[Smokin Joe]

SiriusXM is cutting 8% of its workforce SiriusXM Laying Off 475 Employees, Cutting 8% of Workforce


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[Kenneth J Adams]

Good. I hope the company goes under and loses everything!!

 

[Digmor Crusher]

Good. I hope the company goes under and loses everything!!

Wow, what did they do to you? I hope they don't go broke, where I live we can get about 3 radio stations that are clear to listen to and they all suck, without SiriusXM I'd be lost.

 

[ExDilbert]

SiriusXM can be a difficult company to deal with. For starters, it's overpriced, especially if only the web service is required. Deals can be had but they are often based on car hardware and haggling every year to get a decent price is a nuisance. When I first subscribed, it could be played on numerous devices and even third party apps which all worked well. Then they switched streaming formats to a very unreliable protocol which made several previously supported streaming radios stop working with SiriusXM permanently. That meant an additional subscription with another service was required to keep then working. That service is about 1/10 the price of a regular SiriusXM subscription and still works with the internet radios many years later. The third party apps also stopped working and the SiriusXM app did not work well. They instituted ridiculously short timeouts on web streaming which meant the music would just cut out half way through a song every hour.

One year, I did the usual call to haggle for a deal by cancelling. The CSR cancelled my subscription immediately and made no offer. The result, unlike most subscription services, was the loss of the remaining subscription. They refused to reinstate the remainder of the prepaid service. They offered to send a free portable satellite radio that I didn't want and became argumentative when I said so. That's when I switched to Spotify, which had been mailing out offers for several months free service to new customers. Then other music services started doing the same. It turned out that I could get other, better music streaming services for less than half price by switching between them and they were priced cheaper than SiriusXM.

The bottom line was that SiriusXM acted as if they wanted too much money but didn't want to provide the premium service that was promised. Now, I only listen to the free previews but the last time it only worked with car radios, not the streaming apps. I expect the layoffs will make the service even worse, just as the Sirius + XM merger made XM worse. SiriusXM ranks as one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.

 

[Digmor Crusher]

I only use it in the car, $10/ month which to me is cheap. You don't even have to haggle now, there's an option to renew at this price just by pushing a number on your keypad. I've had zero issues with them.

 

[atscrocks]

Why pay Sirius XM , when you can stream internet radio stations for free with a internet radio ?

 

[NovaMan]

Three observations after reading the article:

1. The layoffs are in the USA, not Canada, so we shouldn't notice much, if any difference, in service.

2. Look at all the media layoffs in the past few months. (Below) Many of them are internet streaming services. It's not just satellite services that are having financial problems. Amazon layoffs involved over 18,000 people, for example.

3. Yes, many internet services are cheaper but there are many places in North America where the internet is poor or nonexistent. Satellite is available almost anywhere, outdoors or on the move.

Recent Major Media & Tech Layoff Announcements

Mar ’23	SiriusXM	475
Mar ’23	CNET	50%
Feb ’23	Showtime	120
Feb ’23	News Corp	1,250
Feb ’23	Yahoo	20%
Feb ’23	Disney	7,000
Jan ’23	PayPal	2,000
Jan ’23	Dotdash Meredith	7%
Jan ’23	Washington Post	20
Jan ’23	Reddit	N/A
Jan ’23	Adweek	14
Jan ’23	Spotify	600
Jan ’23	Vox Media	130
Jan ’23	Alphabet	12,000
Jan ’23	Microsoft	10,000
Jan ’23	NBC News & MSNBC	75
Jan ’23	Amazon	18,000
Jan ’23	Salesforce	7,000
Jan ’23	DirecTV	10%
Jan ’23	Vimeo	11%

Dec ’22	Buzzfeed	12%
Dec ’22	Gannett	6%
Nov ’22	The Washington Post	10
Nov ’22	Paramount Global Ad Sales	fewer than 100
Nov ’22	Paramount TV Studios, CBS	30
Nov ’22	CNN	N/A
Nov ’22	AMC Networks	20%
Nov ’22	Roku	200
Nov ’22	Twitter	3,700
Nov ’22	Meta	11,000
Nov ’22	Amazon	10,000
Nov ’22	Vice Media	2%
Nov ’22	Comcast Cable	N/A
Oct ’22	Comcast's G4 TV	45
Oct ’22	Warner Bros. Discovery	125
Oct ’22	Microsoft	N/A
Sep ’22	NBCUniversal's E!	37
Aug ’22	Gannett	400
Aug ’22	HBO & HBO Max	70
Aug ’22	Snap	20%

Jul ’22	Vox Media	39
Jun ’22	Netflix	300
Jun ’22	Microsoft	less than 1%
May ’22	Netflix	150
Mar ’22	Buzzfeed	1.70%

NOTE: Data as of Mar. 6, 2023.

 

[ExDilbert]

@Digmor Crusher; Like I said, the best deals are tied to car radios. For anyone else the regular prices start at about $13 for streaming and $20 for satellite. I called a couple of times with discount codes and was told they only applied to car radios and was given a much higher offer. $10/mo is a good deal for satellite radio. It's not as good for a bunch of preprogrammed radio stations when competing services are as cheap as $3, easier to use and available on more devices. I suspect that much of the cost is due to expensive deals with talk radio personalities that I rarely, if ever, listen to.

 

[NeilN]

I only use it in the car, $10/ month which to me is cheap. You don't even have to haggle now, there's an option to renew at this price just by pushing a number on your keypad. I've had zero issues with them.

Same here ($9.94 including taxes) but I only stream on my PC. I get some people just want to hear music, but working from home, I could use listening to chatter and artist interviews for a couple hours every morning with the (commercial-free) music.

 

[Lenny D]

Got the free 12 mo (or was it 3?) when I got my new truck. Hardly ever listen to it. I prefer 60's music (go figger--baby boomer) but the trouble is there is so much crapola that came out of the 60''s (the Archies for example 🤬 ) that I can't get rid of.

So I put my 60's tunes on a thumb drive/sd card and I listen to what I want to, not what they want me to listen to. And stations that are supposed to be music?? Geez, they've got people yakking and yakking.... and where's the tunes?

ALSO: keep getting soooooo many phone calls from them for free xx months, they are now on call block.

Pests.

 

[ExDilbert]

I download playlists from an on-demand streaming service to my phone and listen to them on the car radio with bluetooth. The hands free phone buttons on the steering wheel work to control playback and volume. Songs I don't care to listen to get skipped using the skip button.

 

[Kenneth J Adams]

Wow, what did they do to you? I hope they don't go broke, where I live we can get about 3 radio stations that are clear to listen to and they all suck, without SiriusXM I'd be lost.

I got SXM free for 6 months with my new truck purchase. I wasn't willing to pay for it since I just stream audio content via my bluetooth/cell. SXM HOUNDED me every day for over 6 months asking me to sign up with them. I said no every day for a month and just gave up. I blocked about a dozen or more of their phone numbers they'd call from. Finally I had to change my phone number. Every time I got something in the mail I stroked it out and said DECEASED and I STILL kept getting Canada Post mail. Although my mail man knocked on my door and said he was sorry to hear that I died. We both laughed.

I will say this. The only one positive thing I can say about them I enjoyed hacking them with my old home theater system. You'd get free SXM for 90 days and every 90 days I'd just do a factory reset and I'd get another free 90 days. Did this for about 5 years. Then upgraded my system. Told the new owner that I was doing and he's doing it too!!

 

[Tridus]

SXM really isn't competitive with streaming if you're in an area where that works reliably. It's more expensive while offering less music, with channels that get repetitive and stale, a lot of music they just don't play at all, and the constant dance I had to go through every year to keep my discount. Then one day they wouldn't give me that discount anymore, so I cancelled it.

Amazing how the discount I already had which they wouldn't give me has been available every couple of months since. But I found pretty quick that I didn't miss it very much when I could just stream music instead.

Long term I think they're in real trouble. Their business model is expensive to operate and largely reliant on cars having the hardware to get it... and I've found some car companies have stopped putting it in new models.

 

[starchoice]

With this round of layoffs, hopefully the programming will improve. Some of these people have just been around too long.

• Steve Leeds, longtime V.P. of Talent and Industry Affairs. He first joined Sirius (when it was a separate company) in 2004.
• B. K. Kirkland, director of music programming for The Groove (SXM 50). He first joined the company back in 2001 (one of the company’s early hires). B.K. has let All Access share his number so you get in touch with him if you’re one of those companies looking to hire him: (301) 928-9385.
• Lou Brutus, senior director of music programming for a handful of channels. He also first joined the company back in 2001.
• Ron Ross is an on-air talent who hosted mornings on SiriusXM and XM beforehand for 16 years. First, he did Flight 26 and then spent the last years with the company at The Pulse (SXM 5). If you want to hire him, contact (240) 344-3820 or email him at [email protected].
• Kyle Cantrell is an on-air talent who has spent the past 21 years with SiriusXM (with their predecessor XM starting in 2002), first with the classic country channel Roadhousebefore spending the next 18 years programming Bluegrass Junction (SXM 62).
• Kellie Pickler, a country music superstar whose shows and segments were replaced by "SiriusXM Music" on The Highway (SXM 56).
• Trace Adkins is another country music superstar whose shows and segments (including the Weekly Throwback 30 Countdown) were taken off-air from Y2Kountry (SXM 61). He was also the voice of the channel, heard on sweepers and idents.
• Bill Zimmerman, an executive producer from Mad Dog Radio (SXM 82) since the channel literary started back in 2008.
• Gabrielle LaSpisa, a digital producer for Busted Open on Fight Nation (SXM 156) who’s been around for five years.
• Jen Silverman, executive producer of entertainment programming (I couldn’t find much about her) who’s been with the company since 2010 and was even heard at times on Entertainment Weekly Radio when that channel used to be around.
• Joe Tolleson, program director of SiriusXM F.C. (SXM 157) who’s been with the company for ten years.
• Roger Coletti, executive producer of Volume(online-only on SXM 780) who’s been with the company since 2016 and helped launch Volume during that time

 

[ExDilbert]

Some of these people have just been around too long.

That statement smacks a bit of ageism. I can see letting them go if they have low listening numbers or there are other business issues. Many people like listening to experienced DJs or hosts and experience is valuable in management positions. One of the draws for SiriusXM is the availability of a large number of distinct channels with a wide range of music formats. Shows hosted by DJs who have a wide range of musical knowledge in specific music genres, worked in the business when those genres were popular and hosted shows and with those formats when they were popular on radio stations is another big draw. They bring a depth to the stations that modern radio stations do not have. My big issue with SiriusXM is paying millions of dollars a year to music celebrities that don't bring much but a recognizable name. That's not true of all the celebrity branded shows and stations but it's true of many of them.

 

[starchoice]

That statement smacks a bit of ageism.

No, it's meant only to suggest that the programming needs to be revitalized and I suspect that when people have been in a position too long, especially one that requires some creativity, an injection of new blood can work wonders.

Many of the channels suffer from limited playlists and repetition. I can find channels on the internet, including commercial radio that have far better and diverse playlists for the same genre of music.

I only subscribe to SiriusXM for the convenience in my car since I have satellite radio as a feature. Changing a channel name and/or moving it to a new number just doesn't cut it.

I have no problem with professional DJs since it is unlikely that they are involved in music programming and they can stay there for years but the content needs to be severely revamped.

 

[ExDilbert]

Many of the channels suffer from limited playlists and repetition.

I agree about that and I suspect that it is common across many stations. Two that I listened quite often were free format, meaning the DJs decided on what was to be played. A program director set the overall music library to fit the direction of the station, which was quite broad for one of the stations. The free form format provided more variety between programs but was still quite repetitious overall. Programs were sometimes repeated several time a week and some DJs pretty much played the same music week after week with only slight variations in music order and selections. The music director had the most interesting shows by far as he produced several thematic shows a week. It wasn't enough to make me keep paying for the service though. The bottom line is that SiriusXM is many times better than local radio stations in both quality and variety but just too expensive at the regular asking price.

 

[Mike Lang]

It was already pretty difficult to get a human to talk to. This can't make it any better.

 

[tvmaster]

I tried them for the three-month trial. To me, the sound quality/compression was inferior to 192kb mp3. For that reason, I didn’t renew. Sounded flat and shrill…

 

[ExDilbert]

I forgot about the sound quality. The satellite sound was never good and probably never will be. It's a tradeoff between the number of stations and bandwidth per station. Numbers won out as it sells the service to new customers. The internet streaming quality has improved in recent years but it's still way behind other services. Many are offering true CD quality while some are offering uncompressed studio quality sound that's as good as DVD audio or SACD for about the same price as SiriusXM charges many customers.