As K-Pop‘s popularity has exploded over the last decade, companies like SiriusXM have carved out room for the music space and its artists.
“I think that K-Pop itself just made a lot of sense,” Michael Tam, SiriusXM K-Pop host and programmer tells The Hollywood Reporter. Tam, who also programs Pandora’s K-Pop offerings, began his career at Sirius in finance but he’s been a fan of the music space for many years. “I was a big fan of Taeyang’s ‘Wedding Dress.’ That was the anthem,” he says.
The host said he was vocal from the beginning about representation, including via K-Pop, on SiriusXM. Prior to the current station, SiriusXM had a channel called 88Rising Radio, a collaboration between management company and label 88Rising. Tam says that was the entry point for Asian music at SiriusXM.
“We had a lot of takeovers from K-Pop artists. Back in the day, we had takeovers from Seventeen. We worked with Le Sserafim very early on after their debut. Even New Jeans (also known as NJZ) back in the day when they first debuted,” Tam explains. “After the channel went away, we decided to start our own K-Pop station.”
In addition to music programming, the satellite radio company’s Korean pop focused station, SiriusXM K-Pop, allows fans to directly interact with artists through video interviews and station takeovers.
“The takeover process is pretty thorough,” Tam says, adding that it’s a deep dive. “[It’s] an opportunity for artists to share about their biggest hits, as well as their latest releases and everything that they’re currently working on; whether that be in their daily life, just in general for their current tour, their upcoming projects, whatever the case may be.”
Last month, Blackpink’s Jennie had a takeover on the channel, meanwhile Enhypen’s Sunghoon and Jake shared their Coachella experiences. Tam, using Enhypen as an example, shares that the pair came into the studio and dug into everything Coachella, their tour and more, giving the group a longer chance to connect with U.S. fans.
While the K-Pop channel primary lives online, the station has its fair share of time to be spotlighted on satellite. In May, as a part of SiriusXM’s AAPI month programming, SiriusXM K-Pop was featured on satellite, along with Horizon, the broadcaster’s Asian music station, and Mazaa, a southeast Asian music station.
The demand for K-Pop at SiriusXM, and elsewhere in the U.S., only seems to be growing. “There’s so many fans that want to listen to it, and even with the artists themselves; I feel like a lot of them want to break out here more and want to connect with their fans,” Tam says.
As the demand grows, so does SiriusXM K-Pop’s ambitions for the future. “We’ve made a lot of strides since launching a couple years ago, and I think not necessarily an end goal, but we just want to be able to continue to offer as full a listening experience as possible,” Tam explains.
“It’s incredible how engaging the community is for K-Pop fans. We receive a lot of emails with comments, whether that be negative or positive, whatever the case may be, we look at every single thing,” he adds. “I think that there’s going to be a lot more in the near future for K-Pop here at SiriusXM.”
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