I heard many talk about 'free' internet radio as threat to SIRI, so I decided to take a quick look at pandora and slacker. They are both very cool, BUT.....they're not really free. You get free service if you want to put up with the ads, or you can pay $36 - $48 per year for no ads. And, of course, no live stuff, no sports, etc. I didn't spend more than a few mins on each site, so I'm sure I didn't get the full experience.....but, I don't see them as big threat to SIRI. Just say'n.
Nice. Well we know SIRI needs some good marketing...don't hold it to yourself. Email SIRI mktg and let them know that their investors have ideas, and we are wondering where they are hiding theirs. Offer it up at no charge.
Here is another: We don't dream live...We beam live. Commercial free!
Looks like there is not much interest in selling below .37 this afternoon. I predict close at .3690. (This has absolutely no basis other than my gut feel)
Keep in mind that millions of Slacker/Pandora iPhone and Blackberry apps have been downloaded. I agree that they don't have the same specialty programming but they have a great variety of music and live tracks that you would never hear anywhere else. I don't know why Sirius doesn't do more of that kind of stuff. Not to mention their ability to customize and their user interfaces are hands down better then Sirius XM.
In my office (28 people) there are 2 Sirius subscribers 1 Pandora subscriber 1 rhapsody subscriber and 3 Slacker users (one of which pays). Its hard to say they are not a threat.
Charles LaRocca
SiriusBuzz Founder
Hello everyone was away for awhile and looks like i didn't miss much except an interesting convo on yesterdays intraday thread..
Sitting at .36 with a chance to close even or in the green,bids are raised a little bit and sellers still holding sway..
well, keep in mind, how difficult
it is to have live radio, a hundred and some stations,
nationwide, on demand, without drop in coverage,
24/7, while still paying royalties for music, merging
2 separate (and broke) satrad companies, getting fcc and usdoj
approval for the merger (and resulting monopoly),
dealing with the powerful NAB, dealing w/all the tech
problems, and hartlieb & co., and the egos of on air
multimillion dollar salaried dj egos, and serving 19
Freakin Million paying Customers who got problems
from A to Z, and dealin w/ergen, while having several million? shareholders
own a stake in the company complaining about the stock
price bein less than a kennedy half. It ain't easy. It's incredible, but
understandable, that with 19 million subscribers - about 5% of the US population! - the business model is still not confirmed.
I think most are seeing the business model as viable. The question is the execution. And presto...enters Malone. If the execution is too far off base, Malone should be able to provide direction and then product value expansion with his relationships. SIRI is still an acquistion play, so someone is thinking there is a viable business model in there.
Right Charles...but I believe it is a different market. It overlaps in places, but there are significant differences, mainly the broad array of types of entertainment, including live sports, news, traffic, weather (especially XM Marine Weather system which is f'n awesome!), and, the ability to broadcast to moving cars anywhere, with the very familiar and easy to use in-dash radio. Internet to automobiles is not mature, and, to make it truly ubiquitous, like satrad signal, needs infrastructure, which won't be free, and is a long way off (wiMax for example). WiFi works, but not feasible for cars on the move, especially if outside urban areas. Use of cell technology works, but it isn't free either. So, my conclusion is internet radio isn't really a direct threat and won't be for a while and could be a very long while. IMHO, of course!
That broad array of entertainment doesn't appeal to everyone. There are people who actually just listen to Sirius XM for the music so, for those people they are like services.
Then there are people like me who commute for only 20 minutes but spend 8 hours per day with internet access. Lets not forget that you can stream slacker over 3g to an iPhone where I live (around boston) and get better quality streaming then you currently receive from satrad (I understand that people in more rural area cant do that YET). If that were not enough, slacker has now partnered with Sony and they are in their new bravia tv's and the new sony X-series Walkman.
For a bunch of companies that aren't a threat they sure are growing faster then Sirius XM right now. When do we start to worry? 1 million slacker apps were downloaded in a couple of months... all while Sirius XM reported a 400k loss in subscribers.
Disclosure: I am listening to Sirius right now. That doesn't mean that I will ignore the facts ;-)
Charles LaRocca
SiriusBuzz Founder