SiriusXM Price Increase June 30, 2015

[jegrant]

At promo prices, Scott, it's cheaper for us non-lifetimers to buy the All Access promo at $50 for 6 months plus Royalty Fee, Taxes, Sirius XM Profit Charge etc rather than the online only plan at $15/mo. However, if they don't get the mobile app working by the time I have to call back for another promo, I'll drop back down to XM Select for $25/6 mos.

My understanding is that over the long term, they do plan to migrate completely to the "XM" technology. XM has a larger installed base, and this will allow them to avoid swapping out as many radios, because they can keep a subset of programming available on XM 1.0 for a while.

I somewhat appreciate the point that Sirius has a more interesting satellite configuration, but this also requires a larger hotter chipset (as was also mentioned) and my frustration with it was that when you install a stationary Sirius antenna in some cases, it only works part of the time, because the satellites are always moving around. And Sirius even added a fixed position satellite to help with this issue.

 

[EarDemon]

Still worth it to me. Spent most of last week in the Blue Ridge Mountain/Appalachia region. The entire 400+ mile ride down, my entire time there and my entire 400+ mile ride back home was spent listening to Sirius XM. Limited cell phone reception meant no Pandora or the like and I refuse to listen to local terrestrial radio. I enjoyed rocking out to Octane, laughing with Opie & Jim, listening to the NE Patsie fans call in cry about the ‘unjust’ treatment of their Terrific Tom on NFL Radio and much more while driving the Sky Line and Blue Ridge Pkwy. I couldn't imagine 1200 miles in 5 days and not having Sirius XM to entertain me. Hell, I can't even imagine driving 7.3 miles to work and not having Sirius XM to entertain me. Best of all, through all of the mountains and tunnels, I maybe only had 4 or 5 dropouts the entire time.

 

[tobsandmags]

"...Sirius only needed a couple hundred repeaters, whereas XM was in the thousands at their peak..."

I recall from severals years ago that there was some plan to drastically reduce the number of XM repeaters. Was that just rumor/talk or did they actually do that. I've always wondered what the repeater looks like.



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[cypherstream]

The sound quality is awful. There for a bit I reduced 2 radios down to 1 radio + internet. In my car with the AUX input, I'd plug in my iphone and use the app. The sound quality is night and day difference between the IP stream and the satellite stream. New radios should use LTE if available to tune the better stream, but I guess there would be a cost for the hardware and then also the bandwidth (AT&T/Verizon/Sprint/Tmo/etc..)

Now were just down to 1 radio (the car that doesn't have an AUX input). It uses like 87.9 MHz to pick up the sportsters output. I pay for a year in advance. It's due every Christmas time. Never paid sticker price for the subscription. I call to cancel every year around Dec 23/24. Either their desperation in retention, the holidays, my sob story about finances, or any combination of those three nets me a deal each year.

I'm honestly surprised the system wasn't defeated yet. Especially Sirius since its a fixed codec. It's a one way system that's been out there for years now. There's thousands of these things out there. I can't believe no one has ever not opened one up and put some logic analyzers on the chips and tried to figure out the authorization system. Yet we have all these 0-day vulnerabilities in the past year (Shell Shock, HeartBleed, Kerberos bug, etc). Yeah I know you can disconnect your radio when you cancel service and keep it off for a few weeks, and you might still have service for a little while after you reconnect it, but it eventually gets the kill signal. They must have engineered that thing like a vault.

If the audio quality was better, like say they came out with the audio version of what HEVC will do for video... maybe I would subscribe again. But for now Slacker, Pandora, Spotify or any other IP audio service is a better value with better quality. Assuming you have a way to get the audio from the phone to the car. But hey, at least you can take that with you and airplay or plug into your home audio system.

 

[Bradp56]

I cancelled my service, I used to listen to Opie and Anthony but now just listen to Anthony Cumia show and other podcasts, dont really need satellite anymore.

 

[hahler2]

I don't feel like it's worth it. I was one of the first subscribers to XM way back before the merger. I currently still have the service but am going to be canceling. I listen primarily to Octane. Back in the original days of XM it was called Squizz and it was WAY better. Ever since they went to Octane they repeat songs way way more. It's not unusual for me to hear the same song 3 or 4 times in just the span of a few hours. It's annoying. Combine that with the decline in audio quality and it's just not worth it. I would rather spend my money on a monthly subscription to spotify or slacker or pandora.

 

[chiodo]

Repetitive music, same songs by same artists, SiriusXM seems to play music only from certain artists from certain labels, I listen to Classic Rewind and it's always Tom Petty, Pat Benatar and Heart several times a day, same songs over and over again. I too also listen to Opie & Anthony and now with Opie gone, it wasn't the same I stopped listening. Now I have HD FM radio and the sound quality is much better on radio stations that broadcast in HD. Then there's streaming on my cell phone with 1.fm and other free services. I don't think I'll be renewing SXM anymore, the most I could ever justify paying for it, is $24 per year.

 

[Juan]

At promo prices, Scott, it's cheaper for us non-lifetimers to buy the All Access promo at $50 for 6 months plus Royalty Fee, Taxes, Sirius XM Profit Charge etc rather than the online only plan at $15/mo. However, if they don't get the mobile app working by the time I have to call back for another promo, I'll drop back down to XM Select for $25/6 mos.

My understanding is that over the long term, they do plan to migrate completely to the "XM" technology. XM has a larger installed base, and this will allow them to avoid swapping out as many radios, because they can keep a subset of programming available on XM 1.0 for a while.

I somewhat appreciate the point that Sirius has a more interesting satellite configuration, but this also requires a larger hotter chipset (as was also mentioned) and my frustration with it was that when you install a stationary Sirius antenna in some cases, it only works part of the time, because the satellites are always moving around. And Sirius even added a fixed position satellite to help with this issue.

Swap radios? Other than a radio installed in a car..most sirius radios only last 2-3 years max

 

[MikeI]

I'm amazed people are unhappy with the service. I've had Sirius since the sportster 5 came out before Howard was on and it was NFL and college sports. I listen to some music Elvis -80's. I can't tell a difference in sounds compared to the car or app or at home on the boom box. Kids Bop Radio sounds the same to me. Kids can't tell a difference.
When I got my new car last year, it had to have Sirius,/XM. I'm only on my 2nd little sportster radio. I had to by just the radio last year after my old one kept replaying stuff every 15 minutes. 1st one used to be in the boom box and travel in the portable dash hookup in the 98 Tacoma. The boom box still works with the 2nd radio. I can't get all the channels like the app on my phone or in the car now but I'm happy. I think its $40.35 or something a month now for the 2 radios and the internet. So far, my 1st radio lasted 10 years or so. New one I got from eBay has Wang Chung saved as a favorite. Other than that, it works fine. I just save elsewhere to pay the $40.35.

I've had the deals and free months but its a hassle to call all the time.

 

[EarDemon]

I guess I flip around between channels too much to notice excessive repetition.

When I first got my car last year, I was so excited about having satellite built in for the first time ever that I went weeks before I even bothered to tune into the FM band to take a listen to Hybrid Digital Radio. I really don’t see the point. Switching between analog FM and digital FM, digital does not sound better to me, it just sounds slightly different. No better, no worse, just different. Even given how horrible our local Classic Rock station is, (if you think Classic Rewind plays the same songs over and over, take a listen to WGRF-FM Buffalo) I always liked the sound of their station bumpers. I wanted to see how awesome they sounded in Hybrid Digital so I tuned to 96.9-1 FM as an AC/DC song was just ending. I turned the car off and proceeded to sit through the commercial break waiting to hear the lead in bumper. By the time the radio shut itself off (the delays are usually what about 10 minutes, provided you don’t open a door, right?) they were still in commercial break. Made me appreciate Sirius XM even more. The commercials on Hybrid Digital Radio sound wonderful! Very high quality! The digital subchannel thing is also amusing.

As I’ve said in similar threads, for what it is, satellite radio sounds fine to me in all three vehicles that are on my account. Not as good as FM, but considering there is nothing on FM I have a desire to listen to, I don’t care. I wish it sounded better, but blame the FCC for not allowing more spectrum to be licensed for SDARS way back when.

 

[MikeI]

I'm amazed people are unhappy with the service. I've had Sirius since the sportster sptk1 came out before Howard was on and it was NFL and college sports. I believe in 2004.
I listen to some music Elvis -80's. I can't tell a difference in sounds compared to the car or app or at home on the boom box. Kids Bop Radio sounds the same to me. Kids can't tell a difference.
When I got my new car last year, it had to have Sirius,/XM. I'm only on my 2nd little sportster radio. I had to by just the radio last year after my old one kept replaying stuff every 15 minutes. 1st one used to be in the boom box and travel in the portable dash hookup in the 98 Tacoma. The boom box still works with the 2nd radio. I can't get all the channels like the app on my phone or in the car now but I'm happy. I think its $40.35 or something a month now for the 2 radios and the internet. So far, my 1st radio lasted 10 years or so. New one I got from eBay has Wang Chung saved as a favorite. Other than that, it works fine. I just save elsewhere to pay the $40.35.

I've had the deals and free months but its a hassle to call all the time.

 

[dangue]

The promotion period on my car just ended. They offered and I accepted 6 months for $28.46 total (including taxes and fees). At that price, it's worth it to me. Come 12/1, it'll auto cancel unless they offer me another good deal.

 

[cpdretired]

My renewal notice came with a $204.88 amount. This is for the XM select package. It's due 7/15. When I call XM I tell them that I can't afford that price. I want to cancel the service unless they can better that amount. Usually they give you a sales pitch. I just ask them to connect me to customer retention. This will send you back to a center in Canada. Last year I paid about $106.00 for 12 months. I have a been with XM since 2008.

 

[king3pj]

It's worth it to me as long as they continue to offer me discounted pricing. I drive 200+ miles each way to our lake cabin almost every weekend this time of year. I mostly listen to talk and sports play by play but my dad loves the 60s channel so if he is riding with me I will throw that on.

For me, it's worth it for Tigers and Lions games alone. Before I had XM in my car I would have to switch between 2 FM and 2 AM affiliates over the course of this 4 hour trip to listen to a game. There would be long stretches of switching back and forth between two distant channels trying to decide which one had less static and signal dropouts. Not a good experience. It so much nicer to be able to figure out which XM channel the game is on and have a clear signal for the entire drive.

It's also great for this fishing trip we do in Northern Ontario every summer. It's about a 15 hour drive and parts of it are very remote. There is a good hour+ where there isn't a single FM or AM channel. Other parts have only Disney radio or some Canadian NPR on AM. I occasionally listen to NPR but it's not exactly the best choice when you are trying to keep yourself awake on a long drive. None of us pay for Canadian mobile data so streaming is not an option and even if it was I doubt there would be a good enough signal.

As someone who takes a lot of road trips XM is well worth the price I have been paying for it. On my most recent renewal I paid around $80+ royalties for the All Access package for a year. I don't care about Howard and I rarely use the internet options but All Access is nice for NFL Radio and play by play.

 

[jtedit]

The sound quality used to be acceptable. SiriusXM keeps increasing the high frequencies. Now the sound is spitty and sibilant.

 

[w6pea]

I have two Delphi XM Radio's. The one in my truck kept stopping and then saying check Antenna Connection. I have one in my house another Delphi Radio. It works. I paid for two radio's this last time I renewed. I think I will call them and see about them canceling my truck radio and then putting the balance on the other radio. I use it in my RV. My new truck I ordered comes with XM/Sirius Radio for one year.

 

[w6pea]

The sound quality used to be acceptable. SiriusXM keeps increasing the high frequencies. Now the sound is spitty and sibilant.

Ever since SiriusXm merged it's been going down hill and every time you turn around they raise the price or ad more cheap crap. It will probably go away soon. I am looking to get an MP3 Player.

 

[rjruby]

Just renewed my XM Select subscription for 6 months for $28.46 including royalty fees.

I always call to cancel one week before my subscription expires and automatically renews at the current price.

I've had no problem getting them to renew at the lower rate.

 

[satjay]

Just renewed my XM Select subscription for 6 months for $28.46 including royalty fees.

I always call to cancel one week before my subscription expires and automatically renews at the current price.

I've had no problem getting them to renew at the lower rate.

Good idea, I need to give them a call, because even though they will credit you when you get the new price it takes forever for the credit to happen unlike when it is payment time for them it takes no time at all

 

[rjruby]

Good idea, I need to give them a call, because even though they will credit you when you get the new price it takes forever for the credit to happen unlike when it is payment time for them it takes no time at all

You're correct.
During the call they quote the credit due for the one week remaining on my subscription ($1.08) and apply it to my new subscription cost ($28.46-$1.08=$27.38)