XM radio...How much are you willing to pay?

[steveinaz]

How much are you willing to pay for XM radio before you cancel?

I'm not happy about the increase, but I'll go $12.99; next increase and I'm outta there!

What's your take?

[bobman1235]

Everyone I know that has XM or Syrius swears by it, and syas that they can't live without it... but I'm sorry, I just can't justify another monthly bill for RADIO. Maybe there's ten bucks a month worth of value added in there, but... if I'm gonna spend 10 bucks a month, I'll spend it on some music download service and get the songs I really want.

[dragon1952]

The DirecTv stations are fine with me. In the car I could car less. I don't spend enough time there anyway.

[pjdami]

I cancelled my XM subscription. Not because of the price increase but just because I like the Sirius programming better and side by side, Sirius just sounds better to me with less compression.

When I was a kid everybody had Atari. I had the Intellivision:D

$15 max is my feasible limit.

[madmax]

$12 was my limit. In the scheme of things a few dollars doesn't really matter but I HATE services. They eat away your money without you even noticing it.

madmax

[brettw22]

Whether in the car or at the home, there's plenty of good alternatives that work just as good without the reoccurring fee.

I listen to cd's or my mp3 player in the car and at home I'm listening to Streaming Internet Radio stations. I'm not paying squat for what I get sufficiently right now for free (audio related).....ha.

[Tour2ma]

Originally posted by dragon1952
The DirecTv stations are fine with me. In the car I could car less. I don't spend enough time there anyway.

Ditto... At home Direct TV is fine for background listening, and when I travel, it's CD time...

[shack]

I was seriously considering the purchase of the Polk XM tuner. I had convinced myself that the $300 plus $10 per month was probably worth it. I could care less about any talk shows or personalities, but I know there is music I have never heard that I would enjoy if I could find it...but that is not going to happen on OTA radio. XM has now priced itself out of the equation. Not that the $2 a month is a burden...but because I expected the opposite. As subscriptions increased, the cost "should" decline or at the very least stay the same. I'm not willing to pay the cash now for the hardware just to see the costs rise to $20 -$30 per month in a year or two. It IS NOT worth that

[jcaut]

We bought a new GM vehicle recently that just happened to have XM. I'm not that impressed, but a HUGE part of that has to do with the extraordinarily bad-sounding Bose stereo that came along with it. Why anyone with ears would PAY EXTRA for the Bose, ON PURPOSE, is completely beyond me.... Sorry, back on topic:

The three month trial period got my wife (the principal driver of the vehicle) completely hooked on XM, so I guess I'm going to remain a subscriber until they go above the $12.99/month. Actually, if it were just me, I wouldn't pay that. I've got a big enough selection of music on CD that I can take with me anything I really care to listen to. Unless I'm driving long-distance, I usually don't even turn the radio on.

I know they're trying to make money--- and I'm no marketing genius-- but I feel like the real market for this kind of service is going to be in the lower $$ range. The slightly-lower subscription fee was possibly the most important thing XM had over Sirius. I'd be willing to pay 50% of the fee for 50% of the channels. Instead it's going to go the other way, and that will eventually drive me away from it.

Jason

[polksda]

Call me an XM Junkie. My 03 Grand Am came with it from the factory, otherwise I would never have tried it.

I also have a subscription for my office and have a Skyfi that I tote between home and office. Why? The office building I work in has so much electrical interference that you cannot pick up stations at all, and we're not allowed to use streaming audio feeds. XM gets around both problems.

[steveinaz]

Originally posted by shack
I was seriously considering the purchase of the Polk XM tuner. I had convinced myself that the $300 plus $10 per month was probably worth it. I could care less about any talk shows or personalities, but I know there is music I have never heard that I would enjoy if I could find it...but that is not going to happen on OTA radio. XM has now priced itself out of the equation. Not that the $2 a month is a burden...but because I expected the opposite. As subscriptions increased, the cost "should" decline or at the very least stay the same. I'm not willing to pay the cash now for the hardware just to see the costs rise to $20 -$30 per month in a year or two. It IS NOT worth that

It's interesting that you put it in those terms. This is what I was thinking EXACTLY. This is a bad move on XM's part; just when they start building some momentum, and a home tuner is released--they pull this crap (can you say "cable tv"). You know that is what consumers are thinking---cable tv all over again. Lord, where do they get these idiots in their marketing departments--I have about 27 credit hours of college, none of it in business, and I can figure that out. The next 3 years should have been spent building more customer base; let XM work its magic on rental car customers, etc, etc. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[fireshoes]

XM's rationale is that it was $9.99 when it started and had commercials. Then they went commercial free but didn't increase rates. SO now you are getting to pay for that and the XM online service.

[sucks2beme]

Just got mine before the price increase. I will do a year at $9.99
(available for existing customers) and then re-evaluate.
I didn't get the nice Polk unit because I was worried they might go under. Both them and Sirius are bleeding red with no end in sight I wish they would lose the talk radio and sports(can you say expensive!). These services are all over the dial here in Dallas. Its music we can't seem to get. Every spot on the dial plays a yakky DJ and a ton of commercials.
Imagine this- less stations- music,music,music, and more bandwidth so the quality of the programs received are better.
That would keep me hooked. That's why I got it.

[Frank Z]

No XM, No Sirius.

[mantis]

I have not. But thinking about it.

The desire to own one or the other has not been enough for me.

Dan

[Airplay355]

are there any nice sirius tuners for home stereos? i like sirius much much better then XM.

[sucks2beme]

originally posted by Airply355


are there any nice sirius tuners for home stereos? i like sirius much much better then XM.
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Ultimate Electronics carries Kenwood's Sirius receiver.
I didn't get to listen to it or the Polk unit for XM at CC.
Seems they're never hooked up, and the sales people
are clueless how to make them work.

[raidical]

I have had XM Satellite for almost two years now and initially paid for 3 so i have one more year left on my 9.99 subscription. I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far especially the music i most likely would have never heard before such as the 'Rockabilly' hour on the 50's segment which is simply awesome! There are a few more but that is the only reason i would go to the next step 12.99..Now XM is adding MLB Baseball games which is fine if you if your excited about 'Boring yourself to Death' but unfortunately for me i Hate Baseball and don't expect to pay for it. As someone has mentioned in these threads it now is no different than cable tv. Like cable tv there is going to end up being 350 channels and and it will seem like nothing is ever on worth watching or in this case listening to.

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