Time to cancel (1 Viewer)

[Ed Faver]

I am a satellite radio owner since May, 2004. While I have Sirius, I find this discussion interesting as well. When I chose services, I never considered music choice. It was talk and sports that drove me. If XM had Baseball at the time, I might've gone their way, but the NFL plus National Public Radio made my choice for me. Howard was an added bonus.

Anyway, I digress. I am wondering if music will be a major player in deciding which service to go with in the future. With services like iTunes, Rhapsody, and others as well as my ability to select cuts from CDs I own, I have several mixed CDs that I burned myself and which serve as my music channel/stream. In the age of a la carte self-serve music, why be at the mercy of any radio station, satellite or terrestrial?

 

[Kevin N]

Well, the main point of me owning satellite was to get clued in to awesome music that I didn't know existed. Seeing as they're moving into the FM top 40 format now, there's no unique music anymore.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Kevin,

Where you going to go now? Back to FM? Sirius?

Music repetition is far worse on the other service.

 

[mattCR]

Probably to that other competitor: Ipod.

 

[TheLongshot]

My wife LOVES Rhapsody, but she still has a Roady 2 in the car. I have a 20GB MP3 player in my car, yet I still listen to my Audiovox. Why? Because I want to discover new music that I may not have heard before. For me, that's the point of music on the radio.

That's why I don't get these "hits" stations. Really, if all you want to do is hear what is familiar with you, there are better options. With an iPod, you'd never have to hear a song you didn't like.

It is really disappointing me that XM is getting away from the new music a bit, at least in genres that aren't particularly hot. To me, a station like "Big Tracks" is a waste.

Jason

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Ron,

What channels do you listen to? Jam On, Disorder, and the Jazz stations are what fit my tastes, and they are pretty far removed from FM around here, by a country mile! I can't speak for stuff like the 70s or 80s channels but I'd rather have a root canal than listen to any nostalgia pop format, diverse or repetitive.

 

[DwightK]

Hopefully Kevin N lasted out the Ethel situation. Ethel is very good right now. A few hit type stuff but they have gone back a bit to playing deeper alternative rock.

I also use XM for new experiences and XMU is the king for that. I would never have heard of Modest Mouse, The Feint, Spoon, The Dears, Handsome Boy Modeling School, TV on the Radio, and so on without XMU. Many great groups just rising. The Verge (Unsigned) is also good for that.

 

[Steve...O]

I am fairly new to satellite radio having signed up with XM in February. I couldn't be happier and rarely have it off while in the car.

I'll admit my tastes probably skew differently than those in this thread. Most of my time is spent on the classic country and old time radio channels with occasional time spent on the talk and baseball channels. The diversity of programming is what hooked me. There is a slight amount of repetition on the music channels, but the playlists are very, very deep and I've heard songs that I would never hear on regular radio and that aren't even commercially available.

XM gets a big thumbs up from this torch and twang lover

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

I understand the frustration with Ethel but I do agree they've been better in the past week. My suggestion would be to not toss out the baby with the bathwater. Granted, I may be somewhat unusual in that I listen to a bunch of different XM channels because my tastes are probably more varied than the average Joe. However, XM Radio still rules any way that you slice it. Dollar for dollar I can't think of "entertainment" money that's better spent, IMHO. Personally, I wouldn't drop it simply because a single channel lost its "focus", so to speak, but that's just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Doug Miller]

Huh. Maybe it's time for me to cancel my XM. My SkyFi 2 just crapped out on me, or the antenna, one or the other. I power it up and it just says "Antenna" and never connects. (I'll have to bring it inside and test it.)

I think this is a sign that I was getting bored with the music -- I used to love the comedy channel too, but feel like I here the same bits over and over again.

I don't know if I want to sink money into a new unit, my CD player in my car is going out too. It would be just as easy to buy a new CD player with XM installed, but I liked having the movable unit. Is XM going to refund my remaining contract dough, or am I out the $120?

Doug

 

[TheLongshot]

If you are talking about the multi year service packages, then yes, they should refund the remainder. It is the only reason why I did the 5 year plan when they upped the prices.

Course, I wonder how far in the future I'm going to keep mine. Canceling XM Music Lab and the neutering of Da Boneyard is just killing me right now. It basically leaves me Fine Tuning, Deep Tracks, and Cinemagic.

Jason

 

[WillG]

And I have a feeling that Cinemagic could be one of the next stations to go when they do another lineup adjustment. Hopefully I'm wrong though

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

They already dumped Cinemagic in Canada. :frowning: One of my favorites.

Only two left for me ... LAugh Attack and Canada 360. (Too many repeats on LAugh Attack though.)

Regards

 

[TheLongshot]

I would be shocked if they did. Course, my reaction would be, "What are they trying to do? Become a clone of Sirius?"

Of the 5 channels that were on my main presets on my Sony PnP when I signed up, two are now gone and one is now so watered down to be worthless.

Jason

 

[WillG]

That's what I am starting to fear. Now that Sirius is gaining momentum in the market, XM is making a greater effort to appeal to "mainstream" America. More "Hits" channels will attract more of an audience than a channel devoted to film scores, unfortunately. If Sirius continues to "beat" XM in new subscriptions, and really nip at their heels in overall subscriptions, I don't think it will take long for management to make those kind of sacrifices. Hell, they already cut Music Lab which was the only station of its kind on the platform, for "Big Tracks" (among others) which is virtually identical to "Top Tracks"

 

[Doug Miller]

Eh, my SkyFi2 still works inside, so my antenna must be bad on my car. I think I'll probably keep it until the end of my contract.

I think the funniest thing is now that I don't have XM in the car, I've been forced to listen to regular radio -- when I first got XM I felt like I was hearing a lot of stuff that wasn't on the radio (when it came to a station like Squizz). Now that I'm listening to FM again, I realize that "holy shit... it's the same stuff I was listening to on XM" That mixed with the constant repeats on XM Comedy, I am starting to wonder what I really like about XM.

I'm a huge baseball fan, but even Home Plate has gotten a little tedious, I don't feel like I get any extra insight from Kevin Kennedy/Dibble, it's the same stuff every day. I swear that Kevin Kennedy could be a drinking game -- everytime he mentions that he was hired by George W. Bush, you have to take a shot.

Doug

 

[Kevin N]

I still have XM, but I haven't been listening to it nearly as much. When I do turn it on, I still know about 90% of the songs, which makes it almost useless outside of baseball to me.

I've been honestly surprised how good podcasts are getting. I can listen to MLB daily, ESPN radio, etc as well as some really obscure stuff like podcasts dedicated to talking about videogames. My budget for the next year is coming up, and we'll see if XM fits into it. Now that podcasts are getting up there, O&A are on FM, and XM is on DirecTV...yeah...

 

[john mcfadden]

XM sucks Im Sirius !!!

 

[Dave_Brown]

Thanks for sharing, now go give mommy her computer back.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I really wanted to be the first to reply to that comment, Dave,
but I am glad you elected to do so before I did.