You may have woken up to news that we’ll all be standing in bread lines in just a few short weeks—I’ll be back in the US of A in just about a month to witness the country’s unraveling in person—so credit to Sirius XM’s Mel Karmazin for trying to keep the company afloat. Sirius XM is, after all, a luxury expense; when there’s proper bills to pay, listening to commercial-free music all of sudden becomes a hell of a lot less relevant.
How does Sirius XM plan to whether to coming storm, to convince people this holiday season that spending X amount on a receiver, plus monthly fee, is worth the trouble?
• Special programming promotions and radios that, finally, can receive both XM and Sirius
• Did you cancel your previous account, but still have a radio? The company may well reactivate your radio, giving you a few channels for free for a bit, in order to whet your appetite, brining you back into the fold
• It will be easier to find in stores, making it easier for you to try before you buy. The company is currently negotiating with the likes of Best Buy and Circuit City to have better, more prominent placement for the holiday shopping season. (The XM-Sirius confusion apparently killed the retail market.)
• A $6.99 a month, 50-channel subscription options. Include Opie and Anthony and I may well re-sub, especially if I can listen online.
So if the gathering storm doesn’t hurt your financial situation too much, you may just be able to find some pretty decent Sirius SM deals in the weeks and months to come.
Commercial free music???? I’ve had XM for a few years now and originally used to love it, but the vast majority of decent channels are loaded with awful low-budget commercials now and I’m on the brink of canceling. Add to that the fact that for some reason they keep trying to pretend they’re “normal” radio by letting DJs ramble on like idiots, complete with fake callers (”hey can you tell me how to enter that awesome Top 20 drawing again?” “SUUURE listener! Just go to our website…”).
What’s the point of paying a subscription fee to listen to commercials and hokey DJs??? I can get that FOR FREE.
Yeah I felt the same way when I heard XM. You’ll be happy to know that isn’t an issue for a single music channel on Sirius. I would cancel in a second if I heard a commercial on a music station. Not sure why XM users have put up with that for so long.
The CEO of Sirius says he disagrees with having commercials on music channels, and has promised to do away with the process now that the companies are merged. So there is hope on the horizon for you!
I’ve wanted to comment about Satellite Radio, and now I can actually do it without having to sign up for anything. First off number one I have XM and it’s one of the best things I have ever gotten. I get to hear what I want when I want, at home, and outside when I work out. In my opinion, The XM INNO is way better than those cheap portable fm tuner radios where only one or two stations work. I’m willing to pay 12.95 a month for my inno and listen to anything with those good antennas then to listen to my cheap portable radio and only get the crappy stations that play the same crappy songs over and over again because the good stations don’t come in clear. I also like how they came up with packages. There alot of good radio formats dying off of on traditional radio at least you can keep listening to what you want to hear for a price as small as $12.95 or less. Yes, There’s commercials but the way I see it, 69 music channels to choose from compared to the number the local markets have, to even places like New Mexico and West Texas where you don’t even AM/FM Radio signals period I’m willing to brave out the commercials. But I will have to say one thing, they should reduce the pricing of thier recievers. If you want XM/Sirius to not stop functioning sell the starmate and boombox together!