Gary JR

Here are the facts but don't let them get in your way, Jr.

SiriusXM Beats 2018 Subscriber Guidance and Issues 2019 Guidance

Jan 08, 2019
Download this Press Release
- Total Paid Subscriber Base Reaches Record-High 34 Million
- Company Expects to Meet or Exceed 2018 Financial Guidance

reacher

Exactly, I don't have the time or energy to do that for 4-6 cars a year. Especially when their programming gets worse and worse and the sound quality blows. The stations I listened to used to be decent, but before I canceled they had removed several stations, the ones that were left played the same exact songs over and over, and sound quality was so bad it wasn't even worth listening to.

Now I just stream music from Google Play Music over Bluetooth or Android Auto, and it's better in every way. I can thumbs down annoying songs, skip songs, and my kids love it too since they can request songs. It's like Netflix vs. cable, I never watch cable anymore, I prefer to be in control and just stream whatever I want to stream when I want it.

MDelaney

I've had Sirius in my cars for a long time, and finally pulled the plug this fall when my 3 months ran out. I also would agree with many here who suggest that SiriusXM business practices and customer service are not customer friendly - if not outright hostile. Cancelling can be a real challenge, billing practices, etc. Nothing about any personal interaction I've had with the people at SiriusXM would make me want to do business with them. They offer a unique product that is baked into cars with no competition and you are only interacting with the company on a limited basis (but those limited interactions are SO BAD).

As the service itself is concerned there are positives and negatives - the positive is the curation and choice of genre, news, sports and comedy channels all in one environment. The ability to add a station as a preset in the car and navigate quickly to other favorite channels is also a plus.

The main negative of the service itself, as delivered through the cars satellite receiver, is that the sound quality is the equivalent of a 96k bitrate stream (which is well below even a lowly MP3 - 150k and much less an Apple AAC feed 256k etc). I don't think you have to have a great ear to hear how bad SiriusXM radio sounds.

So, I've thought about resubscribing, as I've been getting many offers for the "Select" level for 12 months at $5.99 (I see others here are getting better offers). But I think I'm going to stand pat.

The alternative to SiriusXM is the iphone through Apple Carplay and the advantages it offers - with the lightning cable connection (which some see as a negative) you don't have your music put through the SBC bluetooth codec which further degrades sound quality. (A/B test the same song through carplay/lightning connector and then through bluetooth - noticeable difference)

Carplay brings you Apple Music (which has a variety of 'radio' channels), tune-in radio, spotify, Tidal, etc. Additionally, if, like me, you are paying for a data plan for the car, you have access (with no phone) to radio.net, Amazon music, and a few other choices. I've had decent luck finding a lot of choices on the radio.net system - (not all commercial free) The downside is that if you want to listen to station xx on radio.net and then switch to a stream on apple music, hopefully you're at a long stoplight because it is messy. While there are pre-sets inside the Radio.net environment - you can''t set a radio.net station as a preset along with AM/FM/Sirius in your main presets. You are ergonomically better off staying within the carplay ecosystem.

Bottom line, I'm not going to support SiriusXM because of their business practices. As a result I am going to have slightly more hassle finding the stream I want, or a Sports/News station (it's there, but not as easy to find), but overall much higher quality sound for music.

white6speed

Once you cut the cord it is hard to imagine going back. One of the posters mentioned "customer service" which is truly awful and you feel blessed if you get someone that you can understand. In the earlier days I can recall being on the phone for 45 minutes or more to work through a connection issue. I think the analysts in the financial report mentioned 1M self paid subscribers. Based on how old they are now that does not sound too impressive considering the multi-millions of cars they started with. And i can remember paying Porsche $800 just for the radio option. They do suck.

Gary JR

Half have financial challenges half are whiners. simple as that.

white6speed

Do you work for XM or at least you are an investor.

DBH

Nah. He's just an old contrarian.

white6speed

Makes sense now.

Gary JR

Investor worth a few billion.

marchitect

No, that was the "All IN" price including fees and taxes. I just said: "If you have a published plan for $35.66 for 6 months "All IN" why can't I get a full year for $71.32? And they said they would do it. But in the end they were a few cents more which I didn't care about.

marchitect

That was the "All IN" price. I didn't ask to pay with a check. See my last post and the wording I used.

Gary JR

Ok more like $6/month. Got it. Excellent deal.

Bxstr

$30 for 6 months. Just call and cancel before it is due, mark it on your calendar. Tell them you want to cancel unless you can get the $30 for 6 month deal. They will do it.

However, this time, I am considering not putting Sirius back in it. Probably just going to buy a wireless bluetooth adapter from Tune2Air and use my Apple Music Subscription. I drive my 911 1-2x a week, and I only keep it active during summer months. So it doesn't make much sense to even have it at all.

DBH

The last time I "negotiated" with them, they agreed to do 12 months at 2x the 6 month deal. However, they required that I use credit card. That was a deal breaker for me. So I went with 6 months and paid by check.

Gary JR

And you paid an extra service charge for check while I use a CC with a few % back.