We’ve had confirmation of Sirius XM price hikes for about a week now, but now the company is actively promoting it. Go to either Sirius’ or XM’s Web site and you’ll see a kind note explaining how online streaming will no longer be free. Starting on March 11, 2009, you’ll need to part with $2.99 per month if you want to listen online. You know, because upgrading the online feed to “CD-quality,” whatever that means, costs a bloody fortune.
To be fair to Sirius XM, $3 for online streaming isn’t exactly outrageous; it’s just annoying.
So, if you’re looking to avoid an extra fee, you should “lock in” your current subscription rate.
Also, Louis CK is great.
via Orbitcast
He really was hilarious today trashing on Paul-O
$3.00 a month MORE to listen to music or Howard Stern’s farts while online? Where does the line for that start?
LOL.
I bet the 3000 radio stations that people ALREADY listen to online for free are really threatened.
LOL
wooohooooooooooo 3.00 ya think the u.s. dollar will still be here in 2010????
monopoly at work. no competition. increasing service cost.
Decreasing customers, me for one. XM just got moved into the “no longer worth the price” category.
$3.00 is fine. WHO CARES. I was actually surprised to find that online streaming was free when I subscribed in the 1st place.
It’s not the $3 I object to. It’s the limited access to updated and short term channls I have an issue with.
I wanted to stream the Christmas channel during the holidays and it was not available online. Same with the Halloween channel in October.
If Sirius can make all the channels available for online streaming at the same time they are available on my receiver then the money is not an issue but I will not pay for extra for a crippled service experience.
Good point Chris. I was furius to find these as I get poor coverage indoors and have to listen online where I get reduced channel listings…NPR, etc…yet I can stream directly from an NPR station for free..go figure. I’m unsubscribing next pay period. back to free radio. That’s what a monopoly does. They weren’t supposed to increase rates which is why they found a way around the regulations the feds were trying to put on them by STOPPING the merger.
This is BS! Fuck Sirius. I can listen to free online radio on Pandora. Not paying more or buying a home kit. Fuck I only listen to Howard. I’m sure I will be fine without listening to him.
i don’t have an xm radio. i suscribed to online streaming only which was 7.99 a month. i only did this becasue opie and anthony were droped from fm becasue of a format change. i got an email saying the price will go from 7.99 to 12.95 (on 7/23/09) becuse they are adding 20 more channels i don’t want and an iphone ap i won’t use because i haven’t got one. $5 to listen to one channel on my browser seems a bit much. they changed the name to “premium online” which to me indicated you should be able to get non-premium service, but the xm rep i spoke to on the phone said there is only one online streaming price for non-subscribers. sigh.
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Check it out!
Nickel and diming. I have two radios active with XM, I want to listen online for once in the past few years and see they have changed my terms / conditions so I now have to pay $2.99. Just ticks me off. They (Sirus) have the worst billing, marketing, fee programs going – they are getting close to the cell phone companies IMHO – now have me considering just turning it all of. Plenty of free online streaming music anyway. They just need some competition.