FARK.com: (6860675) In 2011, Sirius XM added 1.7 million subscribers who have obviously never heard of an iPod

If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

		In 2011, Sirius XM added 1.7 million subscribers who have obviously never heard of an iPod (hollywoodreporter.com)		112
		More: Interesting, Sirius XM, Clear Channel, iPod, CEO Mel Karmazin, CEO, subscriptions

• • •

900 clicks; posted to Entertainment » on 05 Jan 2012 at 9:29 AM | Favorite | share:

more» |

Get this fabulous T-Shirt and impress the methane out of your friends!

shirt it!

Share this link:

URL:

http://fk.cm/go/6860675

Bookmark:

Article Comments close

112 Comments (+0 »)

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

First | « | 1 | 2 | 3 | » | Last | Show all

blackminded

2012-01-05 09:36:49 AM

Netflix lets me choose hours of content to stream when I want, where I want, for $8/month.

Sirius XM wants $15/month for 100+ channels of someone else's iTunes playlists during my commute. And they want another $3/month to allow me to stream it online once I get to work.

/your business model sucks
//though I do miss POTUS XM130
///not enough to pay the $$$

Klitch

2012-01-05 09:37:29 AM

Good luck trying to get, Stern or OandA or every MLB game or every NFL game or every NHL game or every NBA game on your Ipod subby.

Khellendros

2012-01-05 09:37:43 AM

Yes, because they're totally interchangeable products that fill the same need at the same cost.

jayhawk88

2012-01-05 09:39:53 AM

Damn Mel, how many elephants had to die to get you that set of teeth?

Also, say what you want about Sirius XM, but I like it. iPod is great but it's also pretty great for getting me stuck in a music rut. Pandora/Spotify/whatever are OK at helping to solve this problem, but Alt Nation/Spectrum/XMU are pretty good for keeping up with new stuff.

Pelvic Splanchnic Ganglion

2012-01-05 09:41:33 AM

Ron and Fez. There. I said it.

Acid-Flux

2012-01-05 09:41:35 AM

And a Ba-ba-boey to you sir.

Mr. Chow

2012-01-05 09:44:43 AM

Acid-Flux: And a Ba-ba-boey to you sir.

And a Fa-fa-fohi to you kind sir.

LeoffDaGrate

2012-01-05 09:45:25 AM

blackminded:

/your business model sucks

Apparently it doesn't suck as much as you want it to if they just got 1.7 million new subscribers.

Wettner

2012-01-05 09:46:10 AM

I don't have satellite radio, but as Jayhawk88 eloquently pointed out, you aren't going to get the new music if you continue to listen to your iPod. XM/Sirius is probably the only medium (other than friends and other bands) where you can hear new music from emerging artists. Certainly terrestial radio isn't with their Seether and Nickelback marathons.

Wellon Dowd

2012-01-05 09:46:49 AM

I dumped XM right after the merger because the replacement Sirius channels had such short playlists. Is that still true? The XM new wave/early alternative channel (Fred?) would occasionally play things even I, a true child of the early 1980's, had never heard.

Spanky3woods

2012-01-05 09:47:35 AM

My wife has become the unofficial getter of great deals with Sirius. Every time our subscriptions come up for renewal she lets them call her a few times and when they spring their default list pricing on her she tells them to turn it off. They have consistently come around and dropped the price to their absolute minimum for the majority of channels to around $5 a month.

The trick is don't allow them to automatically charge your credit card. Insist on a paper bill and then ignore it.

Their default list price is too high and I don't mind paying only $5 a month to get lots of channels in the middle of nowhere

Bleck

2012-01-05 09:48:19 AM

Pandora is free on my phone.

kingoomieiii

2012-01-05 09:48:21 AM

blackminded: Netflix lets me choose hours of content to stream when I want, where I want, for $8/month.

Sirius XM wants $15/month for 100+ channels of someone else's iTunes playlists during my commute. And they want another $3/month to allow me to stream it online once I get to work.

/your business model sucks
//though I do miss POTUS XM130
///not enough to pay the $$$

This, and the fact that the content they're streaming is apparently saved as 64kbps MP3s. Radio may crackle, but I can't STAND that splashy, bubbling MP3 sound. That and the ducking, but all radio does that.

Which is why I have 10GB of music on my phone, plus streaming over 3g.

Sarcastic Fringehead

2012-01-05 09:48:56 AM

Pelvic Splanchnic Ganglion: Ron and Fez. There. I said it.

Ron and Fez 11 to 3

/The Mighty Horse Roxx

sbcjack

2012-01-05 09:49:04 AM

I've had sirius for 6 years and can say without a doubt its over priced. I really only listen to Howard Stern, I use pandora and slacker more then sirius. But they hold onto me because every 6 monthes when my subscription runs out they offer me 6 more monthes for $42, including internet access. I find that to be a reasonable price for the content.

/Wife loves Martha Stewart channel for some reason, she would miss it more if it ever went away.

cscanlon7

2012-01-05 09:50:37 AM

Spanky3woods: My wife has become the unofficial getter of great deals with Sirius. Every time our subscriptions come up for renewal she lets them call her a few times and when they spring their default list pricing on her she tells them to turn it off. They have consistently come around and dropped the price to their absolute minimum for the majority of channels to around $5 a month.

The trick is don't allow them to automatically charge your credit card. Insist on a paper bill and then ignore it.

Their default list price is too high and I don't mind paying only $5 a month to get lots of channels in the middle of nowhere

That's exactly what I do. Everytime I'm up for renewal I call and ask to cancel and they talk me down to that $5 a month deal. Which is extremely worth it.

bravian

2012-01-05 09:55:34 AM

Khellendros: Yes, because they're totally interchangeable products that fill the same need at the same cost.

THIS.

/difficult to get BBC news on my iPod

sbcjack

2012-01-05 09:57:37 AM

Spanky3woods
cscanlon7

I wonder if anyone pays full price? I sometimes wonder when they release their subscriber numbers to Wall St if they mention all users aren't paying full price.

/I also wait for the bill, ignore, then send a check.

Teenwolf

2012-01-05 09:59:01 AM

Sarcastic Fringehead: Pelvic Splanchnic Ganglion: Ron and Fez. There. I said it.

Ron and Fez 11 to 3

/The Mighty Horse Roxx

Ron and Fez isn't really a standalone show.

blackminded

2012-01-05 10:01:03 AM

LeoffDaGrate: blackminded:

/your business model sucks

Apparently it doesn't suck as much as you want it to if they just got 1.7 million new subscribers.

How many of those are new vehicle sale bundles? How many are re-subscribes? I just don't see 1.7 million new users to satellite radio signing up.

jayhawk88

2012-01-05 10:01:34 AM

Wellon Dowd: I dumped XM right after the merger because the replacement Sirius channels had such short playlists. Is that still true? The XM new wave/early alternative channel (Fred?) would occasionally play things even I, a true child of the early 1980's, had never heard.

Honestly, the "old music" channels are still bad about variety, at least 1st Wave and Lithium. Every couple months or so they'll throw in a few new songs that get spun for a while, but for the most part it is pretty static.

It might just be my imagination too, but it does seem like certain "DJ's" are better about playing off the wall stuff than others, at least on some channels. When Madison is pulling a shift on 1st Wave, for example, it's pretty clear she doesn't give a crap, but when Richard Blade is on the afternoons he seems to care and pull some deeper cuts on occasion.

Carth

2012-01-05 10:01:49 AM

blackminded

2012-01-05 10:02:47 AM

cscanlon7: That's exactly what I do. Everytime I'm up for renewal I call and ask to cancel and they talk me down to that $5 a month deal. Which is extremely worth it.

If they offered the $5/month package to new subscribers I would re-up. All I ever listened to was POTUS and whichever one of the comedy channels wasn't censored. This was pre-merger so who knows now.

igotitb4you

2012-01-05 10:03:40 AM

In other news, 1.7 million new cars were sold in 2011.

the opposite of charity is justice

2012-01-05 10:04:35 AM

I bought two new vehicles in 2011, a girly-car for the wife at the beginning of the year, a minivan for this thoroughly domesticated dad as an early christmas present for the family. Both came with a free year subscription so I guess I'm two of those 1.7 million, and I'm guessing most of that number comes from similar car sales.

Will I be upping once it becomes $15/month or whatever it is? Unlikely, both vehicles possess gigs of onboard mp3 storage. And again, I'm guessing most other users will end up dropping the subscription as well. Strikes me like AOL bragging of how many free trial floppy/CDs they've mailed out.

Chilkoot Charlie

2012-01-05 10:05:15 AM

Wellon Dowd: I dumped XM right after the merger because the replacement Sirius channels had such short playlists. Is that still true? The XM new wave/early alternative channel (Fred?) would occasionally play things even I, a true child of the early 1980's, had never heard.

It's probably still true of the channels you listened to. I started with XM because I can't stand Howard Stern and didn't want to pay his salary. I listen to three channels almost exclusively (unless there's a ballgame on that I care about), and their format and playlists are pretty much unchanged since the merger. I listen to Deep Tracks, The Loft and Coffee House.

Cracks me up when people that pay $100/month for cable TV tell me that I am wasting $15/month on XM. I use the same portable radio in my car, motorcycle, truck, camper and boombox, and listen at home on the web. No commercials, ever.

Orgasmatron138

2012-01-05 10:06:50 AM

I dnrtfa, but I'm guessing lots of car sales are involved.

My wife got a free few months with her new car, and likes it. She doesn't really listen to a lot of music outside of driving, and she's not going to buy an expensive mp3 player just for her car.

I've gotten into it a bit, but I have a 32 gig Zune because I can listen to music at work, so I haven't bothered to get XM for my car.

enry

2012-01-05 10:06:59 AM

Just bought a new car. My only requirements (Mrs. Enry primarily drives it) is that it have AWD and have Satellite Radio available.

There's a massive selection of channels always with something interesting on. The Christmas channels were all kinds of awesome, and my daughter loves Kids Place Live. For all that, it's worth every penny.

/don't touch the llama
//having a boatload of shares purchased at $.25 doesn't hurt either

JimmyFartpants

2012-01-05 10:10:59 AM

My job has me working with some their sales & marketing people from time to time.

Holy christ, what a completely dysfunctional company that is.

iron_city_ap

2012-01-05 10:12:17 AM

jayhawk88: Wellon Dowd: I dumped XM right after the merger because the replacement Sirius channels had such short playlists. Is that still true? The XM new wave/early alternative channel (Fred?) would occasionally play things even I, a true child of the early 1980's, had never heard.

Honestly, the "old music" channels are still bad about variety, at least 1st Wave and Lithium. Every couple months or so they'll throw in a few new songs that get spun for a while, but for the most part it is pretty static.

It might just be my imagination too, but it does seem like certain "DJ's" are better about playing off the wall stuff than others, at least on some channels. When Madison is pulling a shift on 1st Wave, for example, it's pretty clear she doesn't give a crap, but when Richard Blade is on the afternoons he seems to care and pull some deeper cuts on occasion.

Lithium has gone to shiat the last few months. They play alot less rock and more pop-ish crap. If I wanted to listen to that, I'd go to 90's on 9. I do like Madison. She does a good job.

omahatattoo

2012-01-05 10:12:32 AM

I enjoy listening to the idiots on the Jason Ellis Show.

Channel 41

Hoboclown

2012-01-05 10:14:26 AM

blackminded: Netflix lets me choose hours of content to stream when I want, where I want, for $8/month.

Sirius XM wants $15/month for 100+ channels of someone else's iTunes playlists during my commute. And they want another $3/month to allow me to stream it online once I get to work.

/your business model sucks
//though I do miss POTUS XM130
///not enough to pay the $$$

Netflix isn't a great comparison. You can choose what you stream, as long as Netflix has already made it "streamable". Also the idea of going through and choosing each song I listen to sounds exhausting, I'd rather just pick the genre I want and watch the road. That plus O&A and NHL make it completely worth it to me.

Bleck: Pandora is free on my phone.

Depends on your data plan.

Quiefenburger

2012-01-05 10:15:06 AM

Muahahahaha

danshamptons.com

TigerzDad

2012-01-05 10:15:24 AM

As a person who spends an average of 2 hours a day commuting to and from work, as well as 4 digits of mileage traveling every year, I love - L O V E - my Sirius/XM.

The iPod is okay, but, as said above, there's no new music on my iPod

Optimus Primate

2012-01-05 10:22:24 AM

I have wrestled with cancelling my SiriusXM account but I love the content WAY too much.

4 channels of NPR
4 channels of unedited filthy comedy
Very well done genre stations (my faves are JAM ON and the New Wave one) which play a great variety.
All NFL games

Also it's great in the vehicle, or on my smartphone (I walk an hour a day and love the news, NPR and comedy channels)

I also subscribe to Spotify Premium, so I can basically listen to anything I want (news, sports, music) 24/7 on demand...

Sure, I also have umpteen-million gigs of music on my hard drive, but I love hearing NEW music (of most any genre) more than anything.

I have an almost obsessive-compulsive aversion to COMMERCIALS. I DVR everything I watch on TV and subscribe to both Sirius and Spotify to almost completely eliminate almost any instance where I am forced to listen and/or watch advertising.

I am far from rich, but I have a good job, and the 25.00 total I pay for both Sirius and Spotify is a HUGE value for how much I use both services. I consider it another utility like water or sewer.

PluckYew

2012-01-05 10:22:54 AM

Chilkoot Charlie: Wellon Dowd: I dumped XM right after the merger because the replacement Sirius channels had such short playlists. Is that still true? The XM new wave/early alternative channel (Fred?) would occasionally play things even I, a true child of the early 1980's, had never heard.

It's probably still true of the channels you listened to. I started with XM because I can't stand Howard Stern and didn't want to pay his salary. I listen to three channels almost exclusively (unless there's a ballgame on that I care about), and their format and playlists are pretty much unchanged since the merger. I listen to Deep Tracks, The Loft and Coffee House.

Cracks me up when people that pay $100/month for cable TV tell me that I am wasting $15/month on XM. I use the same portable radio in my car, motorcycle, truck, camper and boombox, and listen at home on the web. No commercials, ever.

There is however ridiculous chatter from dj's or vj's depending on the channel. "Oh how I miss my glory days at Empty V" There are commercial parodies where they play a snippet of a song, substituting a voice over with the channel name and then there's the Crazy 80's cover band commercials, I change the channel every time.

Their playlists are short and there's a shiat ton of crossover between channels. I don't care about new music anymore [off my lawn] and am indifferent about Stern, OA and RF.

Had XM from 2005 to 2008, and loved it. After the merger not so much. Last year I got the deal so I decided to try it again, I won't be renewing. Not even for the discount, too many books to listen to.

Marshmallow Jones

2012-01-05 10:24:44 AM

They probably count me as one of the 1.7m. Bought a new car, had 90 days free. Didnt re-up.

Then heard about a deal they had of 6 months for $25. Got hooked up with that, then I'll cancel when that's done & wait for the next almost-free deal. I wouldnt pay full price for it, it's just not worth it. I can use my ipod in the interim.

jayhawk88

2012-01-05 10:25:52 AM

iron_city_ap: Lithium has gone to shiat the last few months. They play alot less rock and more pop-ish crap. If I wanted to listen to that, I'd go to 90's on 9. I do like Madison. She does a good job.

I don't know about pop-ish crap, but I do know that every time I turn it on there's a 20% chance it will be a Foo Fighters song. I swear to God, the other day it was:

Lithium: "Is someone getting the best, the best..." *click*
Alt Nation: *Whatever the lyrics are for one of the songs off their new album* *click*
Spectrum: "Make my way back home...."

I half expected to get the acoustic version of Everlong when I switched over to the Coffee House.

SpectroBoy

2012-01-05 10:28:29 AM

iPod = I like listening to music I already know over and over

Sirius Radio = I like to hear music I haven't heard before

/bababooey

Former Lee Warmer

2012-01-05 10:30:06 AM

Had an XM radio for over 8 years, but went to online streaming only a few months back, as I don't drive nearly as much anymore (when I started with XM, I had a job where I'd spend 14-20 hours a day driving, last year I got a job that had a 10 minute commute).

Probably going to drop the online soon, as both the Android app and PC stream are atrocious.

It's a shame, really. I loved XM when they started. Then the merger watered everything down. Then Fez started having nervous breakdowns. I don't notice when I miss shows anymore, and I used to leave the same stations on constantly.

WarehouseMouse

2012-01-05 10:30:45 AM

Tor_Eckman

2012-01-05 10:31:05 AM

TigerzDad: As a person who spends an average of 2 hours a day commuting to and from work, as well as 4 digits of mileage traveling every year, I love - L O V E - my Sirius/XM.

The iPod is okay, but, as said above, there's no new music on my iPod

I have the same daily car time as you, and I would have gone insane years ago without my Sirius. I think if my commute was less than a half hour each way, I could certainly do without it, and I can understand people not wanting to pay a monthly fee for a few minutes in the car each day. But for those of us whose cars have become our second home it is almost indispensable.

In addition to the new music issue, there are so many old songs that I love that I had forgotten about long ago that I have come across scanning my favorite channels. You can't get that on your iPod either. No matter how many songs you have on there, none of them will ever surprise you.

Disposable Rob

2012-01-05 10:34:13 AM

Wettner: I don't have satellite radio, but as Jayhawk88 eloquently pointed out, you aren't going to get the new music if you continue to listen to your iPod. XM/Sirius is probably the only medium (other than friends and other bands) where you can hear new music from emerging artists. Certainly terrestial radio isn't with their Seether and Nickelback marathons.

*Ahem*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

ihatedumbpeople

2012-01-05 10:44:56 AM

swaxhog

2012-01-05 10:46:07 AM

Why do I have Sirius/XM? CanCon.

'nuff said.

UncleScam

2012-01-05 10:46:24 AM

Just cancelled my subscription - price going up, Stern down to three days a week, and Underground Garage is still playing the same eight songs.

lamric

2012-01-05 10:52:35 AM

Three reasons I'll never subscribe again:

-Too much of a price increase from when I first subscribed
-Gave up their commercial free format on the stations I used to listen to.
-iPod

LDM90

2012-01-05 10:53:01 AM

My wife's got an iPod with every song she owns on it. It plugs into her car. Yet she still loves Sirius and I can't figure out why. When I'm in her car I hear the same 15 songs, just like regular radio. And it sounds like crap, that swishy low-bitrate mp3 sound. And DJs! Why do they need DJs? The little thingy tells you the song & who played it.

Minus 1 Charisma

2012-01-05 10:56:11 AM