SIRIUSXM: Still Lazy After All These Years (1 Viewer)

[jim_falconer]

Just canceled my subscription. The tedious repetition of the same identical songs day-after-day will not be missed one bit!

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just canceled my subscription. The tedious repetition of the same identical songs day-after-day will not be missed one bit!

How difficult was it for you to cancel?

There's an article that just appeared on one of the news sites recently about how difficult SiriusXM has made it to cancel their service. I tried finding the article again but came up short.

I know they won't let you cancel without talking with one of their agents. When you do that, the agents will keep you on the phone knocking down the price with each "no" that you give them.

Just wondering how it went for you.

 

[jim_falconer]

It was not tough to cancel at all. Just kept saying I would like to cancel each time the agent threw out another offer. Maybe 5 minutes on the phone and I was all set

 

[bmasters9]

Just canceled my subscription. The tedious repetition of the same identical songs day-after-day will not be missed one bit!

Why would SiriusXM repeat the same songs ad nauseam day-after-day?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Why would SiriusXM repeat the same songs ad nauseam day-after-day?

Hi Ben!

This is explained in the post that starts this entire thread.

The service is run by people who worked in FM radio and have retained the philosophy that when someone turns to their favorite channel, they only want to hear familiar songs. They also feel that most of the listening is done in vehicles by commuters for perhaps a few minutes to an hour a day and, again, only want to hear familiar songs.

When you start listening to SiriusXM for 8 hours a day, several times a week (perhaps at a workplace or in your home), you begin to realize that there are only a few hundred songs being loaded in many of the popular channels, being played over and over again, seemingly never under the supervision of a music programmer who should be rotating the popular songs with lesser charted ones, changing them out week after week so the channels always seem fresh.

I listen to the 70s channel and the daily playlist seems pretty much the same as what they were playing 15 years ago. There are songs you never hear unless you tune into Casey Kasem's countdown show.

 

[bmasters9]

Hi Ben!

This is explained in the post that starts this entire thread.

The service is run by people who worked in FM radio and have retained the philosophy that when someone turns to their favorite channel, they only want to hear familiar songs. They also feel that most of the listening is done in vehicles by commuters for perhaps a few minutes to an hour a day and, again, only want to hear familiar songs.

When you start listening to SiriusXM for 8 hours a day, several times a week (perhaps at a workplace or in your home), you begin to realize that there are only a few hundred songs being loaded in many of the popular channels, being played over and over again, seemingly never under the supervision of a music programmer who should be rotating the popular songs with lesser charted ones, changing them out week after week so the channels always seem fresh.

I listen to the 70s channel and the daily playlist seems pretty much the same as what they were playing 15 years ago. There are songs you never hear unless you tune into Casey Kasem's countdown show.

Very good answer! I hadn't been following the thread, and only now have responded, so I was wanting to know the full story.

 

[David_B_K]

I just went through the annual Sirius/XM song and dance. After rejecting a promo they offered I told them up front I want the same deal I have now (the $6 per month deal) or I would cancel. They signed me up for that, and I am set for another year.

As I said earlier in the thread I listen 99.9% of the time to classical, and I do not experience the repetition on the classical channel that the rest of you do on pop/rock channels. I also listen to Sinatra, but I have his music on a permanently loaded thumbdrive, so I can easily switch to that if I want rather than selecting the Siriusly Sinatra channel.

 

[Bryan^H]

The thing I hate most about Sirius is the "crossover" songss they have on repeat. the rock band 'The Cult' and their two popular songs (Fire Woman, and the other one) cannot be 'Hair Nation', "Liquid Metal', 'Ozzy's Boneyard', 'First Wave', 80's, and more..

It just isn't fair. Talk about spreading an artist thin. When I hear the same song on nearly every channel I have saved on the service, it really kind of pisses me off.

 

[Jeffrey D]

The thing I hate most about Sirius is the "crossover" songss they have on repeat. the rock band 'The Cult' and their two popular songs (Fire Woman, and the other one) cannot be 'Hair Nation', "Liquid Metal', 'Ozzy's Boneyard', 'First Wave', 80's, and more..

It just isn't fair. Talk about spreading an artist thin. When I hear the same song on nearly every channel I have saved on the service, it really kind of pisses me off.

Yes The Cult seems to get airplay on Ozzy’s Boneyard only, while bands like Winger, White Lion, Dokken, Shotgun Messiah and Steelheart only appear on Hair Nation. The Boneyard went for years without playing any Rush, and very little Led Zeppelin- I assume because licensing some music is too cost-prohibitive. While I enjoy having SiriusXM in my vehicles, and in the company truck, I think they could do so much better in expanding their library.

I have likely posted this gripe earlier in this thread, but the decade channels
(70s on 7 and 80s on 8 are guilty of this)
play single edits of songs. I despise this practice.

 

[jayembee]

When my wife and I first got SXM several years ago, my go-to channel was "60s on 6" (now "60s Gold"). And, yes, I eventually found that it tended to just recycle the same Top 40 hits over and over. The saving grace was when I'd catch the afternoon DJ, Pat St. John, who would mix it up by often playing alternate takes or versions (his show was the only time I ever heard the channel play the Chambers Bros. "Time Has Come Today" in its full 11-minute version rather than the single version). But I'd have about a dozen alternate pre-sets that I'd cycle through for a change.

Currently, my go-to channel is B.B. King's Bluesville. While I do tend to hear some songs played a lot -- maybe too much, in some cases -- since it isn't a "retro" station, it does have a continuous string of fresh material. In fact, I'd say if I have a complaint about Bluesville, it's that there are some songs that I missing hearing because they've rotated off the general playlist. Well, actually, I'd say that the other complaint is that there are a fair number of songs they play that I don't think fall under the "blues" heading, but I tend to love the songs anyway, so I don't mind so much.

 

[Jeffrey D]

When my wife and I first got SXM several years ago, my go-to channel was "60s on 6" (now "60s Gold"). And, yes, I eventually found that it tended to just recycle the same Top 40 hits over and over. The saving grace was when I'd catch the afternoon DJ, Pat St. John, who would mix it up by often playing alternate takes or versions (his show was the only time I ever heard the channel play the Chambers Bros. "Time Has Come Today" in its full 11-minute version rather than the single version). But I'd have about a dozen alternate pre-sets that I'd cycle through for a change.

Currently, my go-to channel is B.B. King's Bluesville. While I do tend to hear some songs played a lot -- maybe too much, in some cases -- since it isn't a "retro" station, it does have a continuous string of fresh material. In fact, I'd say if I have a complaint about Bluesville, it's that there are some songs that I missing hearing because they've rotated off the general playlist. Well, actually, I'd say that the other complaint is that there are a fair number of songs they play that I don't think fall under the "blues" heading, but I tend to love the songs anyway, so I don't mind so much.

Wow- Time Has Come Today- haven’t heard that one in forever. I would guess the deep tracks channel still plays the full length (album) versions of their library. Back when the Boneyard played Rush, every once in a while, they’d play all 20 minutes of 2112.

 

[jayembee]

Wow- Time Has Come Today- haven’t heard that one in forever. I would guess the deep tracks channel still plays the full length (album) versions of their library. Back when the Boneyard played Rush, every once in a while, they’d play all 20 minutes of 2112.

Deep Tracks was one of my other pre-sets, but I don't recall hearing THCT (or any Chamber Bros.) on that channel.

 

[Desslar]

The pop/rock music stations are relentlessly repetitive. As much as I love 80s style hard rock, I can't listen to Boneyard or Hair Nation more than once a month. I've heard all their stuff before.

I do enjoy listening to the Casey Kasem countdowns on the 70s and 80s stations - those include a lot of songs that are obscure today.

Probably the main reason I hang on to the service is the Classic Radio channel for old radio dramas. But recently I find myself listening more to podcasts, so my usage of that channel has gone down as well.

 

[Jeffrey D]

The pop/rock music stations are relentlessly repetitive. As much as I love 80s style hard rock, I can't listen to Boneyard or Hair Nation more than once a month. I've heard all their stuff before.

I do enjoy listening to the Casey Kasem countdowns ion the 70s and 80s stations - those include a lot of songs that are obscure today.

Probably the main reason I hang on to the service is the Classic Radio channel for old radio dramas. But recently I find myself listening more to podcasts, so my usage of that channel has gone down as well.

Yes the Kasem countdowns on the 70s channel are fun. I hear info that I’ve never heard before about artists (Waylon Jennings gave his plane seat to The Big Bopper in February 1959).

 

[Ronald Epstein]

The 4th of July weekend is always an interesting one. So are other major holiday weekends.

You will hear "best of the decade" countdown shows on some of their Decades channels.

It's interesting because you hear music that the service never plays. It's rather frustrating to know that there are hundreds of smaller songs from each decade that reside within the service's library but never get played.

To this day, there are posts across the Internet as well as YouTube shorts complaining about the repetition across SiriusXM channels. However, it's obviously something that management isn't willing to change. They want to run their service like FM radio where the playlists are geared for commuters who only want to hear popular songs.

 

[Desslar]

The 4th of July weekend is always an interesting one. So are other major holiday weekends.

You will hear "best of the decade" countdown shows on some of their Decades channels.

It's interesting because you hear music that the service never plays. It's rather frustrating to know that there are hundreds of smaller songs from each decade that reside within the service's library but never get played.

To this day, there are posts across the Internet as well as YouTube shorts complaining about the repetition across SiriusXM channels. However, it's obviously something that management isn't willing to change. They want to run their service like FM radio where the playlists are geared for commuters who only want to hear popular songs.

My subscription's days are numbered as I don't commute these days.

I wish they would have at least a couple channels dedicated to pop/rock deep cuts that are never played on the main channels, but I guess that is too much to ask for.

I wonder if licensing fees play a part in XM's programming strategy. For example, I used to listen a lot to the Hair Nation channel until the repetition drove me nuts. The interesting thing was which songs were repeated. Some were big hits that one would expect, but some were very minor hits or non-hits that one would think are nearly forgotten. And a lot of big hits were never played. After some number of weeks, it seemed some of the endlessly repeated songs would disappear and other songs would pop up for repeats.

So my guess is that they license a block of a few hundred songs for a few months, then license a new block (and maybe they spread out the big hits across multiple blocks, so the remainder of each block is made up of minor hits). Thereby keeping licensing fees lower than if they played through thousands of different songs every month. Would that make sense?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

My subscription's days are numbered as I don't commute these days.

I wish they would have at least a couple channels dedicated to pop/rock deep cuts that are never played on the main channels, but I guess that is too much to ask for.

I wonder if licensing fees play a part in XM's programming strategy. For example, I used to listen a lot to the Hair Nation channel until the repetition drove me nuts. The interesting thing was which songs were repeated. Some were big hits that one would expect, but some were very minor hits or non-hits that one would think are nearly forgotten. And a lot of big hits were never played. After some number of weeks, it seemed some of the endlessly repeated songs would disappear and other songs would pop up for repeats.

So my guess is that they license a block of a few hundred songs for a few months, then license a new block. Thereby keeping licensing fees lower than if they played through thousands of different songs every month. Would that make sense?

That does make sense and perhaps could be a reason for the repetition you are hearing.

I can tell you that when I visited there over 15 years ago, I inquired about the amount of music they owned and was told that they have every song in existence on their servers. However, in 2015 the company was involved in a dispute with the industry over songs they were playing and ended up paying a hefty fee for older recordings.

SiriusXM Settles Royalty Dispute Over Old Recordings (Published 2015)

The satellite radio service and major record labels agreed that Sirius would pay $210 million to settle a suit over royalties for music recorded before 1972.

www.nytimes.com

This is the reason why in addition to subscription fees, there is an additional "royalties fee" tacked on to the payment to cover the costs SiriusXM was forced to pay.

I have expressed this opinion many times over in prior posts within this thread and I still stand by these thoughts...

I was told by SiriusXM management that they cater to commuters who spend short periods of time in their vehicles every day. When they turn on a station, SiriusXM wants them to hear familiar music so they are not channel-changing. This never made sense to me as if there were channels being changed, it would be for another SiriusXM channel.

I don't know if it's still the same status quo, but for a long time, SiriusXM was run by FM radio people who instead of thinking "out of the box" in providing something refreshing to the listener (like XM Radio programmers did prior to the merger), continued to run the service like an FM radio station. That is why you hear the same songs over and over again with lots of DJ babble and even a Morning Zoo on one of their most popular channels. These guys took the FM concept and applied it to a paid service. So, essentially, SiriusXM is paid FM radio. It's the same programming philosophy that all of us have grown tired of on current FM channels transferred to a paid service.

I know that complaints are sent to SiriusXM all the time about their repetition. The Internet is filled with discussions on repetition. I have sent letters to each new CEO that takes over the service (and there have been a few over the years) and nothing has changed. It seems the same 200-300 songs that were playing on 70's on 7 two decades ago are the same few that are playing today. The playlists have seemingly not changed and rarely does it seem like someone from programming is even attempting to rotate out music.

 

[Desslar]

That does make sense and perhaps could be a reason for the repetition you are hearing.

I can tell you that when I visited there over 15 years ago, I inquired about the amount of music they owned and was told that they have every song in existence on their servers. However, in 2015 the company was involved in a dispute with the industry over songs they were playing and ended up paying a hefty fee for older recordings.

SiriusXM Settles Royalty Dispute Over Old Recordings (Published 2015)

The satellite radio service and major record labels agreed that Sirius would pay $210 million to settle a suit over royalties for music recorded before 1972.

www.nytimes.com

This is the reason why in addition to subscription fees, there is an additional "royalties fee" tacked on to the payment to cover the costs SiriusXM was forced to pay.

I have expressed this opinion many times over in prior posts within this thread and I still stand by these thoughts...

I was told by SiriusXM management that they cater to commuters who spend short periods of time in their vehicles every day. When they turn on a station, SiriusXM wants them to hear familiar music so they are not channel-changing. This never made sense to me as if there were channels being changed, it would be for another SiriusXM channel.

I don't know if it's still the same status quo, but for a long time, SiriusXM was run by FM radio people who instead of thinking "out of the box" in providing something refreshing to the listener (like XM Radio programmers did prior to the merger), continued to run the service like an FM radio station. That is why you hear the same songs over and over again with lots of DJ babble and even a Morning Zoo on one of their most popular channels. These guys took the FM concept and applied it to a paid service. So, essentially, SiriusXM is paid FM radio. It's the same programming philosophy that all of us have grown tired of on current FM channels transferred to a paid service.

I know that complaints are sent to SiriusXM all the time about their repetition. The Internet is filled with discussions on repetition. I have sent letters to each new CEO that takes over the service (and there have been a few over the years) and nothing has changed. It seems the same 200-300 songs that were playing on 70's on 7 two decades ago are the same few that are playing today. The playlists have seemingly not changed and rarely does it seem like someone from programming is even attempting to rotate out music.

Yeah, I don't expect them to change at this point. I just wonder - who are these regular listeners who like the current format? They must exist, as Sirius wants to cater to them. But I can't understand the mindset of these consumers at all:

"Wow! They're playing the same 5 songs they played yesterday morning, all of which I have heard at least a dozen times this month. I'm in seventh heaven!"

 

[Dennis_H]

I'm pretty much only listening to Deep Tracks on there. Still have a lot more repetition than maybe it should have, but there is enough variety to keep it interesting. Sure miss XM Music Lab from a decade ago before they went to a very stale playlist and dropped it, and the Live station they had before that where you might here a Mike Oldfield concert followed by a Peter Gabriel era Genesis concert. Nothing on there like that now...

 

[SuperClark]

I subscribed for 1 year at 5$/month it runs out in sept.I have about 7 goto channels Beatles Elvis Sinatra 1960s etc.Usually i can find a song have not heard recently but if I cant i have a portable cd player connected by usb as an option.