Strengthening Pandora Radio, parent company SiriusXM has unveiled a new partnership.
SiriusXM and Pandora Radio have established a “creative partnership” with Drake.
The move – described as an “extensive deal” – comes just five months after Liberty Media’s SiriusXM Holdings confirmed the completion of its Pandora Media acquisition. This, said the satellite radio giant, created “the world’s largest audio entertainment company.”
After paying $3.5 billion for the digital radio company, SiriusXM and Pandora Radio have over 100 million listeners combined.
Following the acquisition completion, Jim Meyer, the satellite radio giant’s CEO, quickly capitalized on the purchase.
SiriusXM first announced its first dedicated original content team at Pandora Radio. Scott Greenstein, the satellite radio giant’s Chief Content Officer, leads the team. They now create original music, sports, and talk content for Pandora listeners. Dedicated original content includes new full-time channels, shows, podcasts, playlists, and spoken-word content. Genres range from comedy, politics, and entertainment. In addition, Greenstein and his team develop original Pandora content for SiriusXM.
Then, the satellite radio giant unveiled Pandora Now, its first cross-platform experience. Using Pandora’s listener data and the satellite radio’s curation data, Now – an interactive channel – features users’ most-listened-to music as well as top trending works. Like most music streaming platforms, the new channel features song skips, ratings, and access to curated playlists.
Under the creative partnership with Drake, Pandora and SiriusXM have unveiled a dedicated station featuring the rapper, songs Drake has curated, and collaborations with “creative talent.”
This marks the largest artist collaboration for both companies. The announcement also comes shortly after DJ Khaled unveiled a new partnership with Apple Music.
As the platform’s first ‘Artist-in-Residence,’ Khaled has total creative control over the most popular playlists. He’ll also discover and break new artists and introduce new featured playlists each month.
Several years ago, the Canadian rapper signed a similar partnership with Apple Music. In 2015, Drake inked an exclusive $19 million deal with the company. Under the agreement, he would actively promote Apple Music in exchange for ‘exclusive’ album releases. The Canadian rapper also hosted Ovo Sound Radio on the platform.