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Well Sirius XM has NOT lost customers, they have been gaining every quarter since they went online and have over 19.1MM subscribers now. Steaming music, particularly in a car across the US is impossible right now, and not likely anytime soon. It is also very unsatisfactory in term of reception, much like terrestrial radio is. Satelitte radio give you news, music, special content, over 170 stations, and all the sports broadcasts live as they happen for professional and college sports, and gets it to you everywhere in the US. I have 16G on my MP3 player, but nothing matches satellite radio. Far from 'dieing' Sirius revenues and customer base is still growing, and every car sold in America has a Satellite ready radio, and over 55% have satellite installed. Over 90% of luxury cars come with it installed and a three year subscription standard. Once you have it, you con't go back. Check out the new player from XM: http://www.xmradio.com/xmp3/index.html If you are going to comment on something you might want to try it! Go to www.xmradio.com and get a three day internet trial. Also, they pay the artists, and always have for their music, and that is more than terrestrial radio who pays nothing to the artists. www.siriusxm.com is a great place to learn more. No I don't work for them, but I do lover the product. The company is going to around for a long time.

http://www.xmradio.com/navtraffic/market_coverage.xmc

The methodology for gathering the info varies, but in Houston they use the electronic tolltags, even on roads that are not tolled. By measuring the time between stations, it calculates the average speed of cars on that segment.

The results are downloaded into the navigation system in my car, and depicted as green, yellow, or red bars adjacent to the route. However, I've never been able to determine if the GPS routing uses the speed information to calculate the fastest route, as I don't live in an area for which speed information is available. A couple of years ago, it was reported on Slashdot that Baltimore was going to test monitoring of traffic speeds using (presumably generic) cellphones. This article, although somewhat dated, reports initial results and also notes that the state of Virginia is doing the same thing.

My phone does this. (Samsung Blackjack) and it's not the only one. (check here)

This has been illegal in the USA for decades. Not sure how this is news. When I worked in fast food almost 20 years ago we purchased rights to play music for our customers. The place I work for now does it also. Today, we get it bounced from a satellite service.

http://www.xmradio.com/commercial/

How is this even possibly news? Might was well be a headline "Get married, go to jail?" With the guts of the story actually being a hillbilly in Arkansas didn't realize marrying your cousin was illegal and went to jail for filing a false marriage license.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse.

1. It wouldn't be a "so called monopoly" it would be a monopoly. There would be only one company in the satelite radio sector. That is the very definition of a monopoly.

1a. Yes, satelite radio competes with other free services. They fact that they are having problems charging for what others are giving away for free, is shocking. They can't compete because they can't convince people to pay for something they're getting for free. It's a structural problem with their buisness model, and they deserve to go out of buisness. This "loss" of choice is specious, because it's an option that demonstorably no one is taking. It's like arguing that removing rusty nails and broken glass burritos from a menu is a loss of choice. Technically that's true, but not all choices are equal.

2. Your hypothetical prices are absurd. XM is $10/mo. A 500% increase is beyond absurd, and it doesn't dignify a response.

3. If they don't merge, and they both fail, it's because the market spoke and they provided a service no one wanted. It happens all the time. That's the invisible hand. Who cares? But they won't fail simultaneously. Companies never do. Sirius will fail first, and if their customers really want satelite radio, they'll migrate to XM, and if the sector is viable, then XM will survive. That's the invisible hand.

The FCC and FTC has no buisness in helping prop up any failing sector. Their only purpose is to maintain competition in the sector.

4. The fact that the sports channels are split evenly between the services is a sign of good competition in the sector. Neither dominates enough to sweep the other up. This is a Good Thing(tm) for the market. It's a sign of equilibrium. This holds prices down.

how will recording artists get their works onto XM Radio or onto FM radio stations operated by Clear Channel so that such artists can promote their works to listeners in a car, bus, or train?

You get on XM by submitting your music to XMU, the station that plays indie rock.

http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/features/43-xmu_musics ubmission.xmc

"Right now, I'm having to accomplish time-shifting of talk radio via a thumb drive and an FM-broadcasting MP3 player. I'd rather have the convenience of an in-dash Tivo-style device that did it for me. No, it's not something that couldn't be copied by terrestial and Internet radio, but satellite radio could be first."

XM has had this for at least a couple of years. It's called the inno

You can time-shift all XM programming, it's portable and you can set it up in your car.

"Those people" signed an agreement for a subscription.

http://xmradio.com/about/customer-service-agreemen t.xmc

It states that special deals may have different rules regarding cancellation. It also states that both parties agree to binding arbitration for resolving disputes, so there won't be any criminal charges.

Welcome to the United States of Corporations, where contract law is the law of the land.

here
or here

Actually, there's really not a lot of exclusivity between the two services.

Actually, you don't know what the heck you're talking about (not that this is surprising in a slashdot post, but still). Aside from the fact that they both have "music", "sports", "news", and "talk", the two services are quite distinct. Take a look at the sport offerings, for example. Sirius has exclusive rights to NFL and NBA. XM has exclusive rights to MLB and (starting next season) the NHL.

For talk, XM has Oprah, Sirius has Stern. For news, XM has the BBC, Sirius has NPR. Even the music offerings are different, check these links for the "only on" XM and Sirius pages, where the two companies brag about what their competitor lacks: http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagena me=Sirius/Page&c=Page&cid=1107787275024& and http://www.xmradio.com/onlyonxm/index.xmc.

I'm not an XM subscriber, but I went looking for the letter and here you go. At least, it's probably the letter the parent here is referring to.

What? No Satellite radio....


Just kidding, but I do remember some bickering about iPod needing XM/Sirius recievers built in.

Guess I could always listen online.

http://www.xmradio.com/xmnavtraffic/about.jsp

Check this out.

...the options that will soon be available will make XM look like a pretty silly business model...

Statement to XM Subscribers - The XM Nation

Everything we've done at XM since our first minute on the air is about giving you more choices. We provide more channels and music programming than any other network. We play all the music you want to hear including the artists you want to hear but can't find on traditional FM radio. And we offer the best radios with the features you want for your cars, homes, and all places in between.

We've developed new radios -- the Inno, Helix and NeXus -- that take innovation to the next level in a totally legal way. Like TiVo, these devices give you the ability to enjoy the sports, talk and music programming whenever you want. And because they are portable, you can enjoy XM wherever you want.

The music industry wants to stop your ability to choose when and where you can listen. Their lawyers have filed a meritless lawsuit to try and stop you from enjoying these radios.

They don't get it. These devices are clearly legal. Consumers have enjoyed the right to tape off the air for their personal use for decades, from reel-to-reel and the cassette to the VCR and TiVo.

Our new radios complement download services, they don't replace them. If you want a copy of a song to transfer to other players or burn onto CDs, we make it easy for you to buy them through XM + Napster.

Satellite radio subscribers like you are law-abiding music consumers; a portion of your subscriber fee pays royalties directly to artists. Instead of going after pirates who don't pay a cent, the record labels are attacking the radios used for the enjoyment of music by consumers like you. It's misguided and wrong.

We will vigorously defend these radios and your right to enjoy them in court and before Congress, and we expect to win.

Thank you for your support.

http://xmradio.com/lineup/statement.jsp?refsrc=hp_ ex

Maybe you should check out the website http://www.xmradio.com/get_xm/index.jsp They are branded, packaged, and pre-programmed for XM service. Yes Audiovox, Delphi and Pioneer make the hardware, but Bestbuy doesn't buy them from audiovox, they buy them from XM.

Psssst, RIAA.... XM encourages users of the Inno (and other new XM2Go models) to purchase music that they like through Napster. http://www.xmradio.com/napster/

Doesn't the MyFi already save content? Why doesn't the RIAA go after the manufacturer, Delphi? There is a reason

XM has long been known to be backed by Clear Channel (the same people that own all those stations on regular air wave stations that put all those comercials on your radio). And in May, according to this blurb, Clear Channel will start broadcasting "music" stations on XM that will include commercials.

" In May there will be a new category added to our channel guide call "Regional News, Talk & Music Channels." This new category will also include Clear Channel programmed music channels Nashville, KISS, MIX, Sunny, and WSIX. Please note that Clear Channel will start carrying commercials on these music channels in May. "

With the backing of Clear Channel you can almost be certain that this trend will continue on XM. If you are going to be getting a sattelite radio Sirius seems to be the way to go, at least for the time being.

What the hell are you talking about? I don't know what kind of crappy satellite radio YOU listen to, but MY satellite radio is assuredly almost CD-quality sound.

Um... Whaddya mean "When?" Clear Channel put a big chunk of money into XM in 1999.

http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/press_relea se_1999_06_08.html

I certainly won't cry when Clear Channel bites the dust.

Oh, please! I don't believe that will happen anytime soon. CLEAR CHANNEL, DIRECTV, GENERAL MOTORS & A PRIVATE INVESTMENT GROUP TAKE COMBINED $250 MILLION STAKE IN XM SATELLITE RADIO Satellite radio will soon suffer the same fate as the terrestrial variety. You can bet on it. There will be no competition.

ClearChannel and Infinity are bitching that they're becoming irrelevant.

Are you aware that ClearChannel has a stake in XM?

XM has Air America (liberal talk radio) so it's difficult to suggest either service leans one way. The goal is profit, not ideology. http://www.xmradio.com/programming/channel_page.js p?ch=167 I'm a fan of Opie and Anthony, and they are turning up the "sex factor" of the show recently, in competition to Howard Stern.

An article in Wired says:

Missouri expects to spend less than $3 million a year on the service, Rahn said, although the exact price won't be known until the contract is finalized. Maryland is spending $1.9 million, although the entire Baltimore project costs nearly $5.6 million, said Mike Zezeski, director of real-time traffic operations for the Maryland Department of Transportation.

By contrast, the San Francisco Bay area spent about $35 million over several years to install roadside scanners and develop computer programs, websites and call centers for a real-time traffic service based on electronic toll passes, said Randy Rentschler, a spokesman for the region's Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

The same service is offered in Houston: Houston TranStar. It can be downloaded onto a web-enabled phone.

The data is also provided to XM Radio, who offers it for car navigation systems that can display it on the screen in real-time: http://www.xmradio.com/xmnavtraffic/.

My Acura RL has this feature, and I wish that they would implement some form of this in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

Forgot to mention that XM's system is also available via two different Pioneer AVIC after-market products.

Honda provides the XM NavTraffic system in the smokin' Acura RL (a cool $50,000). You can read more on Acura's Real Time traffic page.

XM has their NavTraffic service which works with the Pioneer AVIC-N2 for some big bambucha dollars:
http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/pr_2004_11_ 02.html

Sirius has something going on with NavTEQ
http://www.navteq.com/NewsUserServlet?action=NewsD etail&newsId=297

haha i love tools like you that respond with such a "dickhead" response. Fine, I can respond to your's in the same manner. Instead of using normal civilized responses to debate.

Look fuckwad, first of all, all your links regarding Sirius content are TWO years old. It was when the company first launched. It was a completely different universe at that time. I can tell you from experience of listening to both XM and Sirius that you can't tell the difference in content, both are more diverse then anyone could want, and Sirius does not sound like the normal radio unless you put on the Hits station.

Second, Asshole...clearly you have not the slightest fucking clue about anything in investment since the link you sent to XM's institutional holders are the fucking mutual funds and INVESTMENT institutions that own them...notice it doesn't mention GM there? Clear Channel is an INSIDE holder, and is one of the PRIMARY stakes. See here for the original start of it: (since we're all about old links).

Oh hey that's some nice consolidation you did for XM's offerings

http://www.xmradio.com/cars/
http://www.sirius.com/Partners/Vehicle

XM's strategic investors include General Motors Corp., American Honda Motor Corp., DIRECTV, Eastbourne Capital, Hearst Corporation and Baystar Capital.
-- http://www.xmradio.com/faq/faq_list_servlet.jsp?se ction_id=1&section_main=XM%20Satellite%20Radio#141

"Sirius... Tends to be more hits based but not anywhere near FM"
-- http://www.xmorsirius.com/programming.html

"En masse, they are led by a Music Director, Lee Abrams, who has set forth the prime directive: "Respect the listener, respect the artist." As long as this rule is adhered to, the individual Program Directors are free to play what they want. Except for one other tiny rule: "If it sounds like FM, you're out." That means play music, lots of it, with lots of variety within the channel's genre."
-- http://www.crutchfieldadvisor.com/ISEO-rgbtcspd/re views/20030623/xm_hq.html?print=1&page=all

"SIRIUS has a song library of 500,000 tunes"
-- http://radio.about.com/library/weekly/aa062403a.ht m

"The designers also had to make the system capable of holding music from 200,000 CDs assembled by the company - about 2 million songs"
--http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/t rans-2-d igital/05_rwf_xm_1.shtml

I thought the Clear Channel connection would be dissapointing if true. (I got a satellite radio to get away from the Clear Channel and Infinity stations) so I looked it up:
http://www.xmradio.com/newsroom/screen/press_relea se_1999_06_08.html
I also looked at the history of Mel Karmazin:
http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagena me=Sirius/CachedPage&c=BioAsset&cid=1100707192159& flash=flash

It seems to me that the small percentage investment that Clear Channel has in XM is nothing compared to the direct leadership of Mel.

While Clear Channel has an investment in XM, I would chose it over Sirius due to the direct direction Sirius receives from Karmazin.

Not really.

http://www.xmradio.com/faq/faq_list_servlet.jsp?se ction_id=2&section_main=XM%20Satellite%20Radio

It isn't available in hawaii or alaska either for that matter.

I think the device would be more like the Delphi MyFi, it justs sits in the craddle (antena attached to craddle) and records the programming.
While on the go, you listen to whatever was recorded.

Info on MyFi here

Look at the myfi http://www.xmradio.com/myfi/index.jsp for an example of what a portable satellite radio is like.

And yes the antennae can be part of the headphones.

I think you are looking at the Sirius units. XM has a reciever that is portable and will fit in your hand. It has a battery and a internal antenna so you can listen as you are taking a walk. It also has the ability to record 4 or 5 hours of programming for playback at a later time.

Check it out. They are awesome. http://xmradio.com/myfi/index.jsp

First of, sir, you're obviously listening to the wrong stations. Unless you explore more than a couple of the available stations, yes, it may seem like they play music that is a bit more uncommon to hear than on normal broadcast radio-- but then again, broadcast radio rock MUST play the same music over and over (and over) again on the same station.

On XM, there is more than one "rock station" that would play music that broadcast stations must play on the same station, save some of your huge market cities where there may be a bit more selection of stations. XM offers quite a few different "genres" of rock stations-- Ethel plays songs from the alternative genre.. from Blink 182 to Nirvana. Boneyard plays your hard rock, which has a pretty huge fanbase...

Aww hell, just look for yourself. The description on the XM Radio [XMRadio.com] website does a fairly good job in explaining this anyway.

There are waaay too many commercials on regular radio, they play only the music that has the most sales potential and it's become completely censored. All the best radio personalities like Opie and Anthony are going to XM. I listened to the free trial and signedup after just a few hours. It's completely refreshing to hear the type of music I WANT to hear and to listen to talk radio that's actually funny and even... politically incorrect!

Anywhere in the US with satellite coverage from here or here.

O&A (Opie and Anthony) are not trying to out Howard Howard. They are just trying to be funny something that Stern has not been in a long time. Jim Norton alone is funnier than HooHoo.

For those that have never heard them go to listen.xmradio.com and sign up for a free trial of XM. I recommend it highly!

Their show is hilarious, and the music channels are fantastic! My personal presets are On The Rocks, Frank's Place, Bluesville, Aguila, High Voltage (O&A), Fungus, 50s on 5 and XM Pops. Ngoma, America, Ethel and Squizz are also worth a listen.

Satellite Radio makes normal FM un-fucking-bearable so I agree with Howard on the crack like aspect of the medium.

--Joey

If you follow the link, you'll find that the purpose of the tracking is relatively benign: they are measuring the average speed of vehicles on the road to generate this map:

http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/

The data is also provided to other distributors, such as XM Radio:

http://www.xmradio.com/xmnavtraffic/

I just bought an Acura RL, which has a navigation system that will display the traffic flow information in a manner similar to the above web page at houstontranstar.org. The area where I live doesn't have the traffic monitoring, but I wondered how it was implemented. Thanks for the tip!

However, you do have a point: the technology enables many potential benefits and abuses.

XM Radio's channel 52 - Unsigned, has places for you to submit your music to them to be played. They just announced a record quarter and have around 3.8 million subscribers.

XM Radio's channel 52 - Unsigned, has places for you to submit your music to them to be played. They just announced a record quarter and have around 3.8 million subscribers.

Why on Earth would a merged XM and Sirius drop their prices? Without competition they can raise their prices.

Too late, XM Radio is already meeting the price/features of Sirius.

Now if XM would just get NFL it would be a perfect radio station.

Here is more information about the XM rate increase. Now I can listen to XM over the computer! Except that I can't do it at work :(

Delphi makes an XM-enabled product about the size of an iPod that not only can receive the satellite signal but can also record up to 5 hours of the stuff for later playback. Bundling a satellite receiver with an iPod 20GB would probably not result in something terribly larger than a 40GB or at most iPod Photo. Check out the MyFi, it's actually a pretty cool bit of equipment: Delpi MyFi

I guess you've never heard of the Delphi MyFi.

Sirius has 3 satelittes. XM has 1.

Wrong. XM has a satellite position on each coast. XM uses geostationary positions.

Sirius has three, but they're in Low Earth Orbit so at any given time one is on the opposite side of the world and useless.

Google it and you'll find this.

You mean they have nothing to do with each other, apart from XM being part-owned by Clear Channel, right?

Stupid astroturfer.