This Week in Sirius XM Radio Inc (SIRI): Pandora Media Inc (P), Google Inc (GOOG), Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Nothing to Frear but Frear itself
Longtime Sirius XM CFO David Frear has spent years presenting the bullish argument for satellite radio, and now he’ll get to do it again. Frear will be a presenter on Tuesday at next week’s Piper Jaffray Technology, Media, and Telecommunications Conference. He isn’t likely to say anything that may move the stock one way or the other, but investors should still check out the webcast of the event.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) pump up the volume
The chatter surrounding Apple’s inevitable entry into music streaming has been growing in recent months, and this week brought a few interesting nuggets.

Beats Electronics, the music tech company co-founded by Dr. Dre and label exec Jimmy Iovine, and best known for its high-end headphones, went public with plans to introduce a music-streaming service earlier this year. Several sources tell Reuters that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had talks with Beats to form a partnership surrounding the service.

However, a New York Post article came out later in the week suggesting that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s plans are starting to fall apart as it asks labels to accept just $0.06 a share in music license royalties for every 100 songs streamed. That would be half as much as Pandora is currently paying.

If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is trying to lowball the record labels, does that mean it plans to introduce a free ad-supported service? This would make things interesting, as the likely path seemed to be a premium service that would make Sirius XM Radio Inc (NASDAQ:SIRI)’s value proposition for existing receiver-based subscribers more compelling.

Then we have Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) as it readies what appears to be two distinct music streaming services. One will go through its nascent Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Play platform and the other through YouTube. Firm details have yet to surface on what will differentiate the two offerings, but Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is probably relishing the chance to beat Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to this digital niche that’s starting to get pretty crowded.

Things continue to heat up in digital music these days, and perhaps that’s why Sirius XM has been investing time and money in this area.

The article This Week in Sirius XM Radio originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Rick Munarriz.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Apple and Google.

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