I’ve been a XM Radio subscriber for the past 5 years, but am seriously contemplating cutting the expense. As of right now, the only thing I listed to on my Satellite Radio is Opie & Anthony. In today’s post, I wanted to explore options I’ve been looking into to give me the flexibility to throw my Satellite Radio bill out the window.
Satellite Radio is dying! The business model is bad. Initially they advertised as “commercial free,” but now just about every station has commercials. To use Satellite Radio, you need to purchase the equipment ($50 to 250$), then pay $12.95 per month for the service. Many Satellite Radio subscribers, including myself, were elated about the merger between XM Radio and Sirius, but the merger has taken a few years and there’s been little added benefit for subscribers. I called XM Radio requesting to get Sirius channels and my monthly rate would jump up to $16.99 per month to add the “Best of Sirius” package to my existing service. Vice-versa with Sirius to add a XM Radio Best of package. With all the free options available, I find this ridiculous.
Perhaps it’s the huge Howard Stern contract or the expenses of utilizing a satellite to bring us service. Regardless, most people can no longer afford this extra bill and there are several free alternatives available that I’d like to explore.
Resources to Integrate Mobile Devices with Your Vehicle
You can follow the steps below as a DIY way of integrating your mobile device with your vehicle. As an alternative, you can always purchase an MP3 audio cable for around $20 and have Best Buy install the cable in your car stereo for around $60 or so.
How to Hook Up Your iPod to a Car Stereo
4 Ways to Hookup Your iPod to Your Car
The Complete Guide to iPhone Car Integration
iPod Touch, iPhone and Blackberry Radio Apps
Slacker Radio – Free or $47.88 per year for Slacker Radio Plus (iPod Touch, iPhone and Blackberry)
Features 143 categorized stations of music that you can stream directly through your device. The free service allows you to skip up to 5 songs, before being forced to listen to the entire song. Of course, you can switch the station. Or, you can choose Slacker Radio Plus, which costs $47.88 per year and gives you unlimited skips, unlimited song requests, no ads and complete lyrics.
iHeart Radio - Free (iPod Touch/iPhones and Blackberry)
You’ll have access to stream over 150 stations, the ability to mark favorites and tag songs to purchase later.
Pocket Tunes Radio – $9.99 (iPod Touch, iPhone)
A bit pricy, but powerful. Perhaps the greatest feature is the ability to listen to web-based subscription services, which include XM Radio and Sirius. Bookmark your favorite stations and tag songs you like to purchase via iTunes.
Wunder Radio – $5.99 (iPod Touch, iPhone)
Give you access to over 30,000 radio stations. Use GPS to get a listing of local stations and has a built in web browser. It supports many formats such as mms, ASX, M3U, PLS and more.
Pandora – Free (iPod Touch, iPhone)
Choose a favorite song or artist and Pandora builds a station of similar music. If you use Pandora from your home computer, it is full integrated so you get your existing stations and preferences.
Last FM - Free (iPod Touch and iPhone)
Create your personal radio stations based on artists or tracks you like. This App lets you view Artist information and concert news and updates. Last FM also makes recommendations to you, based on your listening history.
ooTunes Radio – $3.99 (iPhone, iPod Touch)
ooTunes Radio is an internet stream player that supports mp3, aac and wma streams. It currently features approximately 6000 streams. Using the radio mode, you can have access to each radio station’s webpage, check e-mail and chat while your listening, create tags, set favorites and tweet what you’re listening to.
Did I miss any great Radio Apps? What do you think about the XM Sirius merger? Are you currently a subscriber?
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NO thx, none of those look interesting at all, lot of options but no content what so ever, all u can find to listen to is opie and anthony? the worst talk show ever! You have some sorry taste if thats all u can find on sirixm. You are also way way off on the commercial free thing, the music has and always will be commercial free, the talk and news shows have commercials though, always been that way nothing has changed, makes me wonder why you went ahead and misleadingly threw that in there. What is your agenda here?
Hi Mark, thanks for taking the time to read through and post your opinion. Did you try each of the apps listed? Gotta disagree with you about no content. I know Opie and Anthony isn't for everyone, but they have a large, loyal fan-base and I find them quite entertaining. I am tired of hearing the same music on each of the music stations. That's just my opinion.
My agenda is to provide some cheaper and free options for those who can't afford satellite radio or for those who want to save money. Technology has progressed to enable us to have more options and I am sharing some of those options. If it's not for you, that's cool with me. As long as you know these Apps exist in case you ever can no longer afford Satellite Radio.
Okay i can understand that but to me if u can afford the 12.99 a month than u are better off with satrad. I could not imagine having to listen to commercials on a music station anymore. Plus im addicted to quite a few of the uncensored talk show on satrad, the only thing outside of satrad i listen to is adam carrola on podcast. Not to mention live news like cnbc, cnn, fox news, cspan just for starters. I cant go anywhere without cnbc heh
I can also drive anywhere and ever have to worr bout losing my signal or a weak wifi signal on my phone. I would hate to not have satrad, im sure plenty of people can do without but if u go a year with it you will be hooked too. specially if u spend alot of time in the car.
As long as you're getting your moneys worth and can afford it, it's definitely still a good option for all the different niche stations. For me, I can't really afford to keep it, plus I live 5 minutes from my job. At this point it's kind of a waste for me and a big reason why I typically only listen to one station.
I'm definitely not against Satellite radio, but have been a bit frustrated with the increased price to get the other merged companies best of stations. I think they need to decrease their monthly rates to survive, but not sure they can do that without going to far under.
One thing that mistakenly left out, which could be a disadvantage for the mobile devices streaming radio, is the interruptions in service when you are out of the network area. The verizon network is pretty solid, but either Verizon or AT&T's network could be frustrating when traveling.
Thanks again for your input Mark.
Also check out: FlyCast, FineTune, and FStream
FlyCast is loaded with content, but now also with a bunch of ads making it really slow. The not only serve audio but also video. FTune got a few decent stations, but has not advertising. FStream is amazing! You can not only listen to radio with no ads on the app itself, but you can record it too. Not only that, you can also import your own streams from stations you have come across from the net and add it to the app via a web interface. Very, very nice!
I checked each out and agree they are also solid options. Thanks Mark!
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Dang. nice list of streaming radio apps.
Pandora is my favorite. Being free might have something to do with it.
I'm a big Pandora fan myself. I think it's the best overall BlackBerry App. I'm a big fan of free too.
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Great article mate I agree with you
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Thanks Nate. I have to say though, not a fan of being forced to take a
survey before accessing content.
Try http://www.live365.com 0ver 500 stations. You can also start your own streaming station or Pro broadcasting station. Plus does work in your car.:>/
Thanks, I'll be sure to take a look at it.
Regardless of a users choice in stations, the issue here is cost. $12.95 for a month is no big deal, but not if you have more than one XM capable vehicle. In our house, my wife has her vehicle, and that's another $98.00 yearly. Our Honda GoldWing has XM, and that's another $98.00 yearly, even though it's ridden probably 6 months a year. Years ago, I never thought anyone would pay for bottled water, but paying about $350 yearly for 3 vehicles to listen to radio is a bit ridiculous. In addition, when you figure how much "actual" time is used in listening to the radio, vs just having it sit in vehicles that only get used for work, and occasional use, and the per hour listening cost is extremely expensive. A lot of family's who had this in their vehicles no doubt canceled the service when the economy tanked.
What XM needs is a reevaluation of it's pricing plans. They give you a $50/year discount for multiple radios, but that's not enough. They need "smart" radios, and pricing plans that involve listening hours, not yearly based subscriptions. You pay for the time you listen. If you buy a block of 500 hours, that's divided among how ever many radios is listed in your "subscription". If your vehicle sits in your driveway most of the time, you're not burning up your radio subscription time. In our case, if the MC sits in the garage for 6 months, and actual riding time is probably 1 month, that's what you'll pay for.
Very similar to the phone plans used for Netbooks and data usage.
Just my $0.02.
Robert,
Thanks so much for your comments! I have the same situation as you. $300 plus per year is just too expensive with all the free and cheap options available. I've had an audio cable installed in my dashboard (Bestbuy installed) and I use Pandora and my iPod and I'm covered.
I think Sirius kinda screwed themselves with the Howard Stern contract. The business model is bad and I don't think we'll see Satellite Radio after 2 or 3 years. I think they need to decrease their prices, but not sure if they can afford to do so. I think the ship is sinking. Great comments!