How SiriusXM Ignored Pandora's Innovation and is Killing Itself
The Most Expensive Canceled App Nobody Knows Existed: Inside SiriusXM’s Abandoned Pandora X Project By the time SiriusXM’s controversial 2023 app redesign landed in users’ hands, the company had already quietly buried something far more ambitious; a unified streaming platform years in the making that audio industry insiders call “the most expensive canceled app nobody knows existed.” Reporting based on my own knowledge, industry accounts, former employee commentary, job posting analysis, engineering community discussions, and developer records. What “Pandora X” Actually Was After SiriusXM bought Pandora for $3.5 billion in 2019, the company’s entire long-term strategy became clear to those inside: kill the separation between SiriusXM and Pandora, and build one modern streaming product capable of competing with Spotify and Apple Music. The public saw only partial steps; Pandora personalization injected into the SiriusXM app, a “Personalized Stations Powered by Pandora” rollout, and an e...