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Satellite Radio Systems Compared
The NYT has a review/comparison of XM radio and Sirius, the two systems of digital satellite radio. Not everyone wants to pay for radio, but I guess if you spend enough time listening to it, maybe it's worthwhile.
Everything today is dominated subscriptions.
Every software company has these subscription software developers network.
Every other game is becoming subscription based. I am glad sims online is failing.
Every good radio frequency is subscription based.
Soon public bathrooms will be subscription based. The only thing that needs subscription is magazines.
Radio used to be a wonderful local medium. Anywhere in the country you'd here local accents talking about local events advertising local businesses and appealing to local tastes in music. Even well into the era of media conglomerates, radio was still by-and-large a small-scale operation.
Clearchannel and the whole deregulation mess has pretty well ended that. Aside from a few AM and college stations, radio has about as much identifyable personality as network television. And now proponents of Big Radio can point to the few remaining independents, by and large willfully obscure and pretentious holdouts, as examples of why small radio is no longer relevant.
Satellite Radio is probably good for a lot of reasons, but it certainly will do nothing to slow the gradual blending of America's cultural palette into one big swath of homogenous gray.
I've only lived in two places in my life. I'm about to take a two month long cross-country drive. I'm seriously worried that I'm not going to see (or hear) anything unfamiliar.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Seriously, though, I'm a little tired of the "why would anybody want to pay for that" attitude around here. It's a service, about the same value as a newspaper subscription, and priced accordingly.
Why does Slashdot seem to be getting more and more parochial?
Well, if you want to be legal while sampling a large music selection, you either spend $10 a month for a subscription to XM and listen to hundreds of songs across a myriad of genres from unsigned artists to punk rock to electronica to blues to Indian pop (well, they got rid of that station, actually, so no more Dahler Mehndi for me), or you could take that $10 and buy ten songs from iTunes.
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
"You may want to take that into account when picking a system."
:)
Should a patriotic American support protectionist policies? Or support efficient economics? Either way it seems you're right.
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.
Alex Bischoff
HTML/CSS coder for hire
Yes, notice that XM is dedicated to running a profitable business by keeping their costs low and that these actions make their long-term survival more likely. Who wants to buy another Betamax? Not me.
Intellectuals! Liberals! Peacemongers! IDIOTS!!!
Outsourcing is not as pronounced because American companies have greater flexibility due to less regulation of employment practices. It has nothing to do with salary compensation.
If you look at the total compensation for employees in America and Europe, you won't find much difference as the higher American salaries are balanced by the higher outlays European companies make to finance the larger benefits and government taxes.
As I've indicated, outsourcing from Europe to America is marginal at best. So don't worry, your IT jobs will be going to India. At least this way you can feel better about yourself.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
Um... Sirus may not have commercials for Radioshack or JC Penny's like XM does, but don't kid yourself... they make up for it with promo spots for their own shows... if I hear one more commercial for Pam Anderson's "talk" show on there... I'm going to scream.
The music from Sirus seems much more hit driven. XM has much deeper tracks that they play more routinely. Don't knock it till you try it... They're both great.
Jim
'Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?'
One may as well invest in a multi-disc changer that reads MP3 discs. This way you can have hours upon hours of music that you choose, commercial free.
If you've never used a satellite radio before, then your comment is somewhat uninformed. There are two major downsides to what you propose. The first is that you never get to hear anything new. The only things you will listen to are what you put in your library. The second (and this is the one that most commentors have missed) is that you get a lot more than music on the radio. You also get a dozen news channels, sports, a couple of comedy channels, vintage radio shows (like The Shadow and The Saint, for example).
I'm not saying that satellite radio is for everyone, but oh MAN is it worth it.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
"Clearchannel is responsible for the reason regular radio is so terrible. "
Hmm...
I recently read an interview with the head of ClearChannel in which he expresses his dismay at the lack of variety in radio. He said he would like to broadcast a station of all his favourite music, but it's not economically viable.
So, according to him, clearchannel is only reacting to the market and providing products that sell. Catch-22?
It will be easy to see if this is true as CC is increasing its presence here in the UK. Mind you, our entertainment is pretty homogenised anyway.
--Nick
I want a free receiver with my paid subscription.
When XM/Sirius debuted, they were around $300 for a receiver. Pile on top of that the monthly fee, and you have a really expensive way to listen to the radio. Initially most folks didn't want to invest in what could become a paperweight if the service failed.
Both XM and Sirius now have a cute little portable receiver for under $100. Starting to get tempting. I can bring satellite radio with me everywhere I have an aux in port. Less than $100 and I can listen anywhere? Starting to interest me.
So Sirius and XM, how can you get me as a customer? Let me pay for one year of service and give me the receiver free. Cell phone companies do it, you should too. I would gladly pay you for a full year of service and a receiver. After a year, if I don't like the service, I don't feel so bad about it.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
Clear Channel is FUD spouted by Sirius advocates. First and formost, everyone has to understand that this is like PC vs Mac for users. The vast majority of users of satellite radio are *strong* advocates - XM has a study that shows that subscribers on average demonstrate thier radio more than 10 times a month to other people. So take what you hear about either service, good or bad, with a grain of salt. CC used to own stock of less than 10% in XM. Its now less than 5% and they have sold the rest in a hedge deal. I think it is pretty clear that XM wants to get rid of CC as soon as they can - which is why there are no longer any CC sourced channels on XM.
>Because all of this is beamed from satellites,
>you can drive across the country without ever
>hearing a certain station fade away.
What a load of crap! Every time you go under a bridge/overpass/tunnel/tall bushy tree the signal fades. Yes, FM fades out in long tunnels, but not when I'm under a normal sized overpass. I drove a rental around Palo Alto and the music would cut out when there were large trees along the road that overhang. I can't believe that people pay for this "service".