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XM Radio Plans Online Music Service
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."
Time-shifting the broadcasts using Total Recorder.
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.
It makes perfect sense (cents?)
They already have the structure setup to spit out tunes and news. As people get addicted to it in their car, they'll naturally want it at their desk too...
Wouldn't surprise me if they offer it for a cheap add-on to their existing service.
I am sure there are numerous others free online services for different genres of music. Why would you shell out for this?
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.
Please pay attention! XM caused some trouble for the guy that wrote software to timeshift XM using their usb device.
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???
I am serious, and please stop calling me Shirley.
Erick
http://www.busyweather.com/
Only if I can get a ripper.
When modding "Informative", please make sure it both has a source and IS actually informative.
not sure how this is different from any number of countless other free streaming music resources on the internet... i think the bigger question is, do people want streaming of someone elses choice or do they want unlimited choice of their own? we may all jump quickly to the conclusion that we'd like 100% choice all of the time, but there is quite a phemonemon emerging as of late called tivo-itis, where so many are observed getting stuck in ruts at their own content programming ineptitudes and gleefully leap back to pre-programmed channels very interesting topic and one that will certainly continue to impact media markets as VOD and other viewer choice options emerge and are able to compete with pure pre-programmed options
John Smith of Nowhere, PA is reportedly not planning an online music store. We have yet to receive official confirmation that Mr. Smith, a 72 year-old retired janitor at Nowhere Middle School who is a local hero after bowling a 300 game back in '86, is indeed without plans for opening an online music store at any point within the next 6-12 months. Neighbor and long time friend Bob Jones was quoted as saying, "Nope. Y'uns gotta believe it... he ain't never thought of it a'once."
We'll have more on this breaking story as it develops.
>I use FM radio and don't have any complaints
Are you in some bizarro world where FM doesn't run 20-25 minutes of commericials per hour?
TODO: Something witty here...
Now this after killing XM on the PC? I'm beginning to think XM seriously doesn't "get it". While I enjoy Rhapsody where I can stream what I want, when I want, there are tons of free internet radio stations I can already available. If they keep up these tactics, I'll soon be cancelling my two XM subscriptions.
The winamp plugin shoutcast is an onlien radio service that has 1,000 channels + ITS FREE!
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.
where FM doesn't run 20-25 minutes of commericials per hour
Oh, it's great! Especially when you hear a song you really like and think, "oh, that's really a nice song--" YOUUUOOUUUVE GOT THE GReeEEeeEEN LAYYYYGHT boomboomboomboomboomboom chuckachuckachuckachucka ARE YOU PAYING MORE FOR YOUR HOME LOAN?? REFINANCE AGAIN AND SAVE 47 CENTS TODAY!! SPECIAL PRICE FOR TEN REFINANCES BY TUESDAY!! CALL NOW CALL NOW CALL NOW CALL NOW
Yeah. I think we've had enough commercials for a while.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
I'm paying $3.95/mo. for a VIP membership at Live365.com. Sure, I paid for 12 months in advance to get that rate, but you still only pay $5.95/mo. on a month to month basis. No adds, no pop-ups, good audio quality (for streaming audio), and with 10K+ streams available, no boredom. It's one of the few things keeping me sane during the workday.
Not to mention the fact that say, a Classic Rock FM station has the same play list, and they have had the same play list for the last 20 years?
2-4 Zeppelin songs.
1-3 Rush songs.
3-5 AC/DC songs.
1 Jethro Tull song.
A Dead block in the middle of the night on a weekend.
5-9 other misc songs.
Repeated over and over since 1984.
XM radio, I've heard classic rock bands I've never heard before, like Sweet, Moot the Hoople, MSG, UFO, etc.
A "discount" rate? Why is it not free?
Because they're a business. Because they have expenses.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I'll bet the RIAA will be looking at this extra-crispy close . . . after that whole XMPCR deal turned into an MP3 factory program.
I actually think this might work. I've always been skeptical of business models based on people paying for a music subscription rather than downloads. People like the idea that years down the line it's still theirs, and is always theirs.
This gets around it by having a receptive audience already in place - XM subscribers who effectively pay for commercial-free music streaming already. This just adds it to their computer as well as their car, etc.
Nice move.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
This is insane. Why should you waste bandwidth for online radio? when they have (had) a usb adapter that could tune the same radio they are beaming into your home and head? Yes.. I should have to pay for isp bandwidth and radio service.. instead of just radio service.. ugh.
There is actually a bonus to having a DJ on a station, it gives it a more "human" feel to it, whereas no DJ starts seeming like Muzak.
XM typically handles the balance well though, their DJs usually talk far less than FM DJs. Bodhi and Grant Random, the two DJs that appear on Squizz (XM's hard rock channel) are really good, and a good example of "not too much, not too little".
So reasons to get XM over FM:
a) Variety, there's so much more you will hear on XM you'll never hear on XM
b) No commercials
c) Quality, and never needing to change channels because you're out of range. Of course you may want to change channels because you want to hear something different. I have 4 of my 6 car's FM presets set, and most of the time I only use one of them. On my Roady, I've filled all ten of my presets and use them all.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
For a while some of the music stations had commercials, then early this year they switched to a plan where the MUSIC stations have no ads. Sure, Sirius was doing that first, but what do I care? I was just glad XM copied that idea.
From the CNET article I couldn't tell if they will be streaming their current broadcasts or what.
Again, Sirius has been doing that, but they ALREADY charge a few dollars more a month than XM.
Will I pay the extra $4 a month for internet streaming? I don't know.
I currently have a Delphi unit that I can dock in my car or office. Two problems: 1) I have a "home" docking kit at work and it is a pain in the neck (and back and legs and shoulders) to crawl under my desk to unplug the power cord then wrap up the antenna cord, etc to move it. I'll probably just get the boombox eventually for home use. 2) My office is mostly below ground so my reception can be spotty. I'm actually receiving a bounced terrestrial signal, so it is pretty weak. I usually get in pretty early and I get perfect reception until everyone else shows up and start firing up monitors, etc. Long about 9-10 am I have to wiggle and fiddle with the antenna to keep the signal. I actually have a pretty good mental map of the EM fields in my office now... I'm like a riverboat pilot navigating through the rocks.
As for which service plays the best music... that totally depends on what music you think is good. We all have our opinions about what is good music, so that really boils down to a personal decision. I personally like the clasic country (a big "salute" to Nrray, Kilroy and Catfish -- the Hank's Place guys *might* remember me as ShiftKicker from the whole episode where Tigger went off the deep end...), jazz and international stations on XM, but find the rock stations lacking a little. I have listened to the freeby Sirius streams on the net and pretty well found it to be the opposite. I didn't care for their country selections, but really liked their eclectic rock station... If you like hip hop, rap or urban (other than Motown and occassional funk) I can't help you. Not my bag...
On the non-musical side of things, I really, really like several of the XM stations. Particularly XMPR (the new XM Public Radio -- guilt free, since I pay monthly... and I'm really happy that Bob Edwards will be debuting there next month), Radio Classics, Sonic Theatre and CNN. Good stuff. I have a long, ugly commute and I find that radio drama is just the ticket for taking the edge off.
I know I'm one of probably three /.ers that like country music, but I have to give credit to a few shows on XM that are outstanding. One is Chartistry. They compile a show of top hits all built around a different theme each time. Their Johnny Cash show was amazing. Another show I love is Bill Anderson Visits With The Legends. Bill is a great singer/songwriter himself and a former DJ who is really good at getting legendary performers to open up and tell great stories. They play songs they are discussing. Just great! Nrray does a really good morning show. Never thought someone from New Jersey would have a great country show, but he does. He also does a couple other cool shows like Outlaw America. A couple weeks ago he played all Dwight Yoakam and it rocked.
One last thing... Hank's Place is nuts... in a good way. They basically roleplay (to use a word /.ers will identify with...) on air that Hank's Place is a Texas honkey tonk that never closes. Lots of people call in and go along with the conceit. Occassionally they have "story arcs" that last from day to day. One listener who goes by "Tigger" threatened to shoot down the warplane of another listener and then everyone chose up sides! This lasted for two or three days and was a hoot.
OK, if that doesn't give you an idea what XM is like, then I'm sorry I wasn't long winded enough!
Am I missing something or is the "commercial free" line complete BS? I rented an Avis car a few weeks ago that had XM satellite radio in it. It seemed like it was as bad as AM radio! I listened to the two comedy selections they had, raunchy and nice, and both were filled with ads. Many of the ads were for XM sattelite service itself, but there were other ads for the same kind of crap you would find on any station. The same was true for their political stations, both left-leaning and right-wing. The brichure int he car made the same claim, that the satellite service was "commercial free". Far from it.