Sirius XM to stream to iPhone and iPod

[DaemonSeid]

Financially struggling Sirius XM Radio Inc. is planning to stream its subscription radio service to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices from Apple Inc. beginning this spring.

After narrowly avoiding a filing for bankruptcy protection last month, the nation's only satellite radio provider wants to step up sales directly to consumers. New car purchases — which had been Sirius' best source of customers — are way down.

Sirius XM also said in a call Thursday to discuss its fourth-quarter earnings that it's ramping up efforts to reach buyers of used cars with factory-installed satellite radios.

"We've been testing a number of initiatives to make the Sirius XM content and experience more ubiquitous," said Jim Meyer, president of operations and sales at New York-based Sirius.

Sirius now has 19 million subscribers, up 10 percent from a year earlier.

By streaming its music, sports and talk channels to users of the iPhone and iPod Touch, Sirius can give its existing subscribers another way to access content and let new customers sign up without buying new radios, CEO Mel Karmazin said.

link

Would you pay more to have their music streamed to your iPod?

I wonder how handlers for the Zune will respond should this go thru.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

Financially struggling Sirius XM Radio Inc. is planning to stream its subscription radio service to the iPhone and iPod Touch devices from Apple Inc. beginning this spring.

After narrowly avoiding a filing for bankruptcy protection last month, the nation's only satellite radio provider wants to step up sales directly to consumers. New car purchases — which had been Sirius' best source of customers — are way down.

Sirius XM also said in a call Thursday to discuss its fourth-quarter earnings that it's ramping up efforts to reach buyers of used cars with factory-installed satellite radios.

"We've been testing a number of initiatives to make the Sirius XM content and experience more ubiquitous," said Jim Meyer, president of operations and sales at New York-based Sirius.

Sirius now has 19 million subscribers, up 10 percent from a year earlier.

By streaming its music, sports and talk channels to users of the iPhone and iPod Touch, Sirius can give its existing subscribers another way to access content and let new customers sign up without buying new radios, CEO Mel Karmazin said.

link

Would you pay more to have their music streamed to your iPod?

I wonder how handlers for the Zune will respond should this go thru.

I won't pay more for it; I'd rather just use my IPod for the songs that I know I'll enjoy. Plus, most of what I listen to on Sirius is the talk radio stuff (ESPN, NPR, etc.) and I won't need to listen to that when I'm using my IPod.

[AGDee]

XM is making making me crazy, to be honest. I got a free 3 month trial of it when I bought my new car. The dealer tried to activate it 3 times the day I picked up the car and it didn't work. I decided that was probably better because I didn't want to get hooked on it and then miss after 3 months. On a whim though, a few weeks later, I tried to refresh it from their website. A couple weeks later, I found out it was working by accidentally hitting an XM station button. I really enjoyed it! As my free trial period was coming to a close, I debated back and forth whether to continue it. I decided, on the last day, to pay for a year subscription with the money my dad gave me for my birthday. I went online and signed up. Next time I got in the car, bam, it was gone already. It's been a couple days now and still no XM. I haven't had time to keep messing with it and I will try to "refresh" it from their website again (which is what got it working last time I think), but I'm quite frustrated! Part of the issue is that they say it make take 15-20 minutes and possibly up to an hour for the signal to find your radio and you have to have the radio on channel 1 for this to happen. Well, quite honestly, when I'm activating it from the house, I don't want to leave my car running for an hour, waiting to get an XM signal and I'm rarely in the car for more than hour. In fact, when I finally discovered it was working before, it was after some very long drives to work during really bad weather. On a radio in the house, that would be no big deal, but who wants to drive listening to the XM Preview advertising crap for an hour??

[jessica.lanelle]

I would not pay more than what I am already paying. I can already choose the music that I have on my iPhone, and the XM is just for the car.

[DaemonSeid]

Originally Posted by AGDee

XM is making making me crazy, to be honest. I got a free 3 month trial of it when I bought my new car. The dealer tried to activate it 3 times the day I picked up the car and it didn't work. I decided that was probably better because I didn't want to get hooked on it and then miss after 3 months. On a whim though, a few weeks later, I tried to refresh it from their website. A couple weeks later, I found out it was working by accidentally hitting an XM station button. I really enjoyed it! As my free trial period was coming to a close, I debated back and forth whether to continue it. I decided, on the last day, to pay for a year subscription with the money my dad gave me for my birthday. I went online and signed up. Next time I got in the car, bam, it was gone already. It's been a couple days now and still no XM. I haven't had time to keep messing with it and I will try to "refresh" it from their website again (which is what got it working last time I think), but I'm quite frustrated! Part of the issue is that they say it make take 15-20 minutes and possibly up to an hour for the signal to find your radio and you have to have the radio on channel 1 for this to happen. Well, quite honestly, when I'm activating it from the house, I don't want to leave my car running for an hour, waiting to get an XM signal and I'm rarely in the car for more than hour. In fact, when I finally discovered it was working before, it was after some very long drives to work during really bad weather. On a radio in the house, that would be no big deal, but who wants to drive listening to the XM Preview advertising crap for an hour??

That was my biggest con in getting an XM radio. I am rarely in my car long enough to enjoy it and regular radio is fine.

If I really need to listen to something other than 'regular' radio, I can always download podcasts.