XM Radio, worth it?

I'm a music lover and have an eclectic taste for music and a long commute, which makes satellite radio a must. Some of the most popular channels are somewhat repetitive and tend to play songs from a limited pool of artists, but there are many less popular channels that I really enjoy. The merger with Sirius brought mixed opinions about the quality of service in the new company. I personally thought it is better now but many others did not think so. There is also lots of sports channels, news, TV shows, etc... The cost of subscription is fair in my opinion but have friends that think it’s too much, but they do not enjoy it how much I do. The main reasons I got Prius 3 was the upgraded JBL sound and Satellite radio ready, otherwise would have got 2. I just hope XM-Sirius survive… both companies were having major economic challenges before the fusion.

 

I have been a Sirius Subscriber (lifetime) for years myself, and while it may have seemed as though they dropped a lot of XM channels for Sirius ones, it is a little simpler than that.

Instead, what they tried to do across many of their stations is eliminate duplicate channels. For example, they combined the playlists of two different 'hard rock' stations (one each by XM and Sirius) to combine their talents and staffs with one new, larger playlist which contained both.

This reduced their total operating costs by not needing to staff two different channels that basically played very similar playlists. It also reduced the total cost of royalties payed to artists, as they are only broadcasting it once on the combined station, as opposed to once on each station.

They did simlar things across the board, so as a result, you are just as likely to hear a Sirius guy, like me, complain that they took my stations and replaced them with XM ones. Instead, they combined them all, and renamed some, deleted others, and created a few new ones.

As a result, the main mix that is broadcast to both the Sirius and XM streams are virtually the same, with a few added uniquely to each brand. In this way, if you are a subscriber to either service, you can benefit from lthe lineup of both, without the added costs to the company. If this is not enough for you, and like me, you must have the rest of them, instead of buying two radios, and two subs, now you only need to add either the 'Best of XM' or the 'Best of Sirius' package to your radio for a few extra bucks, and you can have it all!

As an added benefit, this streamlining has reduced their operating costs by 100s of millions of dollars, and will (hopefully) allow SiriusXm to operate for years. This will allow those of us who bought "Lifetime" subcriptions to actuall get our money's worth. (BTW, a lifetime XM with Best of Sirius package cost me $500. By contrast, a 3 year, pre-paid subscription with the same package would cost you $458.)

Enjoy! I would not buy a car without XM or Sirius again. LOVE IT!

 

gotta have howard...without him its not worth it. unfortunately to get his channels with a XM radio you have to pay $$$.

i agree the sound quality is average at best except the kiss station with commercials sounds really good.

my car audio listening is howard/AM Sports Talk/Ipod. i never listen to FM radio or music on XM.

 

90% of my listening is Howard 100 or Howard 101. The other 10% is when my kids or wife are in the car, and then I either listen to Radio Disney/Kids Place, or some 80s rock, etc. Once in a while, I like NPR or CNBC, etc..

Howard Rocks, and his show has never been better! When he went to Sirius from Terrestrial radio, Sirius had 600,000 listeners. They are now so big that they bought XM, and they have grown to 20 Million Subscribers. If anyone heard last weeks 90 minute long interview with Francis Ford Coppola, you heard an incredible interview.

 

I have a Ipod with 8 DAYS, and growing as I put ALBUMS on it, I have over 1000, worth of music on it.
I also have XM.
I find that I listen more to the Ipod than XM. Once in a while its nice to go to XM, but as soon as they start babbling and ranting, back to Ipod. I do like FOXNEWS, and CNN, if there's something happening I want to hear about, but for the XM/Serius content, it sadly went downhill after the the merger.

Paying money to listen to Howard Stern is just stupid, and strangely the ratings numbers seem to reflect that.... his audience has dwindled quite significantly!!!
Don't even start about Playboy.... some how listening to a bunny that is naked, with no pic is kinda self defeating...

Oh well.....

 

You are wrong about the ratings for Howard. His audience has soared from 600,000 3 1/2 year ago when he left FM, to over 20 million on SiriusXM now. Sirius XM, in its annual report, states that about 70% of their subscribers tune into channel 100 and 101, giving his show ran audience of about 14 Million. Compare that to another 'huge star', like Jay Leno, who was $1 in his late night, averaging 5 million veiwers.

After he left Terrestrial radio, they are going broke, selling stations across the country, and now trying to offer him a very large $$ package to return. Howard may not be your style, but calling it stupid to listen too is rather closed minded. If he were so stupid, all the A list celebrities would not swoon over getting on his show.

 

So you were able to buy a lifetime package for XM for the radio in the Prius? I inquired about that last year and thought they didn't do that for radios included in the car. If so, that's great!

Rich N.

 

Yes, but there are some limitations. If you buy the $499.99 Lifetime subscription for XM and Best of Sirius, and have it activated on any OEM Installed, built in system, then the lifetime remains with the vehicle. Meaning that when you sell the car down the road, you will no longer have that subscription. (The only exception is if the radio or the car is stolen, or the radio becomes inoperable, and you need to replace it.)

However, when I weighed that against the $458.00 package for a 3-year plan, it still seemed like quite a bargain. If you are adding the subscription to a Nav equipped car, you will need to pay for the XM Traffic Subscription, which is under $50 per year, as that is not included. They did offer multiyear discounts for this feature, but I will try it for the free trail period first to see if I like it.

 

If you have an iPhone and plenty of spare bandwidth in the unlimited data plan, you can stream LastFM and Pandora for free or get XM for $3 per month. Likely reduced sound quality on 3G and worse on EDGE. HSDPA 7.2 is coming in 2010-2011 and that might have decent sound from an iPhone 3G-S



http://www.siriusxm.com/oniphone/in...PHONEDIRECT&utm_medium=Other&utm_campaign=APP

 

XM or Sirius are only $2.99 per month if already a subscriber.

Otherwise, you will pay their regular rate, which is 12.99 for online only listening.