djfrosty

Back before satellite radio launched at the turn of the millennium, the best an artist could hope for was that their label’s radio team could help get their songs on playlists at as many terrestrial stations as possible, as often as possible.

But following the launch of the XM and Sirius satellite radio services in 2001 and 2002, respectively, a new paradigm emerged that allowed artists the possibility of hosting their own bespoke channels — on which they could play their hits and deep cuts, as well as songs by their influences, while chatting up their latest releases.

The new format kicked off, naturally, with Elvis Radio in 2004 on Sirius. That was followed by Sirius’ first artist pop-up channel, the Bruce Springsteen-focused E Street Radio, in November 2005, which ultimately went full-time in 2007 and continues to this day.

The trend continued following the 2008 merger of the Sirius and XM satellite services. Since then, SiriusXM has hosted full-time channels by big-name artists including Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, Kelly Clarkson, Taylor Swift, Pitbull, Eminem, Bob Marley, Diplo, The Beatles, Jimmy Buffett, Grateful Dead, Phish, Frank Sinatra and dozens of others. The service has also collaborated with artists including Green Day, Beastie Boys, Jonas Brothers, Metallica, Linkin Park, Luke Bryan, Coldplay, Usher and Billie Eilish on shorter-run pop-up stations.

So why have artists flocked to the service to claim their own spots on the satellite dial?

For some, having their own SiriusXM channel can serve as a valuable promotional vehicle for a forthcoming release. Lady Gaga, who had a short-run “Gaga Radio” channel in February ahead of her blockbuster Mayhem album, tells Billboard it was “a reflection of the sounds that shaped Mayhem, the artists who move and inspire me, and the emotional connection I share with my fans,” adding that “every song you hear was handpicked — not by an algorithm, but by me.”

Marcus Mumford — whose band Mumford & Sons is the newest act to have a short-run channel, tied to the release of its new album Rushmere — says his group “leapt” at the chance to celebrate their music and look back at their catalog, live performances and collaborations over the years. “As artists now we can’t show up expecting to get people’s attention… there’s less gatekeeping, which is a good thing, so you really have to put in the work,” he tells Billboard. While taking extra time to sit with SiriusXM staffers to record the stories behind the band’s songs and curate the channel during the rush of Rushmere promotional duties, was, in his words, “not ideal,” he says the group was up for the hard work it takes. “We love going where people are,” he says.

“The feedback we get labels or artists when they do these pop-up channels has been really outstanding, so I think there are other aspects beyond increasing consumption numbers,” says SiriusXM head of music Steve Blatter when asked if there’s specific market data he can point to that illustrates a Colbert-like “SiriusXM bump” for either the long-running or time-limited channels (he notes that the company does not share any details on the financial arrangements for its artist channels).

For other artists, particularly those who have year-round stations on the satellite service, it’s less about promoting a project than about promoting a catalog, or even a culture. When LL Cool J launched his year-round Rock the Bells Radio channel in 2018, he wasn’t interested in just putting his name on a channel — he wanted to preserve and elevate timeless hip-hop. “[I] personally went through thousands of tracks to shape something real for the culture,” he says. “Every song, every interview, every moment you hear is chosen with intention.”

Tom Petty‘s daughter, Adria Petty, says that when her dad heard Bob Dylan doing his “Theme Time Radio Hour” shows on SiriusXM’s Deep Tracks channel from 2006 to 2009 — on which the rock bard told rambling stories and played songs around a particular theme — it led him to approach SiriusXM about starting his own channel, realizing the free format would allow him to do something other than talk about his music and lyrics, which “he found to be a hassle,” she says.

While Petty was alive, the channel also gave Petty’s fellow Heartbreakers band members the chance to come on and do their own shows and play deep cuts, live tracks and rarities. “It was that idea that DJs are people who create and curate culture and have fun in communion with people,” says Adria, adding that before her father died in 2017 at age 66, he told her the channel was a crucial part of his legacy.

Today, Adria says the channel not only heightens her dad’s catalog consumption but functions as the “heart and soul” of the estate. The 24-hour channel’s constant presence on the virtual dial impacts the catalog “in a big way,” she says, because there’s a whole team dedicated to programming it, which can help promote re-issues and archival releases.

“When you have an artist produce their channel in the manner we do, it’s not just about spinning their music, but about shaping a culture and cultivating the artist’s fan community and really presenting their legacy in a way that’s very authentic and credible to that artist,” says Blatter. Since Carrie Underwood’s year-round Carrie’s Country channel launched in 2023, it’s been an “amazing avenue” for the country star to connect with her fans, says her manager, The HQ’s Ann Edelblute, who adds that connection “is extremely important to her and the reason she signed on.” Since the launch of Carrie’s Country, the superstar has launched two additional streaming-only channels: Carr-dio by Carrie, featuring the country star’s workout picks; and Savior Sunday Daily, which has a mix of uplifting faith-based country and gospel.

“Both [of the additional channels] allow her to go deeper into areas that she and the fans love,” says Edelblute. “The three channels are a great creative outlet for her as well, as she regularly curates new playlists and loves being able to create new content and special programming year-round.”

Not everyone can have a year-round channel, however. Satellite-distributed services such as SiriusXM have a limited bandwidth to work with, says Blatter, so there’s a fixed number of channels they can offer; any time they add a new channel, they have to drop something else. “I’d love to offer a lot more artists their own year-round channels, but it’s challenging to do so…so the bar to get your own year-round channel becomes fairly high,” he says. Another key factor in who gets a spot is whether an artist’s body of work can hold up to being a year-round draw, according to Blatter. This can include legacy acts like the Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Springsteen, Grateful Dead and Phish as well as contemporary artists such as Eilish and Lizzo.

As for audience size, Blatter says even the artist channels with the smallest audiences are well-trafficked, though he declined to provide any hard numbers. (A spokesperson for SiriusXM says the company does not publicly share listenership data.)

At this point, SiriusXM has 46 year-round artist partner channels, though a few legendary acts with deep catalogs such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Dolly Parton and Beyoncé are noticeably absent from the permanent lineup (though all except Beyoncé have had limited-run channels in the past). Blatter says he’d love to expand the company’s relationship with any of those artists (or artist estates) into something bigger, noting that sometimes it’s the talent’s choice to only commit to a short-run channel to promote an album release or documentary.

Sometimes it comes down to resources and the artist only wanting to have a presence during a specific promotional window. Or, in the case of a somewhat niche act like Trans-Siberian Orchestra, realizing that interest will peak during the Christmas holiday and then likely drop off shortly after, making a quick hit channel more realistic.

For Mumford, having a SiriusXM channel is a way to engage with fans on a deeper level amid a surge in short-form content that perhaps underestimates audiences’ attention spans. “A lot of your publicity has to be shortened into snippets… yet people’s capacity and attention is greater than ever — they’ll sit and watch 10 hours of a Netflix show,” he says. “I think people want to hear stories in whatever form they come… it felt like a wider palette to paint with.”