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XM Radio Plans Online Music Service

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the joining-the-fray dept.

Grump writes "Diving into the already crowded online music business, XM Radio Online, will launch sometime in early October and operate commercial-free, just as its satellite programming does. XM will charge $7.99 per month for unlimited listening and offer a discount rate of $3.99 to subscribers of its existing radio services."

7 of 199 comments (clear)

  1. Hope they don't mind me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Time-shifting the broadcasts using Total Recorder.

  2. Nice attempt... but competitor's already there! by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    XM's "add streaming of our music online" for $3.99 sounds like a pretty cool deal when taken alone, but their main competitor Sirius actually includes that feature for free with purchase of the main subscription. They'll even offer a 3-day trial of the streaming service for non-subscribers in the hopes of convinving people to sign up based on that. Of course, Sirius charges $3 a month more than XM for their base subscription.

    1. Re:Nice attempt... but competitor's already there! by lavaface · · Score: 3, Interesting
      couldn't believe how many times I heard something that I only vaguely remembered but liked, and never would have thought of searching for.

      And this is why it would be friggin' awesome if there was a SD card in the car radio and a button called "remember this song." Later on, you could take the card out of the car, pop it on your PC and buy the songs you totally forgot about. In my case, this would be more useful for flagging great songs I hear on the local college radio and community stations. Oftentimes, I can't stick around to hear who a particular artist is but I want to check them out later. Yes, it's analog radio now, but maybe when they switch to digital it will be possible. I'm not holding my breath . . .

      (I actually would like it even better if there was a button that, when pushed would donate a quarter to directly to the artist and give me the right to download the song. It seems like a better distribution model for both consumer and producer. Unfortunately, I don't think the middlemen would quite latch on to the concept ; )

      --
      harmonious design
  3. Not impressed by Spazholio · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sirius already offers this included in the cost of their service. Hell, you don't even need to be a subscriber to use it. You can sign up for a 3-day trial, wait for it to expire, then sign up again (according to their customer service).

    Oh, and XM isn't 100% commercial-free, where Sirius is.

  4. Um, hello, Sirius is already online for FREE. by MufasaZX · · Score: 4, Interesting

    All Sirius Sat Radio subsribers can listen to all their audio streams online for free (as in beer) for the past several months, how can XM possible claim this type of service is 'new and special' and charge for it???

  5. Is it compatible with mozilla? by Armethius · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The key question for me is whether it is compatible with non-IE browsers. I would love to sign up for Rhapsody, but they are IE only.

  6. When will the first Time Trax for this be out? by dgrgich · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'll bet the RIAA will be looking at this extra-crispy close . . . after that whole XMPCR deal turned into an MP3 factory program.