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That's an interesting alternative to satellite radio. Both require new equipment, both have very high quality. Satellite radio has little or no advertising, but you do have to pay a monthly subscription fee.

What about 1977 style punk and hardcore punk?

You can browse XM's stations and listen to them on their web page (if you have Windows Media Player). After having glanced at their offerings, I think you may be out of luck as far as old school punk is concerned.

More detailed listing here(include samples)

Clear Channel has an investment in XM? I had not realized until you had mentioned. I just found this article confirming this. That seems unfortunate but so far I have not found the format to be as poor as most of Clear Channels stations (that prove to constantly play the same song over and over...). Hopefully the format can continue to be interesting. I am dissapointed to hear that XM is apparently limited to 200 stations due to bandwidth, however...

For those wanting to know this is their website. And these are the channels they carry.

I'm going to be harsh here and tell you that failing to download a song you purchased strikes me as akin to flunking high school. I mean, how the...?

At the very LEAST, I would have considered it appropriate for emusic to have sent an e-mail saying "due to contractual obligations, our access to the following music will be ending in 30 days. Please download now or forever hold your peace." There was no warning.

I can understand that the music might go away, and if they were actually sorry, I might even be willing to forgive them for failing to notify me of that fact. But my big issue right now is the fact that they've "lost" their records of what I have and have not downloaded. So, while they're not calling me a liar, they are refusing to even let me exchange the missing music for something else in their catalog.

They were nice while they lasted, but I won't be going back.

unless a superior cost-competive online independent music distributor that provides unrestricted files happens to pop up, I'm sticking with emusic.

I chose to go with Sirius Radio and I've been very pleased with it (I've had it for a bit over a year now). And, in addition to the no-commercials policy on their music stations, one of the major deciding factors for me was ClearChannel's stake in XM.

For those not aware, ClearChannel owns over 1200 stations nationwide and they're one of the major proponents of payola. That's right -- artists get on the air simply because their labels paid for their songs to be played.

I believe that radio play should be based on merit and not deep pockets. And, I don't want to have anything to do with ClearChannel.

I just went out and bought my Father the XM Delphi SkyFi at Circuit City and the Car Kit (tape adapter (yuck), cigarette plug adapter, and mag mount antenna.

I'm also going to get him an adapter from Blitz Safe which gives you a muchhigher quality sound. Basically it plugs into the proprietary CD changer port on the back of the factory radio and has RCA plugs (or a 1/4" phono iirc) on the other end.

When deciding between XM and Sirius I found this page to be a good comparison between the two.

I just went out and bought my Father the XM Delphi SkyFi at Circuit City and the Car Kit (tape adapter (yuck), cigarette plug adapter, and mag mount antenna.

I'm also going to get him an adapter from Blitz Safe which gives you a muchhigher quality sound. Basically it plugs into the proprietary CD changer port on the back of the factory radio and has RCA plugs (or a 1/4" phono iirc) on the other end.

When deciding between XM and Sirius I found this page to be a good comparison between the two.

I just went out and bought my Father the XM Delphi SkyFi at Circuit City and the Car Kit (tape adapter (yuck), cigarette plug adapter, and mag mount antenna.

I'm also going to get him an adapter from Blitz Safe which gives you a muchhigher quality sound. Basically it plugs into the proprietary CD changer port on the back of the factory radio and has RCA plugs (or a 1/4" phono iirc) on the other end.

When deciding between XM and Sirius I found this page to be a good comparison between the two.

If you like variety and don't mind subscribing to something, then why wouldn't you subscribe to something like this instead of Rhapsody so you don't have to bog down your connection? I would be surprised if it didn't give far more variety as well.

Sirius doesn't have Frank's Place. To me, absolutely worth the $10/mo, *alone*.

The commericials on XM are very short. I've yet to hear one longer than 30 seconds, before it's back to music. The channels I listen to don't have them anyways. =)

So I guess you're not fond of satellite radio?

If I could find one radio station that didn't have a playlist that I could figure out, entirely, after listening for three hours, I could die happy.

How about XM/SIRIUS? Most of the stations have much larger playlists than regular radio, and a lot fewer (if any) ads. And there are quite a few stations to choose from. I went with SIRIUS, and I am quite happy with it. You should give it a try. It is well worth the money if you listen to the radio more than a few hours a week.

Actually that's what this XM station is all about. People vote for their favorite songs (online or on the phone) and the top 20 are played. Then the votes are counted again and a new playlist is generated.

XM Radio is a subscription-based "radio" service.

I don't actually have it myself, but I have heard good things about it.

You could get XM Radio and an XMPCR. The software included (for Windows) allows you to switch stations automatically in the event that your favorite artist/song is playing on a different channel. It's probably trivial to write some software for Linux, in fact it seems that someone's already done so.

Recording sound from your line in is left as an exercise for the reader.

You could get XM Radio and an XMPCR. The software included (for Windows) allows you to switch stations automatically in the event that your favorite artist/song is playing on a different channel. It's probably trivial to write some software for Linux, in fact it seems that someone's already done so.

Recording sound from your line in is left as an exercise for the reader.

will be as effective as geting MS to show code to competitors.

The ruling here calls for an injunction for the anticompetitive behavior. Even though defendants deny such behavior, if cds stay at the same price for a longish period of time (say, a year), the state ag's will rush in and once again do their thing.

And according to the NV AG ,the music bohemoths donated 5.5 million cds to charities like ibraries, where you can rip away to your heart's content.

Or rip from the radio to your PC. This has got to frighten the RIAA.

Don't forget NPR along with National Association of Broadcasters has vehemently opposed community microbroadcasting. That coupled with the advertising is enough to keep me from supporting them ever.

As much as I enjoy (some of) their content I think its sometimes better to let something die to give something else the opportunity to fill the vacuum. Or we continue to limp along with the steady Clear Channelization of public radio.

...and yet you're more than happy to shell out 10 bucks a month for XM radio, which has a far more restrictive IP policy than Apple's service does and has a 128 kbps signal stream.

Yes, I understand that the one is a radio service and the other is a download service, but it would seem that, on principle, you'd rather just listen to (perfectly legal!) free AM/FM radio or CDs than shell out money for a IP-restrictive, 128 kbps stream service...

If you are tired of the ClearChannel junk on the radios, I suggest you get XM Radio! I too, grew tired of the same songs over and over again. So, with XM, I choose what I want to listen too. And, if I'm in the mood for some Pop Music, I'll tune to 21 which is KISS FM in Los Angeles.
On a side note, I seriously think that the people at ClearChannel synch up their stations so they all play commercials at the same time.

I have the XM radio SkyFi unit - which means I pay for one subscription and can have XM radio at home, car and office. Between those three locations, I listen about 12 hours a day.

It's all about the music - this is a service designed for true music lovers. All genres are covered and the depth of programming is simply amazing. For example, one of my favorite stations, Deep Tracks, just ran through the top 4000 songs in their library. It took 4 weeks. Then they spent another week playing through suggestions from the audience.

That's just one station - this quality of programming is repeated across all genres. Most of the stations are commercial free - a few have ads, but only 3-4 minutes an hour.

The other thing that keeps me listening is the attitude of the hosts. They treat the audience as adults, not immature 14-year-old boys, which seems to be the target audience of commercial radio.

For me, $10/month is a bargain, I would happily pay more.

If we compare the two it should probably be mentioned that they have different audio encoding technology. XM claims that their is superior. This would not be noteworthy except for the fact that they can quote a few independent tests.

Tor

Has anyone posting about the death of satellite radio actually listened to it? As a subscriber of XM, and a very happy one at that, I thought I'd chime in.

Advantages of satellite radio over DirecTV (and/or Dish Network) radio stations.

- Satellite radio can afford more bandwidth just to the music than DirecTV, resulting in a better reception.
- Satellite radio doesn't use a directional dish. I'm in an office building and pick up XM at work just fine.
- XM has DJs. You can call in and request stuff. It's personalized, and they actually know music. It's not a playlist of 200 songs on random.
- Audio stations on satellite TV are provided by a third party. They're generic, just a rotating plyalist.

I'm not convinced those that knock satellite radio have ever heard the depth of the musical library that is available to the listeners. No way is satellite TV going to put in the time or effort to develop that kind of library or personalize it for those that are listening.

DirecTV in the car isn't going to kill satellite radio. Anyone who has listened to stations on XM and the music stations on DirecTV or Dish Network will tell you that.

For a good example of the musical depth on XM, go to fred.xmradio.com and checkout the 2002 Fred Essentials. Listeners voted on the 2002 top classic alternative songs of all-time. They're "playlist" is over 5000 thanks too all of the listener input.

I've had XM since November of 2001.

XM Satellite radio has a channel called "Unsigned", that plays nothing but unsigned bands from around the U.S. Most of it's really good. The also have links on their website to the websites of all the bands they play that have websites.

They have a sample stream of the station on their website, but I think it's in a Windows Media format.

Considering that XM's Corporate partner is Clear Channel, do you really think you're going to run too far away? The Talk channle Buzz XM, for example, is nothing more than Clear-Channle Re-Broadcasting. Mike Trevisano from WTAM 1100 (formerly WWWE) in Cleveland, Willie and the Truckin' Bozo from 700 WLW...LA Kiss FM...the whole XM Radio just leaks of Clear Channle repeat content. Don't believe me? Go to to this XM Radio Page and see for yourself.

I would also like to point out that there is a $75 rebate on all Sony XM receivers.

Also Delphi just released SKYFi another receiver that can move between the home and the car. Also the SKYFi includes a remote and in my opinion looks better than the Sony.
It cost
$130 -- Receiver
$70 -- Home
$70 -- Car mount
$50 -- FM modulation
-------
$320

I love my SKYFi and I have only had it for three days.

No really, check it out. Always a good business model to try to tap into the insatiable desire for more pornography, but I can't imagine why its not working!

Of course, if XM offers Phil Hendrie 24/7 cross-country, I'll be signing up immediately.


As luck would have it, they do. Now, go and get it

Of course, if XM offers Phil Hendrie 24/7 cross-country, I'll be signing up immediately.


As luck would have it, they do. Now, go and get it

But, I could see this end up like digital TV as well, where it's hindered with restrictions, requires expensive equipment, and will ultimately (likely) result in the FCC forcing it upon us. I can see five or ten years down the road when my beautiful vacuum-tube antique console stereo won't have any radio signals to pick up! Ultimately, sadly, this is probably a way for the big shots to control more and more of what we listen to and how we listen to it, not to mention it'll probably make obsolete the nice, expensive receiver I purchased recently (thinking I'd use it for years to come).

Why can't the cronies at the FCC get it through their thick, ugly skulls to LET THE MARKET dictate what happens! C'mon, it's basic economics. Look at satellite TV and digital cable. No government agency forced this upon us, but people buy it in droves! Granted, digital radio isn't being forced on us (yet), but it's probably on the horizon.

Er, so why are you paying so much for them?

Get XM or Sirius radio - they're digital, they're commercial free or low commercial (depending on which one you choose), and they'er a lot less expensive than digital cable (at least on a monthly charge - the upfront equipment is another matter).

It appears that Sirius is totally ignoring everything but the car audio market, but XM does have some home products. Of course, if you're willing to hack then nothing is impossible.

Not sure that it's really a viable replacement, but it may be something you want to look into.

Ok...Ok...lets use facts rather than odds...

After being operational for less than 10 months and already having over 136,000 subscribers

I wouldnt call that 'very few people'. Unless the amount of people living in; Bern, Switzerland Evansville,IN Savannah, GA or Humboldt county, where Eureka,CA is located is 'very few people' as you state. In fact thats a 1.3 million dollar revenue stream/year at 10 bucks a pop, and thats only after 10 months

Dont misunderstand me, I have no intention of promoting this type of ideal. Im just fully aware that it exists, and am able to minimize the results of everyone trying to 'own' everything I do or say.

so please, never underestimate...

The two approaches have different plusses and minuses. With the geo-stationary birds, if you get a good signal in your driveway right now, you will most likely always get the same good signal there, while with the lower orbit birds the signal strength may cycle with position of the satellite. On the other hand, the lower orbit sats are much closer, and so might be able to get a stronger signal to you.

Neither approach has redundancy, as they need all their satellites for complete coverage. If one went down XM would have permanent dead zones, Sirius would have wandering dead zones. Take your pick.

XM's satellite info page
Sirius' fairly lame "how it works" (PDF)

I've looked at both, as I really want to get one of their services in my next car. I'll be going with XM when I do. The main reason is the programming differences between them. For one, XM has a person in charge of each "channel". That's a lot of individual attention to the quality of the music they put on the air. For another, there are two channels on XM that are aprticularly interesting to me a) Deep Tracks, which goes back to classic albums and picks out songs from them that were never released as singles (so you get to hear a ton of good stuff you'd ordinarily never know about) and b) Unsigned, which is made up entirely of bands that have not yet signed with a label. YMMV, but those reasons make XM a better choice for me

I've looked at both, as I really want to get one of their services in my next car. I'll be going with XM when I do. The main reason is the programming differences between them. For one, XM has a person in charge of each "channel". That's a lot of individual attention to the quality of the music they put on the air. For another, there are two channels on XM that are aprticularly interesting to me a) Deep Tracks, which goes back to classic albums and picks out songs from them that were never released as singles (so you get to hear a ton of good stuff you'd ordinarily never know about) and b) Unsigned, which is made up entirely of bands that have not yet signed with a label. YMMV, but those reasons make XM a better choice for me

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

I've had XM in my Chevy C/K-1500 for about three months now and I've been very happy with it. If you listen to the radio a lot, or travel a lot in the car, or live in the boondocks, I would recommend XM Radio. Here are the basics; you need a deck that is XM ready, or a system that has an adapter, an antenna, and a receiver. The receiver is a boring box that goes somewhere out of sight in my case, the antenna is small and went on the roof, and the deck replaced my old crappy Delco built in 1987. The quality of the programming can't be beat, and it is very high quality sound. What I have preset on my deck. 10 40 41 42 44 65 The guts of the system My CD Player My Satellite Receiver My Antenna XM Radio Rock and Roll Very happy with the service and the programming.

That whole news article could be an advertisement for XM. In fact, the "Vegas Radio" format the Clear Channel exec was dreaming about exists as XM's channel 73: "Frank's Place".

Does XM run ads?

Yes, XM Radio does run ads. That's why, if anything, I'm considering SiriusRadio (which has no ads).

Do we know how they pick their playlists?

• Pay for play "Why does radio suck? Because most stations play only the songs the record companies pay them to. And things are going to get worse"
• Fighting pay-for-play "Sources in the music industry call for a federal clampdown on the new payola"
• The "Bootylicious" gambit "Can a hot new single from Destiny's Child help Columbia Records crack the indie promoters' control of pop radio?"
• Payola City "In the wild world of urban radio, money buys hits -- and nobody asks questions. "

Man, that reminds me -- I really ought to subscribe to Salon :-/.

PS Since ClearChannel has a large stake in XM Radio, I completely expect XM Radio to support payola >:-[. But, does anyone know if SiriusRadio also support payola? I'm thinking of subscribing, but I wouldn't want to do so if they're corrupt as well.

XM even provides station identification which explicitly says its a re-broadcast. I can also listen to the traffic information and local news for LA - which is good when I take a trip from my home in Fresno. XM also provides standalone radio units that are provided with new cars and trucks this year from multiple manufacturers. They also just recently released a new Alpine deck (I think), check their press releases for more information.

I've been an XM customer since Day 1 here on the West Coast. I have a Sony XM deck and I love XM. I don't miss local talk radio and news, I've got BPM, CNN and XM Comedy. Smooth. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Pat

XM even provides station identification which explicitly says its a re-broadcast. I can also listen to the traffic information and local news for LA - which is good when I take a trip from my home in Fresno. XM also provides standalone radio units that are provided with new cars and trucks this year from multiple manufacturers. They also just recently released a new Alpine deck (I think), check their press releases for more information.

I've been an XM customer since Day 1 here on the West Coast. I have a Sony XM deck and I love XM. I don't miss local talk radio and news, I've got BPM, CNN and XM Comedy. Smooth. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Pat

Actually, I'd give this a +0.5 funny and a +0.5 obscure, but it totals to +1 both ways.

Besides, my rating system is just a figment of my imagination, right?

-- MarkusQ