Is Siriusxm Worth Subscribing Again?

[Wolf]

I have been away from satellite radio for a few years now. Mainly it was getting expensive to listen to, certain channels repeating the same songs throughout the week and other stuff.

My last car wasn't equipped to receive satellite radio, besides using the app via Bluetooth. But my new ride is equipped to receive satellite radio now.

Now I see SiriusXM has 6 months for $30 bucks and plus I saw they are having a free preview on Nov 15th - 26th. I plan on taking advantage of the free preview, but I saw it won't include Stern which sometimes I miss listening to.

Basically is SiriusXM worth subscribing to again?

 

[Wolf]

I listen to FM radio every now and then. But I mainly listen to Apple Music, because I can access thousands of albums and quite a few channels to listen to.

But on SiriusXM I do miss listening to the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, Octane, Lithum, Hair Nation and couple of country channels.

I doubt Stern is the same show how he had it many years ago. Plus I hardly ever listen to sports, entertainment, public radio and politics.

 

[HecticArt]

I still like SXM. (Obviously)
I like that there is new music to discover before you usually hear it elsewhere.
I like that there are no commercials.
I like the delivery system and that I don't need to use my phone or have cell service to listen.
I like the variety. (Even though some of the stations can get on a tight rotation.)
I like that there's no static or station drift like FM.

I listen for 9 or more hours a day, so the value works out in my favor. If I had a really short commute, or couldn't listen much during the day, it might be a different story.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I missed it in the rental car last month. Particularly on trips. Listening to FM was challenging. Listening to my iPhone is kinda ok but my wife and I have different tastes so a specific playlist is hard. I like to have it but it is pricey. Do like the 80s and 70s countdowns.

 

[hyson]

I destroyed my AM/FM antenna jack installing my new head unit a few years ago.

With that being said, I put all my music on a usb drive and listen to that and downloaded podcasts now while in the car. I listen to what I want, when I want it. My time is valuable, so I try to make the most out of what I listen to.

 

[HecticArt]

See, I'm lazy. No question about it.
For the bulk of my listening, I just want to turn on my radio and let it play.
Looking for podcasts, and uploading content to a USB is more hands on than I want for most of my daily music. I'll give you that you don't have to change stations if something annoying comes on. I do have to do that several times a day, but it's pretty much just one click.

 

[Wolf]

I fall in line with all of you guys with the pros and cons. Like how you said it.

Hectic - New music, no commercials, plenty of variety and a good delivery system. I also have to change stations on FM and skips songs on Apple Music.

IRBS - Pricey and miss certain channels

hyson - I also listen to podcasts, load all my music from Apple music

 

[scotchandcigar]

I agree with Wolf, that all you guys have hit the main perspectives on making a yes or no decision. Here's my story.

For my commute, I like music. I see Hyson's point about utilizing available time for podcasts etc, but I'm not a regular listener of talk, except for Stern. There are 2 FM stations - one college, and one independent adult contemporary - that play a good mix of new and old music I like listening to. The college station is commercial-free, they do about 5 minutes of promos and news per hour. However, they're in Boston, so I can only get them for half my commute. The other station has the usual commercial break every 20 minutes. To that mix, I add the SXM app on my phone. Sometimes I go right to the app, but usually I start with FM, and switch to the app when a commercial hits, and the college station is out of range. In any case, I get some time with Sirius XMU every day, which gives me more new music.

The wife's truck has satellite built-in, and that's all she/we listen to. When we drive together, it's mostly Spectrum, Classic Vinyl/Rewind. At home, I use my old cell phones for streaming SXM through my home theater system, and on my 3-season room (back porch) stereo. I use it as background music for dinner, working around the house, or when we have people over. The channels I mostly play are 1st Wave and The Bridge.

Like Hyson, my time is also valuable. That's why I don't waste it downloading and compiling music. And although I listen to my own music collection at times, I don't want to keep hearing any set collection of music over and over. I have a love/hate relationship with SXM. I like having a DJ or program manager pick music for me; I get a better variety, and hear new stuff.

But I'm often frustrated at the rigid formula, excessive repetition, and forced DJ "storytelling" and constant promos for programming. I yell at the radio for Richard Blade to STFU. I avoid Alt Nation at night, because the moment I hear Madison's long-overplayed shtick, I have to change it. I cringe when Kristine Stone constantly laughs at her own inane thoughts. The between-song station IDs are maddening: the annoying-as-shit Classic Rewind cassette tape sound, the too-cool-for-school Alt Nation thoughts, the "coming to you from the Alan Freed studio at the RRHOF" bullshit. Also, they preempt regular programming every weekend for special stuff I don't want to hear; hours of live festival broadcasts, and various music talking heads blathering on about obscure shit.

So I'm not crazy about the service, or the way it's managed, or the cost. But I don't see a better alternative for me, because I use it so much.

 

[HecticArt]

If I only listened for a couple of hours a day, I would seriously (no pun intended) consider cancelling.

I do like a little bit of the DJ chatter. They often talk about tours, new albums, and a little artist trivia. It also makes the service feel less cold and lonely than something like Slacker where it's just song after song. (Which can be good at times, when I need to focus on work or something for a while.)

I'm a complicated individual.....

 

[scotchandcigar]

I do like a little bit of the DJ chatter. They often talk about tours, new albums, and a little artist trivia. It also makes the service feel less cold and lonely than something like Slacker where it's just song after song. (Which can be good at times, when I need to focus on work or something for a while.)

I'm a complicated individual.....

Yeah, if I wanted to make that post even longer, I would've been more specific, which I'll do here.

The one channel I really like is XMU. There's no station ID sound effect or promo between songs, and the DJ talk is all useful info about the songs and artists they're actually playing. Alt Nation has mostly useful info from the DJs, if you can ignore Madison.

But Spectrum and the Classic rock stations basically do a 30 second promo between songs, alternating with a 1 or 2 minute stream-of-consciousness story by the DJs. The promos tell you how great the channel is, their mission statement, how smart you are to have chosen it, how to go on Facebook and Twitter and voice your opinion, what other channels are playing the artist you just heard, and what special programming is coming up. Add to that the DJ chatter, where Mark Goodman tells a pointless story about something that happened in 1982, or Kristine Stone talks about rain, or (my favorite) they tell you every hour about what displays have been added to the RRHOF studio.

But the worst (by far) is Richard Blade on 1st Wave. He once spent an entire 5 minutes on a review of a recent Morrissey show in Leeds, England. He spent the first 2 minutes talking about how good the review was, and then he read the entire review, word for word. Then he followed up with the usual pointless listing of every town and date in the tour. All this on a channel that only plays old music from the 80s. Then he tells me about Facebook and Twitter, about the NASCAR race channel, and the football channel, and the special programming coming up in 2 weeks.

I like knowing that there are actual people programming the channels, and I like hearing about new artists. But the rest is just filling time.

 

[HecticArt]

But the worst (by far) is Richard Blade on 1st Wave. He once spent an entire 5 minutes on a review of a recent Morrissey show in Leeds, England. He spent the first 2 minutes talking about how good the review was, and then he read the entire review, word for word. Then he followed up with the usual pointless listing of every town and date in the tour.

Did he take the time to remind everyone that he used to shag Terri Nunn from Berlin? I think he's contractually obligated to tell his audience hourly, like FM radio has to announce their call letters and time.

 

[scotchandcigar]

Did he take the time to remind everyone that he used to shag Terri Nunn from Berlin? I think he's contractually obligated to tell his audience hourly, like FM radio has to announce their call letters and time.

Not that I've heard. But I do know he was very close friends with George Michael.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Worst DJ is Rachel Steele on Rewind broadcasting from the RRHOF (if you don't know, she will tell you again in 5 minutes) and also will usually only tell any story if it has some connection to the RRHOF.

And the commercials (and I do call them that even though technically they are promos) are very annoying. If I wanted to listen to the Beatles Channel or Billy Joel Radio or another channel I would.

So yes, definitely a love-hate relationship.

 

[HecticArt]

EVERY time he's on, he mentions that he used to date Terri.
He wrote a chapter about their relationship in his book.
And that No More Words was inspired by him.

 

[scotchandcigar]

Worst DJ is Rachel Steele on Rewind broadcasting from the RRHOF (if you don't know, she will tell you again in 5 minutes) and also will usually only tell any story if it has some connection to the RRHOF.

And the commercials (and I do call them that even though technically they are promos) are very annoying. If I wanted to listen to the Beatles Channel or Billy Joel Radio or another channel I would.

So yes, definitely a love-hate relationship.

On the touch-screen radio display, it shows a very cute picture of her, so one time I looked her up, and I think that's either a picture of her daughter, or her from 20 years ago. And yes, the constant RRHOF references are maddening. First of all, you can broadcast from anywhere, it doesn't matter. I'm not going there.

It's all part of the more general issue (that you touched on with the promos for other channels), that SXM broadcasts as if every listener is new to the service. The subscriber growth is somewhere between 5 and 10% per year. The average subscriber has probably had the service for more than 5 years. And we pay for it! So stop advertising!

I understand that people hear it in rental cars, and with trial subscriptions from new car purchases. But they shouldn't torture us 10-year-plus listeners with this crap. I pay for HBO, they do maybe 1 minute of promos for every hour or 2 of content. My cable TV guide doesn't annoy me at all; they assume I'm smart enough to look through the menu, and see what's on.

EVERY time he's on, he mentions that he used to date Terri.
He wrote a chapter about their relationship in his book.
And that No More Words was inspired by him.

Maybe it's because as soon as I hear his annoying british accent, I mentally tune him out. He's almost as bad as Richard Quest.

 

[memebag]

Is the signal quality any better? It was horrible when I quit.

 

[Wolf]

Is the signal quality any better? It was horrible when I quit.

I recall losing my signal when I was driving in tunnels, over passes and canyons. I bet that issue is still around today.

Either way the free preview starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to checking it out. Unless my vehicle has some kind of weird issue of receiving an signal. I thought there was a test channel for SXM, I guess they removed it?

 

[memebag]

I recall losing my signal when I was driving in tunnels, over passes and canyons. I bet that issue is still around today.

Either way the free preview starts tomorrow and I'm looking forward to checking it out. Unless my vehicle has some kind of weird issue of receiving an signal. I thought there was a test channel for SXM, I guess they removed it?

I'm not asking about signal strength, but quality. The digital, lossy compression on music channels was egregious when I last heard Sirius XM.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Channel 1 or 184 should be audible on all XM or Sirius radios.


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[IdRatherBeSkiing]

I'm not asking about signal strength, but quality. The digital, lossy compression on music channels was egregious when I last heard Sirius XM.

I don't think it's any different. I don't find it that bad. Perhaps newer radios are better at compensating for it.


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