Save Ferris

Im considering giving a XM unit and service certificate to a music snob I know. He always has music playing wherever he is and loves local radio stations. Ive had XM radio for awhile and love it, but would a real music enthusiast like it?

Ive never really been into local radio stations, and im not sure how people can be, but do they have something XM doesnt?

Michael Corvin

I was thinking about this on the drive home for lunch. If they would price it kind-of like Tivo, they might have a better hit on their hands. It is geared towards people that drive a lot. I don't, but I would still love to get one instead of locals. That means $13 a month is too high. $5 and I would be sold.

Or offer a lifetime of service for a flat fee, just like Tivo. $300 and get service for the life of the stereo.

They might be able to push a few more units this way. Those that don't drive a whole lot might check it out at those prices.

As for the music, a "music snob" should love it. Local stations play the same shit over and over. Makes for a lot of channel surfing, especially around commercials. I would love to put on, say, a progressive rock station and leave it.

Why don't you hook me up? I know I would appreciate it.

Groucho

I'd get it if it was free/cheaper. As it stands, no way. Expensive equipment AND a monthly fee? Ha ha ha. I'd accept one or the other.

Red Dog

Funny - I don't consider $150 for a unit and $13/month expensive (for SIRIUS) and I only listen to it about 4 hours per day (at the office).


edit: wasn't SIRIUS offering free equipment (home or car kit) late last year?

Deftones

I agree that the price is high for the service, but both of my jobs involve driving and I commute to work at least 30 minutes a day. As soon as Stern jumps ship, I'm all over Sirius.

The main questions I'd ask myself before getting this for someone as a gift, Save Ferris, is do they like listening to new music and do they like a variety of music? There aren't alot of repeated songs like on commercial radio.

Groucho

Compared to $10 / free for a regular radio? Hell yeah.

Plus I have a short commute.

Red Dog

One of the 3 reasons (besides supporting the medium) I got SIRIUS was because I am a fan of classic rock and 80s music (including metal, new wave, pop, and hair bands) - there was nothing in my local market that exclusively offered this. In other words, local radio (with the exception of the Tony Kornheiser Show - which I actually listen to on the net since AM reception sucks in the office) sucks.

Red Dog

As I said, regular radio sucks in DC. I can't even begin to imagine how bad it would be in SLC.


edit: I have a short commute too. I listen mainly in the office. However, I will say it was great to have for the 6 hours I was in the car this weekend going to and from the beach.

wendersfan

I (sort of) get Sirius free. It comes bundled with DishNetwork, and I'm not really paying for it, if that makes sense. I love it. It's fantastic. Again, let me say, I LOVE IT. I'll let the forum decide if I'm a "real music enthusiast" or not...

tonyc3742

Both XM [now] and Sirious offer an online connection as well. Anywhere you have a broadband connection, you can log in and listen. Not all channels are represented, at least on XM, due to licensing issues, but there are also some channels that are only online.

The only way I can see someone actually 'preferring' local stations is:
* if he just likes to support 'locals' [hope he never goes to Walmart]
* there are local personalities he likes. While XM has plenty of personalities, they are all nationwide, and he wouldn't get the 'local' talk. I see absolutely no point in 'local' music stations, but I do *occasionally* listen to the local talk station.

Of course, getting past the 'pay for radio' thing is the biggest obstacle. FM is starting to push that waste-of-time 'high definition radio', which will cost more than virtually any satellite solution you could choose.

I don't think a "music enthusiast" can actually honestly say he "prefers" FM. Unless he is listening only to the college/university stations. At least in my market, the current state of FM is 100% dilettante, fad-friendly, and should nauseate anyone who even somewhat considers himself an 'enthusiast.'

100-250 for hardware and 12.95 or whatever for service *is* more expensive than FM radio.
But:
How many of you have cable? Why not just stick with the free networks?
How many of you buy dvd's? Why not just watch movies on the networks, or if you have cable, on cable?
The answers, and the benefits, are the same as with satrad.
The price is high*er* than FM. For what you get, for the variety, for the quantity, for the types of content, hell, FM owes *me* money for putting up with their 20-song playlists and idiotic shock jocks. Some things are worth money, for someone who is *truly* a music enthusiast, I would think satrad is a no-brainer.

My commute is only 10-30 minutes, depending. I still get my money's worth, and it's invaluable on long drives. I usually listen to the stand-comedy channel on the way to work, and the punk channel on the way home; the new age, movie score, or jazz channel when my boy's in the car.

Depending on the hardware, it can be very easy to bring from car to home. I know the SkyFi basically just snaps in and out of the car or home kit, so you set it up at your home stereo and just snap it in. And they now have boombox adapters for both Xm and Sirius to add to the flexibility, and don't forget the MyFi, the portable walkman-like unit.

Choosing between XM and Sirius, that's another question. We went with XM, at the time we did, it was cheaper. They're now the same price and have similar offerings. XM has Opie and Anthony, Sirious is getting Stern. Both offer online listening, though I'm not sure if Sirius has the licensing issues XM does. XM has MLB, Sirius has NFL, I believe. When we first compared, we liked the depths of XM's playlist over Sirius, but that might have changed in the past year.
Go here:
http://xmfan.com/guide.php
and type a song or artist name in the Search box. See how many times, if any, a song/artist has replayed, and compare that to FM. There are some channels that have a lot of repetition [20 on 20, which is a waste of a channel imho], but others that only rarely do.

If they can just get past the 'pay for radio' mindset, and show how the content is light years ahead of most FM markets, they'll have it made. In part why both of them are partnering with various car manufacturers, and giving away a couple months of free service with new car purchase.

There's actually a deal going on now:
Buy one aftermarket XM radio; prepay for 3 months of Family Plan service; get a free Roady2 via mail in rebate. Could be worse.
http://xmradio.com/doubleplay/index.jsp

FrozenMetalHead

My biggest problem with the satellite radio is I can't pay one subscription price for multiple units for my household. I can't pay one fee to support my car, my wife's car, a boat unit, and one or two in the house. I think I saw where they offer a discount for multiple units, but it wasn't much of one - I'd want it a very, very nominal fee.

So given the option of free, absolutely. I'd even pay for it - but only once. I have this problem with satellite / digital cable TV as well. The $5 mirroring fee for DirecTV drives me crazy. I have six TVs throughout the house, but only three have receivers hooked up to them.

tonyc3742

I somewhat gree with that. I would like to see the option of having an 'access card' kind of thing--you could buy as many pieces of hardware as you want, but you activate them by the access card, which is removable and just slides into a slot in the radio. Whichever unit has an active access card in it, can be used for all channels [Emergency and Preview channels would always be active]. Ten radios, two access cards, if there's only two people in the household, for instance.
But then, much like the cable/sat boxes, you can listen to different things at the same time. You can just buy one cable box, but you'd only be able to watch what was on that one.
The Family Plan isn't too bad; 12.99 first radio, 6.99 each additional up to four additional. I certainly wouldn't complain if it were even cheaper, though.

For how we use it, two radios and two sub fees work out. One radio in each car, we have two home kits, one attached to our stereo and one in my office at work, and at home or at her work we can use the XMOnline.

We've got three tvs, two with the regular 'basic' cable and one with a HD/DVR--the box rental fee plus DVR fee is cheaper than what TiVo costs, so I don't mind that so much.
We had satellite for about a year, and yes, that 'mirror fee' was somewhat unsettling. For one or two boxes, it wasn't that bad, but if you had 4 or so, it added up real quick. Then again, cable does the same thing, if you want anything above the 'basic', you have to rent another box for each tv.

Spiderbite

I've had XM for approx a year and I would gladly pay more for it than the $13 a month plus $7 for extra radios. I never listen to local radio anymore and hardly even listen to CDs. If he loves music, he will love XM.

porieux

With a 40GB iPod, I would much rather listen to my own smart playlists.

My radio station is awesome.

milo bloom

MY wife has an ipod and I have an XM, between the two of us, corporate radio is dead. We don't even listen to the college radio station we really like.

I've been cleaning and priming our new house for the past several days and brought my XM and stereo over first. I've had it on Lucy for about 8-9 hours a day for the past few days and it is incredible. It's like listening to an autobiography of your life with chapters you never knew you had.

The cost is higher than it should be, but I think it's worthless. If I ever have to have a local station on, the DJ's make homicidal in the first few minutes.

Red Dog

All my CDs (probably about 500) are packed away in a box right now. Never listen to them; not even in the car since I got SIRIUS.

AndyCapps

Make the unit a myFi, and I'll take it. I'd probably be willing to subscribe to XM through baseball season if the equipment were free.

Groucho

The variety of radio stations in SLC is actually better than most anyplace else I go. It's actually a pretty good mix. And recently they've launched a couple different stations that don't have dj's and have very few commercials, so I switch back and forth between those. In the office, I listen to Internet radio or my MP3 player.

The comparison to cable tv isn't a valid one, IMO. For me, music is something that plays in the background...it's passive entertainment. Television is something that I watch more actively, so I'm more willing to pay a premium to do so.

But I'm not opposed to XM or Sirius. If they offered free equipment with a one year contract, a deal like that, I'd probably take it.

tonyc3742

I did the MP3 thing, although I don't have an Ipod [I made MP3CDs]. I definitely got my money's worth out of my MP3CD player, but I reached a point where, even with my entire CD collection on 50+ CDRs, I was never 'in the mood' to listen to any of it. With XM, every day I hear something I've never heard or heard of before, and it's also usually something I would never 'blind buy.'
The cost of an Ipod is comparable to that of most sat hardware, and while certainly converting your own cd's into MP3 is free, if you want new music and if you stick with legal mp3's, you're going to pay, what, 25 to 99 cents a track, unless you stick with legal free mp3s, which probably still are only a small portion of the entire 'e-music' industry.
Ipods are fine if you're okay to stick with the same static, though large, playlist/s [although I think the "ipod" thing is in part a fad, and I'll stick with MP3CDs], but if you want constant exposure to 'different' stuff in a 'buffet' environment, satrad is the way to go. Or, of course, both. I have bought a lot of cd's/mp3s that are bands I heard only on XM.

Interesting comment about passive/active. I'm the opposite--I don't care for most TV [although I do play video games and watch DVDs]. If it were up to me, except for the Simpsons, I would be fine cancelling cable tv. And music sometimes is background/passive--but most of the time it's active, either in the car or at the computer.

Red Dog

I think the comparison is valid to a degree. I wouldn't pay the same amount for sat radio ($13/mo) (because of the entertainment value) that I do for digital cable+some premiums ($65/mo).

The comparison comes down to paying for more choice and higher quality.

porieux

watch actively = oxymoron

fnordboy

I just bought XM about a week ago. With the rumors of Ron and Fez coming to XM and Opie and Anthony already there I decided to take the leap. I am glad I did. Cost wasn't too bad IMO. I picked up a MyFi for about $240 (with the ability to record shows over night [coast to coast am] it is worth it) and I found a no startup fee and 3 months free code online. They are also offering a free Roady2 with the purchase of any XM radio so I think I might get one of those too to keep at home so my GF can listen while I am at work.

So far I am loving it. The stations have been playing some great stuff and the talk shows are pretty good. The first day I signed up for the online trial I heard a New Order concert from '87 and a Billy Bragg concert from '91. You can never hear those on regular radio. Commericial free music channels are great (the occasional xm promos aren't annoying me yet.

I am very happy I made the leap, and I don't think the price is too high. Would I be happier if it was cheaper? Of course, but I think it is at an ok price right now. The only thing that kills me is I can not get a signal from where I am at in the office and a personal ground repeater is just too expensive right now IMO... but this makes the MyFi the perfect choice.

Hud

It doesn't look like anyone here listens to talk/news radio much. I enjoy talk radio, and although I do listen to a couple of nationally syndicated programs, I like the morning and afternoon drive shows that are local. Also, even when the syndicated shows are on, there are good news updates every half hour that are local.

Josh H

I'd get one if it was free. I just don't drive enough and when at home I just listen to CDs (and do in the car as well).

tonyc3742

I like talk radio, but the only things we really have in this market are Rush, Hannity [also on XM], CLark Howard, and a couple local guys who aren't that impressive. I don't like FM morning shows. XM has a lot of offerings in the talk/non-music realm, including Left and Right political talk, the two comedy channels, Fox News, etc.
Local news is one thing local radio definitely offers that satrad can't--yet. Of course, that's why XM has the area-specific weather channels that anyone can access, the NAB got Congress to help defend their failing business model and put obstacles to 'local news and weather' in the way of satrad.