SiriusXM, a commercially-free refuge for on-car radio listeners for decades, is fundamentally changing. Per CNBC, the company is launching a streaming subscription supported by ads. This is an effort to attract more listeners. They aim to compete against a market dominated by Spotify, YouTube, and TikTok-driven audio listening. This change represents a strategic break withContinue reading “SiriusXM’s High-Stakes Move to Ad-Supported Sound: Growth Play or Brand Risk?”
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The Risks of Universal Music’s Downtown Purchase
Universal Music Group’s upcoming $775 million purchase of Downtown Music Holdings is more than just a news headline. It’s a possible tipping point for the music business as a whole. Let me explain that. This isn’t a shift that will occur for the benefit of the music world. Behind the veil of corporate cooperation, there are more nefarious issues. It is stealthy consolidation of the very basis of independent music on the planet. Artists, labels, and platforms are constructed on open, neutral foundations. For them, this structure will have chilling consequences. Downtown is not a typical label; it’s a multi- faceted service engine propelling much of global independent terrain. Downtown supports many hundreds of thousands of creators. They do notContinue reading “The Risks of Universal Music’s Downtown Purchase”
Sonus Magazine 