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

[John Dirk]

I understand Ron's and other's criticisms of Sirius XM, but I still really like it. I am paying too much for it though. I need to find a better deal.

If you call them and ask, my experience is, they will offer a better deal although it will likely be temporary.

 

[DavidJ]

I need to do that. I currently have three radios and I know I’m paying too much. I’d also like to get the streaming option.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Really guys, SiriusXM radio in the car is absolute shit. It's geared towards the FM market. Their programmers couldn't give a crap that there are only a hundred or so songs being played over and over again every day.

However, I give them kudos for their streaming. If I could get rid of everything else I would stick with their streaming.

Their streamed content is much better. No annoying DJ chatter on the music channels. Bunch of really good music channels you won't find anywhere else. They even have a best of the 70s and 80s channel that is a nice mix with no interruptions or promotions from what I can tell.

Now if only Internet streaming were available EVERYWHERE there would be a reason to keep SiriusXM streamed. I am not using my phone data to do it.

 

[B-ROLL]

I was supposed to get SiriusXM when I purchased my Pre-owned GM car from a GM dealer but the only stations that came up on my Sirius button was "Canadian Stations" I think the one time I tried to listen to it while the "free" trial was on there was some news from the CBC ...

So, no I have not renewed the "service" ... The "Digital" non-Sirius radio is pretty cool though.Depending on the station, it will(may) display the song title and artist (or composer and composition title and sometimes artist for "classical")

 

[Bryan^H]

Really guys, SiriusXM radio in the car is absolute shit. It's geared towards the FM market. Their programmers couldn't give a crap that there are only a hundred or so songs being played over and over again every day.

When I first got Sirius I thought it would be great to have a dedicated 80's channel. After a few weeks I stopped listening to it--Duran Duran, a special live performance from Duran Duran, "Town Hall" with Duran Duran....holy Shit I hate Duran Duran, and it seemed it was all they played. And some of the bigger hits from other artists like 'Safety Dance', 99 Red Baloons, and She Blinded me with Science were always the BS remixed versions-every single time I heard them. What a freaking joke.

Then I turned to something I knew I loved "First Wave" home of New Wave, and alternative. Now we're talikn---And Suprise: more Duran Duran. A lot of it.
I gave up.

I eventually learned to like a few channels like Willie's Roadhouse, and Ozzy's Boneyard. And I did love Spa as they had some great synth New Age music that was quite nice( driving through the country on a Fall color tour made it all the better). But in the end I just couldn't justify the price, and cancelled my subscription.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Bryan,

We have to listen to the 80s channel once a week. Still a lot of Duran Duran. Nothing has changed. Very limited playlists.

I just don't understand what they are trying to do as a music service? It's no wonder their stock rarely goes anywhere.

 

[Rodney]

I understand Ron's and other's criticisms of Sirius XM, but I still really like it. I am paying too much for it though. I need to find a better deal.

I still enjoy it as well, mostly for Willie's Roadhouse, Cinemagic, and Radio Classics. The streaming is much better than the radio, as you have the ability to rewind and fast forward over songs/shows.
My biggest complaint is having to play the "cancel game" with them to get a good deal whenever renewal comes around.

 

[Moleman X]

I got a new car less than a year ago, and it came with a 3 month Sirius/XM trial. I don't think I listened to it enough to notice the limited playlists, as the sound quality was repulsive (as in, it pushed me away from the service). It is much worse than when I subscribed about 5 years ago. Listen to the DJs: every time they hit the letter "S", it sounds like a short blast of white noise, not a sound made by a human mouth. There, i just ruined Sirius/XM for you. Or maybe not - my wife still likes it, mostly for convenience and ease of use. When I'm in her car, we're usually on Underground Garage, Classic Vinyl, or one of the classical stations. The 40's channel sounds pretty good because of the inherent limited fidelity, but they play too many vocals for my taste. But I stopped using my free trial after about a week.

The car also has Android Auto which worked fine while I had my (also free) in-car Wi-Fi, but once that trial ended I had to rely on my cellphone's reception and it's spotty at best until I hit the freeway. Just getting Pandora to start playing is a chore, and don't even try voice commands - you WILL pop a vein in your head or punch a hole in your nice new touchscreen. I might go back to the in-car Wi-Fi service again, but that's another hundred a year subscription. So for now...

Thank you, Chevy, for still integrating an iPod interface into your cars. I plug in my 160GB Classic, put it in Shuffle Songs mode and I have my own custom radio station that sounds great. All the info comes up on the screen and it only drops connection occasionally, usually requiring an iPod restart. Also does playlists or search by artist, album, genre, etc.

Are Sirius/XM's days numbered? With so many options, how many people will still pay $100-200 a year for this crap service?

 

[Aaron Silverman]

IIRC, wasn't the XM/Sirius merger a result of the market being too small to support two services? I seem to remember their argument being "merge or die."

Anyway, I listen a couple of times a year when there's a free trial. 90% of the time it's Ozzy's Boneyard, with occasional flipping around to Little Steven, First Wave, 80s on 8, Classic Vinyl, and the comedy channels. So it's not really enough to bother me with the repetition.

Like some others, I have a USB stick containing most of my CD collection plugged into my car. It's 128 GB and has around 15,000 songs on it. (Not the highest rez, but plenty good enough for listening in the car.) Unfortunately, that's more than the Ford Sync can easily handle, so it only indexes 12,000-14,000 songs at a time, but that's fine (even though it always seems to miss some of my favorite albums!). I figure my next car will be advanced enough to handle it better.

 

[Peter Rohlfs]

Having just gotten new car in September, I was excited to have Stern back (since he left FM) and the Beatles channel. I liked that the Beatles had things like the Peter Asher and Billy Joel hosted shows and even some of the covers I never heard. BUT they now are just playing the love song special with Peter Frampton non stop. He gets to number one and they start at 50 all over again. Soon I'll be able to name them in order.

I did also notice that the Beatles sons sound better off my USB key MP3s then Sirius XM.

They gave me a decent 1st year offer, but if they want full price next year I will be dropping it.

 

[TonyD]

Listened to the new billy Joel channel today for about 30 minutes.

Played just as many Beetles songs as th y did Joel songs.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Listened to the new billy Joel channel today for about 30 minutes.

Played just as many Beetles songs as th y did Joel songs.

Tony,

Not sure I understand. Could you elaborate on that statement?

 

[TonyD]

Yep.

Apparently there is a Billy Joel channel now.

In the 30minutes I listened I heard a few Billy songs.
They played a short clip of him talking about the beetles influence on his career notably Norwegian Wood.
Then they immediateLy played a beetles song that wasn’t Norwegian wood.

Over the next 30 minutes or so they played a handful of beetles tunes and a few Billy tunes.

It’s a Billy Joel channel. Just play Billy Joel.
There is already a beetle channel. No need to play them on a BJ specific channel.

 

[Scott Voth]

The biggest thing I didn't like when XM switched to Sirius was the DJs talking too much. XM had very little DJ jabber - it was just music and the occasional station promo. On top of that, there is a distinctive political slant to some of the DJ's chatter and like most of the media - it's liberal. I'm not paying to listen to opinions I don't agree with be it newspapers or satellite radio. It's about time the media figured out that when they take a political stand, they are offending 50% of their audience. I have a big enough collection of music on my iPods that I won't hear the same song twice in about a month while driving to work so I dropped Sirius and plugged in the iPods. Problem solved and the sound quality is much better too.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Yep.

Apparently there is a Billy Joel channel now.

In the 30minutes I listened I heard a few Billy songs.
They played a short clip of him talking about the beetles influence on his career notably Norwegian Wood.
Then they immediateLy played a beetles song that wasn’t Norwegian wood.

Over the next 30 minutes or so they played a handful of beetles tunes and a few Billy tunes.

It’s a Billy Joel channel. Just play Billy Joel.
There is already a beetle channel. No need to play them on a BJ specific channel.

Are the beetles some new group? I've never heard of them before now.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Scott,

I think I can help....

https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Radio-Inc/dp/B01NCNGJ47

Thanks for this info, Ron. We've been out of town, so I have not been able to try out Dash Radio or linking it to our Echo devices until now. I downloaded the Dash Radio app to my Android phone and setup an account, and was able to enable the Dash Radio skill on our Echos and successfully play Dash Radio channels on the devices. However, there is no way to link to the Dash Radio account via the skill, as there is for Pandora. I sent feedback to Amazon via the Echo app on my phone, and received the following reply:

Hello Scott,

Thank you for contacting Amazon Alexa support.

I'm sorry to inform you that the login option for "Dash Radio" skill option is currently unavailable.

I completely understand that this feature definitely would be of great help to our customers.

To make things better for you, I've personally forwarded your comments to Alexa development team. They shall surely look into this matter to make ability to login option for "Dash Radio" skill.

Your feedback and suggestions are very important for us to make sure we improve the product where it lacks or to be rectified so that it gives better performance to our Alexa customers and you may make the best use of it to enjoy it to the utmost.

Also, I Kindly request you to place a review for the skill developer by using the below steps:

1. Find the skill you'd like to review and open its detail page.
2. Scroll down to the Customer Reviews section and select Write a Review.
3. Enter your star rating, comments, and headline for your review.
4. Scroll down and select Submit Review.

Further, if you have any trouble with your Alexa, then we need you to contact us again via phone or chat so that we can have a discussion and get this resolved at the earliest. There's no need to be concerned anymore.

Through chat or call, we can also loop in our Alexa team into this issue and get the best possible solution for your problem. We'll give you an easy step by step instruction in order to resolve this issue.

By phone: https://www.amazon.com/clicktocall-alexasupport

By chat: https://www.amazon.com/clicktochat-alexachatsupport

Thanks for using Alexa. We look forward to see you soon.

We'd appreciate your feedback. Please use the buttons below to vote about your experience today.

Best regards,
Shiva
Amazon.com

 

[benbess]

Does Cinemagic still exist on XM streaming??

 

[TonyD]

The app does have a channel, 750 Cinemagic-Escape into the Movies.

.

 

[TonyD]

Are the beetles some new group? I've never heard of them before now.

Yes brand new and already overhyped and overplayed.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Yep.

Apparently there is a Billy Joel channel now.

In the 30minutes I listened I heard a few Billy songs.
They played a short clip of him talking about the beetles influence on his career notably Norwegian Wood.
Then they immediateLy played a beetles song that wasn’t Norwegian wood.

Over the next 30 minutes or so they played a handful of beetles tunes and a few Billy tunes.

It’s a Billy Joel channel. Just play Billy Joel.
There is already a beetle channel. No need to play them on a BJ specific channel.

That's how they ruined The Beatles Channel.

They play songs that "influenced" the group. They are usually crappy 50s songs. Then they play cover songs by today's artists. There are so few real Beatles songs played on that channel at all.