New SiriusXM Logo Aims To Play Catch-Up

SiriusXM is known for its satellite radio. It would now also like to become your music streaming app of choice. Last week, the company announced a forthcoming streaming app, new artist-themed channels, and a rebrand designed around its namesake: the night sky’s brightest star, which it hopes will appeal to new and younger listeners, according to Fast Company.

Though SiriusXM counts a combined monthly audience of approximately 150 million listeners, on the day of its rebrand announcement, the app sat at No. 9 on Apple’s list of the top free music apps, behind streaming apps Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, SoundCloud, and others. The company recently announced it would be overhauling its app and services to try to catch up to those competitors.

Previous Logo

The company dropped its old logo, which showed radio waves emanating from its wordmark, for a new wordmark that creates a star in the letter S using negative space. The company’s also bringing back its dog mascot, another star reference, for the star Sirius’ nickname, the “dog star.”

“SiriusXM was born of the sky, with our satellites lighting up the night alongside the stars,” Suzi Watford, the company’s senior vice president and chief growth officer, said during a presentation. “So with our new branding, we are embracing our roots and our future all in one.”

The S logo comes in variants, like a disco ball, rainbow Pride colors, and another version in black surrounded in barbed wire. They can convey different genres, and additionally, the logo can house a different kind of star, the musicians and hosts who populate SiriusXM’s programming.

“At SiriusXM, we are home to the stars,” Watford said. “With this new branding, we have an opportunity to showcase how these stars are at the core of our value, and to give them the spotlight.”

The new visual identity is the work of London-based Uncommon Creative Studio, which previously worked with EA Sports, and announced its first U.S. studio last month in New York. They weren’t going for subtlety. “I think some rebrands can be an exercise in remaining invisible,” the studio’s creative founder Nils Leonard tells Fast Company. “We’re not in the business of a slightly different shade of blue.”

Instead, SiriusXM has a new color palette designed around the color of stars across their lifespan, from blue to orange to red. The concept of getting closer to the stars was a through line of the project. The brand’s new S logo came from “an intention to create an icon for the brand,” Leonard says, and “the idea of you pressing on a star when you open the app . . . I think it will get a new generation to get what [SiriusXM is] about.”