Sirius is turning into a scary place.
Actually, I've got a problem with the outlet's basic PHILOSOPHY!
Sirius thinks satellite radio is just TERRESTRIAL radio with a lot more niches. Yup, there are a zillion STATIONS on Sirius, but they all have VERY limited playlists. Sure, maybe more broad than your average Clear Channel station, but they're FAR from the satellite ideal, as presently executed by XM.
Scott Greenstein told me this was all about LISTENABILITY!
He told me that that's the difference between Sirius and XM. On XM they play so much you hear something you don't like and switch the channel. Sirius only throws in the occasional curve ball. They've streamlined it for listenability. SO THERE!
Only one problem. This is a different game. The satellite outlet owns ALL the channels! What fucking difference does it make if you switch from current rock to oldies. You're still LISTENING! Hell, forget listening, you're still SUBSCRIBING! That's all that matters!
Well, that's all that USED to matter. Until Mel Karmazin moved to Sirius and announced he was ramping up ADVERTISING!
I guess you've got to be listening in order for advertisers to agree to pay. High prices at that.
So the game changes once again. Or, as Pete Townshend once wrote, MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS!
I don't WANT the boss to be the ADVERTISER! What's great about satellite radio is the boss is the LISTENER!!! I mean WHO is the company beholden to?
I mean if you want to give me the service for free, the paradigm shifts. But that's not the paradigm you're EMPLOYING! You want to fuck me in the ass and then have me PAY for it??
And WHAT the hell is up with the deal with Jimmy Iovine.
I can see it now. A programmer doesn't want to play an Interscope track.
Oops, it will never happen. It's not like you can work for Sirius and not know Jimmy's involved. So, unless the Interscope track positively SUCKS and no one else is playing it and it's not selling you're not even going to THINK about making any noise. You're just gonna spin it.
Not that it will even get THAT far. Under the aegis of doing his job, Jimmy's gonna call you up in ADVANCE! And hype you on his new stuff. And get you to play it. By giving you access to his stars. Wining and dining you. JUST LIKE IN THE OLD DAYS! But, now it's WORSE! Because the evil enemy WORKS FOR THE MAN!
And do you think Jimmy's gonna call up the programmer and tell him to add a SONY track??
Hell, even if Jimmy plays by the rules, which he's FAMOUS FOR (wink wink), how does this LOOK???
Once again, you're an indie label, and you're not on an equal footing with the majors. Once again, the customer, the LISTENER in this case, gets FUCKED!!
And then we've got Mel, who DECRIED satellite radio, going into the sphere and not LEARNING anything, but just trying to imprint the little he knows about a dead format on to the NEW format!!
God, makes you hope that WiMax hits in the next two years and WIPES OUT Sirius. Let karma bite them in the ass. They can't make it by serving the CUSTOMER better, so they're gonna use tried and true terrestrial radio policies to try and make their numbers. MAKES ME WANT TO PUKE!
Not that XM is princely. You might not remember, but XM HAD commercials on some music stations. They only removed them when Sirius looked like it wasn't going to go out of business. They had to COMPETE! Sirius's music channels were commercial free, there's had to be too. But, if Sirius adds more commercials, which KILLED terrestrial radio, could XM be far behind? Hey MEL! You did such a good job at Infinity, how come the whole fucking BUSINESS is dying? You milked it DRY! By NARROWING THE PLAYLIST AND ADDING TOO MANY COMMERCIALS! Now you want to kill a NASCENT BUSINESS? That doesn't even have any SIGNIFICANT INCOME??
The promise of satellite radio, the reason I love XM, is the broad PLAYLIST! They play stuff I know, stuff I don't know by BANDS I know and stuff I've NEVER HEARD OF!
God, the add list at the Loft on XM is longer than the COMPLETE ADD LIST AT SIRIUS!!
What the fuck is up with THAT??
You want to make the station so somnambulant that I fall asleep and am UNABLE to change the channel?
SURE I hear stuff on XM I don't like. But that doesn't mean they should stop playing stuff on EVERY station I don't like. They call that TERRESTRIAL RADIO!
God, it's as if Apple made an iPod that only held ten tracks. Nobody would want it.
Oops, almost nobody wanted the original MP3 players, which held fifteen tracks.
But THOUSANDS OF TRACKS? THAT'S a different situation.
I'm all about the music baby. I'm all about expanding the horizons. I'm all about using the technology to ENRICH LIFE, not line the pockets of fat cats.
And the way to line your pockets IS NOT to listen to Wall Street, as Karmazin does, trying to placate the financial community in some circle jerk, but to focus on the CUSTOMER! The person who BUYS the service.
Steve Jobs announced the iPod Shuffle and Apple's stock went DOWN! Did he then go and REDESIGN the fucking thing? No, he waited for Wall Street to catch up with HIM! Which only took a few days, after the street caught up with the REAL street, and then Apple's stock WENT UP! Higher than it had been ALL YEAR!
Hell, let's talk about Apple's stock going from the twenties to over seventy in a matter of months. Yup, Steve Jobs was an insular asshole and now he's a GOD in the eyes of the financial community? STEVE didn't change, THE STREET DID!
Steve Jobs is a visionary. Mel Karmazin is an incredibly hard-driving advertising salesman who used his skill to make money in the EIGHTIES!
But the eighties are history. It's a new century.
Hell, satellite radio would have FAILED in the eighties. Because terrestrial radio was still LISTENABLE! But times change. The public now demands something different.
Only a prick like Mel Karmazin, who intimidates people to perform instead of fostering an environment where they can THINK and CREATE, can miss the point so badly and single-handedly set about ruining a format before it even truly takes hold.
Sirius acquired an incredible amount of good will by adding Howard.
Unfortunately, they added Mel and he fucked it all up.
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