I had it in my old car (when it was new and the trial was active) but couldn’t find any stations that were more satisfying than my mp3 player. The interruptions, promo spots and DJ chatter also annoyed me. When it lapsed, I just let it go – after fifty-bajillion phone calls from Sirius to renew.
I just bought a car a few weeks ago and Sirius has been frantically emailing me since about my trial period. In this era of Spotify and Android Auto, I can’t think of a reason I would even turn it on. I’m sure it has its place for some people, especially for talk or sport, but I just want music in the car and Spotify is a much better option for hearing music I’ll like or being introduced to new stuff in my wheelhouse than hoping something good comes on the channel.
It’s worth it to me. I only use it while driving. I don’t drive nearly as much as I did pre-COVID. But it’s worth it to me. YMMV for the value of worth. It’s nice to not have CD’s floating around in the car, and to tune it for news, or pretty much any station you like. Tom Petty has a station for instance.
POTUS (Politics Of The United States) is something I listen to.
Fair enough. But if you’re paying for Sirius XM, you could be paying for some other service instead. Assuming your car is equipped with Bluetooth or some other way to stream from your phone (if you have sat radio, I’d expect so) and a phone plan that isn’t going to knock you for streaming regularly.
Just my preference. I’m sure some people enjoy the structured programming and want the other talk/comedy/sports stuff.
I just like the fact that it’s there built into the entertainment system, I don’t have to do anything to set it up. Even though I was a software engineer for most of my working life, I’m an extremely late adopter of technology. I was still buying CDs for years after iTunes became popular, and finally started using iTunes just when streaming services started to appear. I’m still a heavy user of iTunes.
When I was in your position, I know that once I started listening to radio again I realized how horrible Siriusxm sounded. It was like listening to tinny, low fi 96 kbps mp3s. I guess a low bitrate is an inherent drawback of using satellites, but I just couldn’t justify sticking with it even if I enjoyed the variety of stations. To me, it was just really that bad.
Yep, me three. I’ve had Sirius (and then Sirius/XM) for years, long before any of the streaming services started. Much better than terrestrial radio, especially on long trips. I’ve never warmed up to Spotify. If I’m using my phone in the car, it’s for directions.
I also use my SXM subscription through Alexa or my phone in the house, usually when I’m cooking or exercising.
For me, it’s Apple Music and CarPlay, but yeah, I forgot that one of my gripes was that SXM didn’t integrate as well into the CarPlay environment. I’m sure I would feel the same about SXM and Android Auto. I don’t care for the ‘baked-in’ apps or nav.
We also started out with the free year, but we’ve been hooked on it now for going on 8 years. I never really got into the streaming services for in the car (although we do have Amazon Music for at home).
There are certain things I’ve just grown used to with Sirius/XM:
-I like the Beatles Channel. I like the DJs, the shows, etc.
-My kids still dig Kids Place Live (ok, I’ll admit to listening to it too, even when they may not actually be in the car).
-I like getting alerts when my sports team are playing, and having the option to click a button on over to the channel they’re on.
-I like having channels dedicated to certain decades & artists (90s on 9, 10 Spot, Willie Nelson, Tom Petty, etc.)
-I like having cable news channels’ audio streaming in the car for big events (Trump indictment, Kavanaugh hearings, etc).
Are there better options for what I want? Possibly, but I’m a creature of habit, and this only costs us about $5/month or less, so I stick with it.
I like it a lot and use it to the near exclusion of all else in my car. I occasionally stream something from my phone and never listen to commercial radio. I also stream it through my Sonos system at home.
I’ve had it for years and always get the mid tier subscription (now called Music & Entertainment) so I get all of the specialty music channels but not any of the play by play sports or Howard Stern. I have to go through the theater every year to call and get the cheap price which is significantly less of a pain in the ass over the last several years.
I have always gotten it for $60/year which after fees works out to be ~$71.
The quality of the music from the satellites is horrible. If you have the SiriusXM app on your phone and set the quality to high, you’ll get a much better sound. You might be able to compare the two by switching between the two on the same song, the streams on the app lag the satellite signal by about a minute, but you’ll certainly be able to tell the difference.
If you like the channels and music they play, it’s worth it. We have it because my wife likes the Beatles channel (yuk) and will listen to it 24/7 (unless the Beach Boys channel (ugh) is on, then it’s that.) Otherwise I find other services more useful, but that’s just me.
But yeah, if you can stream SiriusXM at high quality, do it.
Oh, and our Honda (2008) has an older XM radio (pre-merger, I think) that drops signal frequently due to cell phone tower interference. That happened at about five spots on my commute. Streaming overcame that issue.
I notice this lag, in particular, when I’m listening to the BBC World News feed, or the NPR Now feed, over my Alexa; those stations have top-of-the-hour notices, which come through at about 2 minutes past over the streaming feed. But, when I’m listening in the car, they come through at real time.
I really wish the DJs would shut the hell up. Especially that one who yammers endlessly about her goddamn horses. And would it kill you to play more than the same 50 songs? I listen to Deep Tracks, and you would think there are enough Deep Tracks to never hear a repeat for weeks, but no. And The Loft. Supposed to be a little bit of everything, but you still hear the same shit just about every day.
It’s part of my Dish Network package, but I wouldn’t pay for it separately. In the car, I just use a USB stick. At least if I get a repeat, it’s something I picked!
I’m just about to hit 19 years of continuous subscription back to the XM days. The technical aspects that I liked about having it then are still true today, including getting signal where cell service is unreliable or doesn’t exist. The product overall has gotten continuously worse since the merger. Shallower playlists, idiotic DJs, dumb gimmicks of channels. I’m only paying $4 a month, so I’m not going to unsubscribe but the value proposition gets worse with every rate hike.
I enjoy it because there is always something to listen to regardless of where I am. A lot of the DJs are entertaining/knowledgeable, and there is a lot of song variety.
What I don’t enjoy is the yearly charade of me calling to cancel so they will give me a decent price instead of $19 per month or whatever their standard rate is. $60 a year flat and I will subscribe for a long time. Keep putting me through hassles and fees and I will always have one foot out the door.
If I wasn’t listening to SiriusXM I would be surfing FM stations or listening to my same old 12,000 MP3s. I don’t have any other music subscriptions.
Well, really. I recently was on a 3-day road trip and changed XM channels about every two hours. I swear that every time I hit Outlaw Country I heard the same song by Tedeschi Trucks Band.
But we have Sirius in both cars, on both our phones, and on our Sonos system. As others have said, it’s a luxury that I can now afford. And I guess my hearing has deteriorated enough that I don’t notice any lower quality of the sound on Sirius
