Confessions Of A Former Satrad Addict
- Thread starter IdRatherBeSkiing
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The MySXM is awesome, but sometimes it gets drunk and wants to do it's own thing. You'll put it on "maximum hits" and it'll give you some obscure stuff. You'll put Lithium on "maximum grunge" and it'll give you Blink-182, Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette back to back.
I have a friend who comes and goes from subscribing. He'll bounce from one 6 month trial to another. A friend who had a free radio for 4 years hasn't subscribed yet. My mom came back after a year off. For them it comes down to availability to listen. I canceled my radio to cut costs so my girl and I share her radio now with BOS. She isn't in the car as much for the moment, but when she is she complains about FM radio, and we live in a metro area. The test will be when Howard retires next year, whether his fans find value in the service or not. I can easily talk 3 of my friends out of the service just as easily as I talked them into it.
The die-hard Howard fans are already predicting doom and gloom when Howard retires. I don't think it'll be that bad. I figure that Howard has 6-7 million active listeners at most and probably more like 4-5 million. If you take the company's numbers from late 2004 when he made the announcement and compare those to the same time of the year in 2006, that's probably a good estimate. Of course, some of his fans probably left the company AND all his active listeners won't all unsubscribe...plus, figure in the number of people who have lifetime subscriptions that technically *can't* leave the company. Either way, I'm sure it won't be the "doom and gloom" predicted.
It won't be doom and gloom. But it won't be too good either. Of the three on my account, one has already told me he will cancel when howard quits. Of the other 4 that took to the service for more than a year, two are already out and the other two are close on the heals when howard leaves. That leaves me and my little old mom, who just likes to hear tunes without commercials. The company will still survive any one show leaving the service. It just won't enjoy the same revenue strength when the big bad show sets sail until they can recoup some subs that they lose.
I am officially done with purchasing Sirius|XM for my own personal use. Once the Merger happened and they got rid of some of my favorite channels (Buzzsaw [Boneyard is awful], Super Shuffle, Hot Jamz, etc) I changed my listening habits.
I used to be a full price paying subscriber until Howard went from 4 days a week to 2-3 days per week. Thats when I started calling and getting the $77 and $86 per year deals. Over the course of the past year, I have gotten into listening to Slacker Radio on my phone more often than Sirius. The SQ is better, the selections are decent, and best of all.... its FREE (ad-supported).
The only thing I listen to on Sirius anymore is Howard 100, and he only does 112 shows per year. When he works 3 days a week and takes off practically the entire month of August every year, it makes me wonder how people could pay even $86 a year plus royalty fees. The service is good, but Slacker, Pandora, and others are just as good and are a whole lot cheaper if you want to pay.
3 weeks ago, I got a renewal letter in the mail. Sirius wanted $263 for 1 year of internet radio and XM Premier per person in my house. (Me and my wife). That would have costed me $530.00 at full price to renew for one year. That infuriated me to no end.
Last week, my phone's reminder to re-new Sirius went off. I quickly considered it and then made the call to cancel.It took me 10 minutes to convince the rep to cancel my radios, but he finally did.
Today, I hopped in my truck and the radio self-updated to the XM Preview channel. It feels good to be free after being a paying subscriber for 9 years. I will just keep creating new email accounts and getting free trials when I want to listen to Howard. The rest of the time, I will listen to Slacker or my own Library.
The Howard/Bubba/Ferrall days were some of the best years of radio. I am glad I was a paying subscriber through all of 2006-2010 to hear the greatness that was being acheived on the radio at that time. Times have changed, stations have changed, and my listening habits have changed. For me, it was time to finally cut the cord and move on.......
I used to be a full price paying subscriber until Howard went from 4 days a week to 2-3 days per week. Thats when I started calling and getting the $77 and $86 per year deals. Over the course of the past year, I have gotten into listening to Slacker Radio on my phone more often than Sirius. The SQ is better, the selections are decent, and best of all.... its FREE (ad-supported).
The only thing I listen to on Sirius anymore is Howard 100, and he only does 112 shows per year. When he works 3 days a week and takes off practically the entire month of August every year, it makes me wonder how people could pay even $86 a year plus royalty fees. The service is good, but Slacker, Pandora, and others are just as good and are a whole lot cheaper if you want to pay.
3 weeks ago, I got a renewal letter in the mail. Sirius wanted $263 for 1 year of internet radio and XM Premier per person in my house. (Me and my wife). That would have costed me $530.00 at full price to renew for one year. That infuriated me to no end.
Last week, my phone's reminder to re-new Sirius went off. I quickly considered it and then made the call to cancel.It took me 10 minutes to convince the rep to cancel my radios, but he finally did.
Today, I hopped in my truck and the radio self-updated to the XM Preview channel. It feels good to be free after being a paying subscriber for 9 years. I will just keep creating new email accounts and getting free trials when I want to listen to Howard. The rest of the time, I will listen to Slacker or my own Library.
The Howard/Bubba/Ferrall days were some of the best years of radio. I am glad I was a paying subscriber through all of 2006-2010 to hear the greatness that was being acheived on the radio at that time. Times have changed, stations have changed, and my listening habits have changed. For me, it was time to finally cut the cord and move on.......
It's still worth it to me for almost the sole reason of static-free reception. I don't drive that much, but it's nice not to lose the signal. When I take the company car out at work and am switching between the three or four stations that I'm currently almost receiving, I'm thankful for satrad.
If we didn't have 2 Lifetimed radios I think I would cancel too. Lots of other options out there now. It just sucks you have to have different apps for different things. So if people still like it for the convenience factor I get it. Everything in one place makes it easy.
Sent from my Galaxy S4
The convenience is king for me. The variety is important too. One divice, no futzing around, no commercials, yadda yadda. But the convenience does have a cost. I get it when the cost outweighs the benefits though.
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Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
I get LTE pretty much everywhere I go around town. Plus beats music and Slacker have offline mode. Plus podcasts and BBC world service available on its own app. Never a problem.
I'll probably listen to some podcasts at my desk during downtime Monday.
Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus using Tapatalk
I'll probably listen to some podcasts at my desk during downtime Monday.
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My wife wants to be able to get in her car, turn the radio on, and Sirius is there. She is like many who won't stream from a phone. And I piggyback to her Satrad sub with the online upgrade for almost nothing.
Oh, you can do that with a Bluetooth connection. You'd be surprised how easy it is.
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That's why my dad loves Sirius. I pay $11 a month for his Sirius subscription. If he went the smartphone route he would have to buy a phone and pay $100 a month for service. He pays $10 a month for basic flip phone service. That can get expensive just to stream some things.
He's a truck driver so he might not get a good signal everywhere.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 4
He's a truck driver so he might not get a good signal everywhere.
Sent from my Galaxy Note 4
Dude, I know, cause that's how I do it. But overall, it's not the same as starting the car, and a dedicated radio starts playing, and you still have full use of your phone.
The main reason terrestrial radio still exists is due to the very same convenience.
I have full use of the phone. I still get calls when Bluetooth is on. And I can take a call hands free. Plus the music starts where I left off after the call is over.
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I'm with Scotch here. The phone is an unnecessary barrier. It requires you to do extra stuff and have to have extra stuff. With a SiriusXM receiver, you start the car and press power. You had to start the car anyway, so you're one button away from music.
Like when I had to run the wire to the back of the radio, (after having to rip the radio out to hook it up) or hope there's an empty frequency to compensate for a weak FM transmitter. With Bluetooth it's get in the car and turn on the engine, then connect to Bluetooth. Bluetooth remembers what app you were on and where you left off.
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Installation is a one-time event. I plugged my receiver into the AUX input in the radio.
The Bluetooth remembering thing is fine and dandy, but if you just want music, the receiver is simpler.
You have to think like a woman, Jon. Scotch's wife just wants music. My wife won't even fool with the Sirius receiver. She just uses the regular radio. Not to be sexist, but women on the whole aren't into this stuff. It's key-gear-gas-go. Bluetoothed music from the cell phone is way too much of an inconvenience.