Sirius/XM users, happy?

[86 ssinit]

And pay by check this way they can't charge you if you forget to call. They will call you every 6 months.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by nightheart

I've been on the 25 dollars for 6 months plan for a few years now. The day before my subscription is set to renew at the full 30/month price or whatever it is, I call to cancel, and they offer me another 6 months for 25 dollars. I'll take it for that, but doubt I'd pay full price for it.

This is another reason I refuse to have it... I hate vendors the try to charge you up the a$$... they think they can dupe you into paying four to five times as much? Go pound sand!

[MrAlien]

I have it in my cars, and the app on my phone, I like the content and the wide variety, and I listen to Stern every morning

[wdfifteen]

It came free for a year in my BMW. The stations I listened to on it had short playlists. It got monotonous on long trips, hearing the same series of songs every 40 minutes.
I carry an ipad in the truck now and listen to podcasts or internet radio. It doesn't cost me any extra and it goes with me in or out of the truck. I'm happier with this set-up than with Sirius.

[chuckr]

I just dumped XM !
I now use a bluetooth fm transmitter in my car. This lets me use my iphone for my music.
I use Spotify, Slacker and Pandora for music. I get to choose who I listen to(Spotify)
or with Slacker, I get basically the music choices I had with XM. Pandora is a little bit of both.
This is all for free, BUT, there are some commericals.... did I mention its free ? and
I get reception wherever I get phone service ! This also is a hands free phone device.

[Rickysa]

Love it.

Have in all cars, boat, shop, house.

We use pandora (business = cost) at work, and not as happy with that. We just listen to pre-programmed "stations" which have somewhat short song lists.

[nostatic]

love it in my car. Tried doing iPhone and iTunes streaming but its not the same. I really like Deep Tracks, 70's, and jazz stuff.

[emcon5]

Best explanation I ever heard:

Satellite radio was a great concept that was poorly implemented by 2 separate teams of morons that joined to form one giant piece of crap.

I had Sirius back in 2005, and it was excellent, and started going downhill pretty much immediately. DJs talked more and more, the typical inane crap that was so annoying on FM radio. I primarily listened to Octane and Alt Nation, and while the playlists were not super extensive, it would take a while before you heard the same song again.

The one exception to that was the 80's station, it was outstanding at the time. The playlist was ridiculously deep. My wife and I listened to it on a road trip to Vegas and back, and I don't think we heard any songs twice. It had some of the original MTV VJs, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, Mark Goodman, and Martha Quinn. This is kind of cool if you are my age and remember when the "M" in MTV stood for "Music" and not "Morons".

Once the XM merger happened, it got measurably worse, and more expensive. Some of the good channels went away, and the DJs talked even more than they did before (I am guessing more talk = 1 less song per hour per channel = less royalties paid), and the playlists got smaller, to the point I would hear the same songs a few times a day.

I finally gave up in 2011, and bought one of these: Amazon.com: Soundfly SD WMA/MP3 Player Car Fm Transmitter for SD Card, USB Stick, Mp3 Players,iPod, Zune: Electronics

I do have unlimited data on my phone, and I have been contemplating getting a Pandora account, but haven't got around to it yet.

It may have improved in the past 4 years, but I doubt it. I am sure it is still a better alternative to FM radio, but that bar isn't particularly high.

[flipper35]

You all must have different taste than me. Our local stations play more diverse and better playlists than any channels I found so far other than the classical channel.

I wouldn't pay more than a dollar a month for it.

[emcon5]

If you want to do Sirius/XM, the way to do it is sign up for a year with one of their initial offer discounts, but have them send a bill and pay by check.

If they get your credit card number, they will just auto-renew you and the full rate.

If they don;t have a CC number, when your subscription is about to expire, they will start calling you to renew, just refuse until you get the best deal, which last time I checked was about half of the standard rate.

If you do use a credit card, set up a reminder to call them the week prior to tell them you want to cancel, and let them start throwing offers at you to keep you as a customer, you will get another half off deal.

Repeat the following year.