A merger between Sirius and XM might lead to "more choice and better prices" for consumers, but many record label executives are concerned about the merger's implications, according to a
recent Reuters article. Some label promotion representatives polled by Billboard feel that the reduction of redundant formats could lead to fewer promotion opportunities for niche formats.
"It's great that their combined (channels) will have a larger audience but it's also at the expense of the exposure," Virgin Records VP of promotion Dave Reynolds says. "It takes away 50% of my chance of being exposed correctly."
"Both networks offer different ways to feature and launch a new project," said Brad Paul, senior VP of promotion at Rounder Records.. "I feel good about having both those options to go to."
Citing
Arbitron's numbers, the top channel on Sirius (after Stern) is Sirius Hits 1 with 653,000 listeners, while the top channel on XM is Top 20 on 20 with 1 million.
"It's very rare to find a station like Sirius Hits 1 or XM 20 on 20 that will put in a new song and play it 21, 28, 35 times a week right off the bat," Virgin's Reynolds says. "That's really exposing a record."
"Satellite radio definitely had a lot to do with
Sean Kingston's career," Koch Entertainment VP of urban promotion Shadow Stokes says. Rap channels like XM Raw and Sirius' Shady 45 have helped break a number of hip-hop acts, he adds, citing Sheek Louch, AZ and Yung Berg. Still, few executives that Billboard talked to could cite a specific case of Sirius or XM breaking an act.
Losing XM's The City and Sirius' Hot Jamz would be like losing a local station with naitonal reach, says Stokes. "You're talking about losing 40-50 spins," he says. "If you lose a piece of audience, that's always bad whether you're talking about a terrestrial station or a satellite station."
The
article goes on to cite reps from metal, smooth jazz, and country genres. It's an important concern, and one that I said
scares me the most over a year ago. There's a lot of nuisances between channels like Octane and Squizz, or Highway 16 and New Country, and in an effort to grab those "synergies" a lot could be lost.
Still, in my
interview with Gary Parsons, there was one comment that the future Chairman of the merged company said that I think needs to be repeated:
"Clearly some of the synergies on a combination are on a longer term, and others are more near term. And while every expense category has an opportunity for improvement, it's not really the classic case of head count reductions... you know, fire a bunch of people. Because both companies are still growing strongly and they need to grow which requires that head count to grow outwards. That's not where the savings come from."
Here's to hoping that Gary's comments ring true, and the doom-and-gloom speculation from these music execs doesn't.
[
Reuters]
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 4:59 PM
Filed under: 4, XM
XM's original comedy series "Unmasked" will be returning for a new season on May 3rd with comedic legends such as Lewis Black, Margaret Cho, Janeane Garofalo and The Kids in the Hall.
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