Sirius planning "Internet Radio Plus" subsciption service
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 29th 2006 5:12PM
posted August 29th 2006 5:12PM
You can, of course, already get Internet radio from Sirius if you're a subscriber to its satellite service, but the company now looks to be opening it up to people who don't want to fork over the cash for a radio and full subscription -- and it's boosting the sound quality for good measure. According to Sirius Backstage, Sirius is gearing up to launch the standalone "Sirius Internet Radio Plus" service, which'll offer "CD-quality" music channels and "select talk channels" (including Howard) at 48kbps for $12.95 per month. If you're already a Sirius subscriber, you'll apparently be able to upgrade to the new and improved service for $2.99 a month, or get three additional subscriptions for $6.99 a month. And if you're content with your current 32kps streaming audio, you'll be able to continue listening to it gratis. A welcome addition, to be sure, but it seems Sirius could learn a bit from XM in one area: pricing (if these numbers turn out to be solid), given that you can currently get XM Radio Online running at a full 64kps for a mere $7.99 a month.[Via Orbitcast]
Hi,
http://www.radioguide.fm has a similair way of approach I figure.
GR
reply
Well whatever you do - DO NOT sign up for their Lifetime Subscription without reading their fairly well hidden (and never mentioned during the sales process) terms and agreements. This is an out and out fraud on the Sirius consumers.
It appears that Lifetime does not mean YOUR Lifetime it means the lifetime of your existing receiver. That's right - get a new car with the radio built in, upgrade to a newer device and you will quickly find out how they have resorted to misleading customers with their Lifetime promotion. So what happens if your device fails after the one year warranty is up? That's right - you have lost your lifetime subscription.
PS - the terms and agreements also go on to say "no refunds" on the hefty $500 fee.
So beware: The promise of Lifetime Service isn't Sirius!
Since when was 48kbps considered "CD Quality" ???!
XM and Sirius' normal service isn't even "CD Quality" to begin with.
I don't know much about radio, but 48kbps is far off from cd quality:
"However, listening tests show that with a bit of practice many listeners can reliably distinguish 128 kbit/s MP3s from CD originals;[citation needed] in many cases reaching the point where they consider the MP3 audio to be of lower and perhaps unacceptable quality." (Wikipedia)
The point of "CD Quality" is that the audio is at least close to being completely uncompressed. This makes for a playback rate of around 1411 kbs, which is a frequently used number for "CD Quality."
XM's online service which is free for all subscribers, and cost 7.99 a month on its own broadcasts at 64kps. Its 32 for any of the free trials.
Im a sirius sub, have been since 04, i think this is a total rip off. WHy wouldn't you get a full reg sub to be able to listen in a car???
WHo cares about the quality, most people like myself are at work during the day listening and cant blast the music anyway so who cares if its not "CD Quality". I usually listen with 1 of my ipod earbuds in my ear.
Another thing, is that the selection on the internet blows. All they have is the music channels and Howard and some other garbage i never listen too. They need ALL THE CHANNELS ONLINE! Not a "select few". I listen to howard in the morning, but the afternoon kinda blows becuase when you listen to 6+ hours of radio, even on sirius you hear the same tracks. Especially on Hits 1.
Dont get me wrong Siri is awesome, i love it, but they need ALL THE CHANNELS ONLINE.
HOWARD STERN, baby. That's the only reason to listen to Sirius. They both blow as far as music stations - i've had both services and the music channels all just plain SUCK in the same monotonous kind of way as elevator music.
Long live that fun-loving ostrich-with-a-wig AKA pteradactyl AKA goblin AKA HOWARD STERN!
I wrote this article for Backstage and it seems like there is some confusion.
The Music channels WILL BE CD Quality at 128kbps and the TALK channels will be streamed at 48kbps.
Sirius does not need to learn anything from XM. XM does not have howard stern and that is the "killer app" for satellite radio. XM could be 5 bucks and I still wouldn't switch. The music channels are ok for what they are on both networks. They are not going to replace a individuals music library - but obviously are better than FM options.
Thanks, Tyler, for the clarification.
Link to Sirius Backstage article:
http://www.siriusbackstage.com/2006/08/24/sirius-to-offer-online-only-subscription/
I actually asked one of the customer service reps why they didn't have all the channels online. Their response was that they don't the majority of the talk radio channels. They can put Howard & the music channels online because they do own the broadcast rights to them. They'd probably have to pay extra to get ESPN radio and such online.
Sirius Hard Attack, THE killer app for satellite radio. Fuckin love it.
Uhhmm...Pandora.com for anyone who doesn't know about it.
The Music Genome Project as it's otherwise known, will stream near CD quality radio to you for hours on end and take the user on a musical journey from the new to songs you've never heard before but have influenced your favourite artists. And no I don't work for them, I'm just a very satisfied user.
Yes it doesn't include Howard, but it's also free from annoying ads that will surely become the backend revenue generation standard for Sirius and XM, ala MusicMatch.
Payng for radio will never make sense to me. Never.
Punchy
I think I'll stick with the free internet radio I listen to via itunes or winamp at 192Kbps plus.
Punchy! Thanks for the link! I love it! Great site! Pandora.com is a great way to discover new music!
@ Punchy:
"Payng for radio will never make sense to me. Never."
Well why pay for TV then when they broadcast it for free?
This is a bummer just bought a speaker dock for my S50 because of the poor internet quality sound when listening to music. I'll give them more of my money if they increase the bit-rate of their satellite music feeds. Any one know what they broadcast live satellite music at?
5ftassassin-
What you are hearing through your radio is probably somewhere between 80-100kbps. But this has been debated and due to Sirius' S-Plex technology (it gives the station the bandwidth it needs at a certain time basically) this changes but usually one doesn't really notice it. Sirius is constantly working on improving SQ and word is they are to release an upgrade by the end of the year.
5ftassassin-
XM is known to transmit music channels at 32-48kbps depending on the station. Two stations are a FULL 64kbps...wow! Talk stations much less. Incredible isnt it? In 2006, we pay for the sound quality of 1976.
Sirius is generally regarded to have slightly inferior SQ to XM. I imagine the bitrates are quite similar.
80-100kbps is FAR off.
I wouldnt count on much of an upgrade either, because the laws are against them on both sides. The FCC on one side, physics on the other.
XM has Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez. Sirius has an old hacky DJ way past his prime.
XM is more gooder.
Brian just said everything that I wanted to say.
Well, that and XM has Fungus (a punk rock channel that actually plays punk rock) and Sirius has The Faction (which would be the hot topic corporate mtv bullshit version of punk rock, for the most part.)
I'd pay $12 a month for High Voltage and Fungus alone to be in my car before I would ever jump ship to Sirius. They have no content that interests me whatsoever.
What codec are they (both xm and sirius) using? If they are using vanilla mp3, anything below 128kbit is just atrocious. But, if they are using something new, like AAC+ v2, 48kbit will be equal or better than 128kbit mp3.
So, quality comparison by just bitrate is irrelevant, compression codec used is more important.
Sirius forgot to mention that they were also going to lower the quality of the streams included with your subscription when they turned on the optional 128KB service. I guess their marketing department thought the "free" streams were just too good.
Yeah, the Plus stream says 129 kbps (vs 32 kbps for the free stream, which used to be 34 kbps). Still doesn't sound quite like CD-quality, but I can hear the high end on the symbols now. I'm thinking that the high end sounds better than the radio in the car, but I'm not sure.
I guess it's worth $2.69/mo extra rather than paying for an additional receiver at home.