4 artists dominate Spectrum

[scotchandcigar]

At every opportunity as a Spectrum Tastemaker, I make the same plea: stop playing Van Morrison, Tom Petty, Lyle Lovett, and Talking Heads to death! While I don't dislike these artists (except Lovett), I go crazy when I hear one of the dozens of Van Morrison songs in their regular rotation. Someone at Sirius decided long ago that these are the "core" artists, and there seems to be little I can do about it.

Is there anyone else that'd like to hear more variety from other artists, or maybe even a wider selection of artists, instead of hearing these 4 about every other song?

 

[goreds2]

Here is their channel page. You could maybe send an email.

SIRIUS Satellite Radio - Rock Radio ? Listen to Rock Music Station on Sirius Satellite Radio ? Spectrum

 

[JHDK]

im a spectrum fan but you are right. you forgot about jack johnson though. bound to hear him once an hour. still, the spectrum on its worts day is better than all the local west palm stations i get

-jhdk

 

[scotchandcigar]

Yeah, Spectrum has a small circle of "regular" artists; David Gray, U2, Jack Johnson, etc.

And yes, I've sent them an e-mail, and I got a "thanks for the input, we'll work on it" reply. But over the past 3 years, they have been consistently relentless with Van Morrison and Tom Petty; they must rotate through 20 different songs from each of them. Yet Steely Dan is limited to the same 3 songs, same with Genesis and Talking Heads - even though each of these artists have 20 hits each.

And how about the artists they just don't play? For every "Moondance", there's 100 artists from the same era they don't play at all.

Maybe I'm atypical of a satellite radio listener, but what I really want is one general purpose channel that I can leave on all day without going nuts. I can't listen to a niche channel for more than a few songs at a time.

 

[limegrass69]

You could take the word Spectrum out of this thread and replace it with "Coffee House"

 

[flap_jackson]

You could take the word Spectrum out of this thread and replace it with "Coffee House"

They just repeat everything. Most replays I've heard anywhere on satellite radio, except for the hit channels.

 

[Aaron]

That's dissapointing to hear... by definition, shouldn't The Spectrum have one of the biggest playlists of any channel?!? They've only got 40 years of rock music to choose from.

 

[scotchandcigar]

by definition, shouldn't The Spectrum have one of the biggest playlists of any channel?!? They've only got 40 years of rock music to choose from.

Exactly. This "narrow" playlist seems to be a Sirius programming distinction vs XM, from what I've heard, but in this case it's just stupid.

As for Coffeehouse, I must say that it's one of the biggest dissapointments for me. When I signed up for Sirius, I loved the "idea" of coffeehouse. But the channel is so mind-numbingly limited in scope, I gave up on it long ago. They place the concept of "atmosphere" above all else. They'll play adult soft-pop (which I would never listen to) alongside stuff like Ani DiFranco (which fans of the former would loathe), simply because they're both acoustic. And who needs acoustic Jack Johnson?! It reminds me of the comedian who spotted unsalted rice cakes in the grocery store, and asked, "who is this for; those who can't handle the "rowdyness" of regular rice cakes?"

 

[scotchandcigar]

No longer a Tastemaker

OK, I've just Unsubscribed as a Spectrum Tastemaker.

Playing Wavin' Flag by K'Naan every 3 hours was the last straw. And in addition to my top 4 overplayed artists, there's Jack Johnson, Chris Isaak, David Gray and many others that don't get a break.

Their list of "deep" artists is the same old, tired group: U2, Dave Matthews, Beatles, Stones, Dylan.

The whole Tastemaker thing is crap - and I have to listen to them promo it every 10 minutes to boot!

 

[JoeTan]

Wait a minute TALKING HEADS??? NICE! I wondered what station they were on (other than 22)

 

[scotchandcigar]

Wait a minute TALKING HEADS??? NICE! I wondered what station they were on (other than 22)

Well I'm glad I can make someone's day! They rotate through more than a dozen different songs from them, as shown here

SIRIUS Playlist Search - Sirius Satellite Radio - DogstarRadio.com

I just wish they did this with about 100 other bands as well, that would make it a "spectrum".