.
A limited-term free trial subscription for use in the automobile was one way that the satellite radio companies grew subscribers. The aim was to minimize “churn,” the rate of subscription cancellations, and to make use of the ideal sonic space of the car to make satellite radio a part of a listener’s daily life.
Celebrity musicians on air
Another way to entice listeners was to acquire celebrity talent to host shows or brand channels. The most obvious figure here is radio shock jock Howard Stern, who moved to Sirius in 2006 to take advantage of its uncensored subscription format. In the process, Sirius’s subscriber numbers shot up from 600,000 when he first signed on to over six million at the end of 2006.
Many of the on-air hosts from the early days of Sirius and XM were established legacy musicians, like Bob Dylan (Theme Time Radio Hour on the Deep Tracks channel), Tom Petty (the Buried Treasure channel and show by the same name), and B.B. King (B.B. King’s Bluesville).
The E Street Band’s guitarist and Sopranos star “Little Steven” Van Zandt was one of the earliest musician figures on satellite radio, contributing to the long-running Underground Garage channel and working as a creative adviser for Sirius as of 2004.
One profile of Van Zandt’s influence on Sirius’s early days indicates the deep musical knowledge that the satellite company was eager to promote to potential subscribers. When the Outlaw Country channel was being created in 2004, Van Zandt had trouble tracking down music for the channel, suggesting that it was rare and far beyond what a commercial broadcast station would play.
On Theme Time Radio Hour, which ran on XM from 2006 to 2009, Bob Dylan played a wide range of music that had been influential on his own career, telling stories and adding context to the songs he played. In one instance, he celebrated blues guitarist Memphis Minnie through a metaphor of high-quality vintage cars.
Listening to the past
Fascination with new technology and a sense of its prestige, however, existed earlier with the origins of FM radio and its growth.
FM’s association with high-quality sound meant it became associated with other music media, such as stereo and LP records. According to radio historian Christopher H. Sterling, the “cultural awakening” of the later 1950s was important to FM radio and its future in the U.S., one “expressed in increasing public interest in classical music, an interest sparked by the 1958 introduction of stereo recordings.”
FM was also home to the experimental sounds of freeform radio in American in the late 1960s and 1970s, and where early Canadian campus radio stations were first licensed.
Increasing power of few corporations in music
Satellite radio’s trajectory has predicted the cultural, musical and technological shifts that now define the 2020s.
Beyond anticipating the turn to subscription models, satellite radio relied heavily on celebrity musicians on the radio, a strategy that Apple Music has used to drive subscriptions and opened access to a vast amount of uncensored content that today has exploded through the internet and podcasting.
Read more: US election shows how podcasts are shaping politics – and what the risks are
The rise of satellite radio also reflects the increasing power that few corporations have in the music industries, raising questions about the serious problems now facing working musicians and communities.
In 2016, Jan Dawson in Variety said that SiriusXM “probably isn’t the first name that comes to mind when you think about subscription content, yet it’s one of the most successful companies in that category.” SiriusXM developed a subscription model for music listening, the very business model that has become so common in music listening in the 21st century.
Brian Fauteux does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
