Sirius XM plans official rate hike for March 11th
By Darren Murph 
posted January 27th 2009 10:54PM
posted January 27th 2009 10:54PM
[Via The Wolf Web]
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posted January 27th 2009 10:54PM
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People need to calm down. This rate increase only affects customers that have more than 1 subscription, or if you want to listen on the web. And if you want to listen on the web, then that means you're at a computer and why not listen to all your illegally downloaded MP3s instead? Lets not forget about the negligible sound quality difference if you're listening to any of the talk stations.
People seem to forget that the merger didn't take place so Sirius XM could lower rates...that would just be bad for business. The idea is to make money, not throw it away, and if you look at how much the company stands to gain from this very modest price increase, it makes sense. Calm down, and stop complaining.
Sigh. I was an XM subscriber for the past four years, up until November. Multiple radios. But the economy slowdown caused me to look at all the nickels and dimes including all my entertainment spending and saw that I was only using XM for basically one channel (158) and it just wasn't worth the cost. XM barely tried to offer me anything to stay. So much for retention. It was like they didn't care.
Local radio is godawful. There are many times I regret having to go back to it. But XM is just not worth the money any more. I wish them well.
I can't believe a group of supposedly intelligent people could sit in a board room and think this idea was anything but suicide. It seems to me that customers affected by this fit into two camps - those that listen to internet radio and those that don't. The ones that don't listen, don't care and won't pay the $3 a month anyway. There's no extra revenue there. The ones that do care about internet radio are probably well aware of the alternate ways of accessing it and very likely have an iPhone or other means of listening that can even stream in their car. So a high percentage of those people won't pay either, and may even drop the service if they think that internet radio accessed for free is all they need. So the net result of this is little added revenue that will likely be more than lost from dropped subscribers. if they need the money, they would have been better off raising their base rate by $0.25.
Just to be clear, their website says the new pricing applies to the "everything and best of" packs. Guess what? If you have normal XM...you have the XM everything pack. Thus, it appears you will automagically begin to be billed for the extra fee...even if you have no use for the internet radio package.
I have every song I'll ever want to hear including the new singles that isnt even out yet, I will never have a need for another bill each month for music.
I think it's time to pack up the sat radio receivers and use my iPhone/iPods exclusively. The confusing pricing, lack of consumer communications, and over-priced services have all culminated to a totally lack-luster customer experience.
Too bad, XM-Sirius, Sirius-XM, (whatever you're branded as now) you f'd it up!
Screw it, I'm going with the competition. Doh!
Who could have predicted this? 8*|
All of you are specifically mentioning music on Sirius-XM and the alternatives. However, I listen to Sirius for the talk services like BBC, NPR, Stern, and many other stations that I haven't found other ways to easily stream and listen to. Sure, podcasts are easy, but having one source to listen to all of the talk stations just isn't possible. Is anyone aware of such a service? I would easily cancel Sirius if I could find one.
I'm in the same boat as you. I'm an avid Stern listener, and have been with Sirius since 2003 (before Stern signed on). Yes you can get good commercial free music at no charge, but what about the other content? Sucks to have to pay more. I wish Stern's contract allowed him to podcast.
What to do?
Declining Economy, and Raising Prices. Perfect Business Model.
Headlines for March: Sirius XM Lays off 1,000s of employees after service tanks.
Ever since the merger the quality of my XM subscription has been dragged down by Sirius. They are constantly advertising Sirius and their "lifetime package", which you can now save $100 fyi....
Stop the ads if you expect me to stay... let alone pay more.
i just got done cancelling my service. Not so much for the rate increase, but the whole baloney about commercial free music. True, there may not be commercials, but the DJ's on some channels spend just as much time blabbering about the music, doing entertainment reports, listing the top 5 ring tones (??!!) of the week, sorry i passed!
The end is nigh.
I guess they want everyone to switch to Pandora...
Pandora Radio over iPhone 3G is looking more attractive by the minute ... I'm still pissed that the XM-Sirius merger nixed Sirius Blues and replaced with with XM's Bluesville. I know they were thinking "oh, well there's two blues stations, we only need one" but if they knew a damned thing about blues they would see that the programming and sub-genres were completely different. I picked Sirius for my car because of channel 74. I'm now seriously considering dropping the subscription entirely thanks to channel 74 and this rate hike is certainly weighing in.
I will be gone from this bullshit company as soon as Howard leaves. Im so tired of their bullshit
How about the sell just the internet feed for 1.99? I'd get that just to have Howard Stern on my iPhone and at work. Although I can get it for free, I feel a wee bit guilty.
I would pay $5/month for Stern only. The rest of the content can be replaced by Slacker and other internet radio services. Oh, the NFL games are good too. Would miss that some if I canceled my Sirius subscription.
I just got done cancelling my Sirius. 90% of my sirius usage is over the internet in the office, I will go to listening to bubba in the morning live on FM radio, Pandora for music, and i'll just go back to downloading the stern show on the binaries newsgroups commercial free like I did before he went to sirius.
bye bye sirius.
I dumped Dish programming thinking I would subscribe to Sirius directly, but no sooner had I done that, XM/Sirius merger happened, they changed their lineup and now the increase. So basically, I’m fine with Pandora and Podcasts for $1/month.
I'm just wondering, I have a lifetime subscription because it came with the audio package in my car (it's the only reason I even listen anymore), I wonder if my rates for internet radio are locked in? I hope so...
"I'll just use my iPhone and xxxxx to listen!"
Great, but you *do* know that you can't make/receive calls while using data over 3g/EDGE, right? If you're on a 3hr business commute your clients may get a little peeved when all their calls go directly to voicemail for those 3 hours you're on the move.
I'll be keeping both my subs. My dad's receiver's the only one affected by the $2 price hike (really, it's 1/2 the price of a pack of smokes), and I don't actually mind getting the higher quality stream. I will say I'd prefer the option of high/low streaming, as lowbit works over even dialup speed connections, making it very versatile.
As for raising/lowering rates, I can only assume that those complaining haven't actually seen the new packages (a couple as low as $9.99/mo), compared to the previous $12.95 single package. Not to mention that now you can do ala carte, which wasn't an option previously.
But hey, if internet radio and breaching your cell data agreement (yea, read it, there is a cap) is worth that extra $2 a month, by all means, do what you will. I for one prefer to hear jocks, talk radio, and a good mix of music. It's still the best thing on radio, and it's still a better value than tying up my cell phone while making a long drive.
You CAN make and receive calls with 3G, you cannot with EDGE.
I stand corrected.
I love XM and certain Sirius channels. In total, i only listen to about 20 channels. I got XM because i love listening to Opie & Anthony and Ron & Fez. Find me a better (cheaper) alternative to listening to these guys, and i'll take it, until then, XM/Sirius got me by the cojones. :-(
I just called and told them I want to cancel because of the rate hike. The lady said the rate hike only applies to the 2nd additional receiver. But also the internet streaming is no longer free. I thought about it for a second and told her I wanted to cancel anyways. Then she offered me a "new year special" of 50% off for the year at a one time fee of $77 and internet streaming is included. I took the deal.
I've been a fan of Sirius for years. I even paid the extra $2.99/mo to get the premium streams (I guess all the hubub is that they are eliminating the free stream). However they're increasing the price for a 2nd unit (which I got for my wife) and now I'll have to kick in another $2.99 for HER account to listen on the internet. Let me get this straight, $12.99 + $3.99 for BoXM + $8.99 for 2nd receiver + $2.99 for my internet + $2.99 for HER internet?
Wait a minute, what am I spending $35/mo on when I just got laid off?
Are you getting the picture, Sirius?