1. Had XM - Happy with changes - 12 VOTES (32% of XM subs)
2. Had XM - Unhappy with changes - 25 VOTES (67% of XM subs)

3. Had Sirius - Happy with changes - 3 VOTES (18% of Sirius subs)
4. Had Sirius - Unhappy with changes - 13 VOTES (81% of Sirius subs)

5. What changes? - 1 VOTE
6. I'm new - I didn't subscribe to either prior to now. - 3 VOTES

I've had xm for over 6 years.

But so far I have to say the jury is still out.

I don't know yet. I plan on giving this until after the 1st of the year, then make a decision.

Had Sirius - Unhappy with changes but ill wait to hear boneyard. (i miss the vault)deep tracks sucks.
although im not going anywhere. fm radio truly blows and im not about to to put my ipod in my car.

I choose 4.

Had Sirius hate every change.

#2

EXTREMELY PISSED OFF!!! I had XM and they completely gutted all of my favorite channels (except BoneYard...).

The problem isn't so much "they replaced this with that". The problem is that with many of the genres (punk etc), they removed BOTH channels. WTF were they thinking?!?!?! It seems Mel wants to turn Sat Radio into a very Vanilla industry, I can just put up a big FM Aerial if I wanted that...

Had Sirius, don't like the changes.

The Vault was my favorite, Deep Tracks sucks hard.

2nd fav was Buzzsaw.

Another favorite was Lithium. So far so good but they did play a Seal song the other day. May be the death bell for that one too.:(

I used to listen to XM Chill, Audiovisions, Lucy, Top Tracks, etc. Since the change I have not found a station I can listen to for more than a half an hour without wanting to change the channel. It's more like pay FM than satellite radio. Looks like I will go back to an iPod after my current sat radio dies.

Have had XM for 4 years and so far am not happy with the changes. Dislikes are:
1) Song repetition (heard one song 3 times in 3 days)
2) DJ chatter, XM had what I thought was the right balance
3) Misclassification of music in particular genres (sorry, but Police “Synchronicity” is not alternative music)
4) All these things give the platform a very FM top 40 feel.

My assesment is based on limited listening to: 1st Wave, Litium, 70s, 80s & Classic Vinyl

i dont mind the changes.... it had to be done

I have XM and all the channels I used to listen to are crap now.

Lucy, BPM, Squizz have all been changed to something not nearly as good. BPM is the biggest surprise since they made the cut but looks like Sirius is telling them what to play now.

Had XM - Unhappy with the changes.

Changes to Lucy, Fred and Ethel were deeply felt. The elimination of music categories like Punk and Ska were not appreciated, and after listenting to Faction, I can state that it isn't even close to a replacement or gap-filler. Stations like Spa don't scratch the itch that Fine Tuning did. Gained a couple of stations that aren't bad, but we are now listening very closely to see what happens, with our current discussions being whether the quit one receiver or discontinue ALL of our subscriptions entirely.

#4 So far I'm not liking the changes.

How about posting a real poll and not a thread?

Squizz to Octane was liveable.

But I agree that the changes to Lucy and Ethel (my wife's previous favorite) suck hard.

I'm happy with the changes......getting the Dead/Springsteen channels was worth it imho.

4. Loss of the Vault is the last straw for me.

#4 vote for me.

The problem isn't so much "they replaced this with that". The problem is that with many of the genres (punk etc), they removed BOTH channels. WTF were they thinking?!?!?! It seems Mel wants to turn Sat Radio into a very Vanilla industry, I can just put up a big FM Aerial if I wanted that...

What he said... I've had Sirius since '05 and LOVED it up until last week. Gone are Boombox, Strobe and Backspin, all stations I listened to. They have NO replacements. They even dumped the XM versions :mad: I can understand some of the changes (like the duplicated decade channels) but having only TWO rap stations? and THREE dance choices?

I've been listening to http://www.slacker.com/ alot recently and suddenly their G2 player is looking like an excellent alternative. I can't go back to FM, its horrible mess and the reason I got Sirius in the first place.

Answer is #1

Have XM since March of this year. Then purchased Xpress RC in July for the car and brought the new boom box just 2 weeks ago(for the shower). I find the changes a plus!

4, its getting worse.

So far #1 for us.

As long as MLB is the same in the Spring, and they have the usual jazz, talk radio, blues, and Christian music that they've always had (and so far it's been OK) then we're sticking with XM. The reason we really wanted it in the first place was to listen to the baseball games...all the rest is just extra for us. ;)

DGK

I was a dual sub and I'm not at all happy, in fact I'm damn pissed off. So pissed that I dropped both Sirius subs I had and dropped two of the three XM subs I had. Everything from the channels(dropping Beyond Jazz was unforgiveable) , to the programming(narrower playlists) , to the now mirrored channels on both services, to the almost unlistenable (at times, or just bad at best ) SQ.

#1
mostly xl comedy and talk in the car not to mention channel 41 (hair!)
awesome addition.

real music gets listened to on the real system on real gear at home...

3. Had Sirius - Happy with changes

I just wish they'd update the logos on the stiletto.

Have had XM for 4 years and so far am not happy with the changes. Dislikes are:
1) Song repetition (heard one song 3 times in 3 days)
2) DJ chatter, XM had what I thought was the right balance
3) Misclassification of music in particular genres (sorry, but Police “Synchronicity” is not alternative music)
4) All these things give the platform a very FM top 40 feel.

My assesment is based on limited listening to: 1st Wave, Litium, 70s, 80s & Classic Vinyl


Those are my BIGGEST complaints. I heard Coldplay on Octane the other day...the hard rock station. Squizz wasn't a GREAT station by any means by Coldplay?! Alt Nation is just terrible compared to Ethel and Lucy was 10x better than Lithium. The thing I loved most about XM is they never "fell in love" with certain artists. ALL I HEAR on Alt Nation and Lithium is Green Day and Pearl Jam! I like PJ and OLD GD is ok but man, relax on the play time.

#2 Here.

My biggest complaint is that the new compression SUCKS!!! Is that was Sirius sounded like all this time? Not that XM was known for the hifi sound, but now it is noticeably worse. Add to it that they raped Ethel and Lucy I'm going to have a hard time justifying my $77 per year rate, which is really sad for them since the actual rate is twice that amount. If they think that people are going to pay for even higher tiers of programming then they are out of their minds.

#2
It's all been said but I think especially Octane and Alt Nation suck. At least they didn't screw with Liquid Metal. If it weren't for some talk programming I really enjoy, I'd have canceled my subscription by now.

Those are my BIGGEST complaints. I heard Coldplay on Octane the other day...the hard rock station. Squizz wasn't a GREAT station by any means by Coldplay?! Alt Nation is just terrible compared to Ethel and Lucy was 10x better than Lithium. The thing I loved most about XM is they never "fell in love" with certain artists. ALL I HEAR on Alt Nation and Lithium is Green Day and Pearl Jam! I like PJ and OLD GD is ok but man, relax on the play time.

I'm with you on the repetition of certain artists, 1st Wave might as well be renamed the U2 channel.

3.

sirius- fine with changes so far.

2. Hate the changes, especially loss of Beyond Jazz. May drop subscription

Pretty thrilled - I almost dumped XM for SIrius to get Siriusly Sinatra, and now "High Standards" is gone, replaced with SS. Way cool.

It's depressing we only get Holly this year; I miss the "Traditional" channel.

2.

i'm dropping it when my subscription dies.

Have XM, I am bummed squizz is gone. However now having the best of Sirius I am happy to now get all the sports as I am a big nfl fan. I seem to listen to talk radio with XM mostly and radio with my ipod.

I have SIRIUS, 100% NOT HAPPY.

Will drop both subscriptions when they expire.

I expect that Sat radio will eventually go away as we know it, and be replaced by a new emerging company, after XM /SIRIUS lose all their subscribers over this mismanagement and customer betrayal.

I'm guessing after the company goes bust and gets bought out by Directv/Echostar or Clear Channel/CBS radio, we will lose out lifetime subscriptions too.

#4. Don't like the changes. Seems like daily they put some other bad channel on the radio.

My wife and I fall into the Classical Music lovers category and she is most upset that VOX is gone, and we are both highly annoyed about the overall sound quality which has made the remaining classical stations nearly impossible to listen too on a decent home system.

At this point streaming internet radio sounds significantly better, which in the scheme of things is sort of sad.

#4

#2

6. Not paying for radio...period!

6. Not paying for radio...period!I would've. I was going to get the a la carte when it came out, because I was familiar with Sirius' music channels from having them in the past with Dish, and I wanted the MLB too, but not now, because they ditched the music channel I wanted most.

So I guess it's #4 for me, since I did subscribe to their partial service before in a way (all I would've wanted back then was just the music channels anyway).

With some exceptions I think the upgrade is a big plus. I will continue to subscribe.

6. Not paying for radio...period!You do understand you're in the XM / Sirius section of the forum.:rolleyes:

I only listened on Directv until after the merger...was afraid to buy a radio for the car and having it become a brick like my Betamax :)

Just bought a XpressRC and a second car kit. I really like the REWIND and BBC1 channels. Subscribed to the "mostly music" tier, and an overall very satisfied. Use it about 400 miles a day on my routes around the state (many in the mountains where your lucky to get a non-country fm station, and then in my car on the drive home. Im overall very happy with it...my mp3s were getting redundant.

I can see how losing a favorite channel would piss people off, however. Im sure if there is enough demand and cancellations, they will adjust things.

#1!!! I love it. Lucy = Lithium, and I get Margaritaville!

#4

I love listening to Octane on the weekends, last Saturday nite I felt like smashing my radio. Bad change.(same name,different playlist)

#2 (More like disappointed with, rather than hate the change)

I'm still searching for channel alternatives so I'll give it more time. At any rate, I'm glad I already dropped the Sub on my Portable (and will go for an Ipod or Zune for that use) but will keep my car Sub for another year to see how it goes.

So far:
- Miss Fred, not happy with the "alternatives" yet.
- Need to do too much surfing to stay interested with the new over sliced and diced Rock selections. I get the cynical feeling that Sirius is trying to force more ala carte sales. LOL
- Latin selection totally gutted down to 1 channel (that doesn't even make for a reliable party mix), hope they fix this!
- Very happy that The Joint survived!
- So far so good with Decades and Jazz program changes.

The merger was absolutely oversold and over hyped IMO, as a subscriber I'm not feeling the love! Thank god I wasn't an investor!!!

Even without the programming changes, I'd still want to cancel just based on the further drop in sound quality.

I'm also rather disappointed in the changes. Many of my favorites gone without alternates. Like others the jury is still out though canceling a dual XM subscription is certainly a possibility. This is supposed to make them profitable how?

I'm also rather disappointed in the changes. Many of my favorites gone without alternates. Like others the jury is still out though canceling a dual XM subscription is certainly a possibility. This is supposed to make them profitable how?

Reduced costs. Reducing duplicate channels. Reducing personal.

It's definitely going to reduce their cost. The question is will it be enough?

They are in so much debt already I don't know if this will be enough. But I guess they have to try.

But if they lose subscribers who don't find what they're looking for in the new lineup at a faster rate are they becoming more profitable? Since this thread wasn't set up as a poll it's not tabulated but a quick read through makes it appear that most are dissatisfied. Seems like not enough subscribers was the big issue with profitability to start with.

Don't get me wrong. I want satellite to succeed. But if they try and get there by reducing options in the same fashion as terrestrial radio for me it's a failure.

But if they lose subscribers who don't find what they're looking for in the new lineup at a faster rate are they becoming more profitable? Since this thread wasn't set up as a poll it's not tabulated but a quick read through makes it appear that most are dissatisfied. Seems like not enough subscribers was the big issue with profitability to start with.

Don't get me wrong. I want satellite to succeed. But if they try and get there by reducing options in the same fashion as terrestrial radio for me it's a failure.


I hear you and I'm not happy with all the changes either.

BUT they are 3 billion in debt, they owe 1 billion in 2009. They'll never be able to pay that which means they have to borrow more and/or get their banks to allow them to push back paying these loans. They have to show their creditors and banks something. They couldn't still have duplicate personal and channels. They had to show these banks they are cutting back and trying to save some money. If they didn't they wouldn't have a chance of getting new loans.

Stations like Spa don't scratch the itch that Fine Tuning did.....Miss this one a lot. Was great to just turn on Fine TUning and relax.

I think we will get more Christmas music starting Friday after Thanksgiving.
At least that is what a DJ said yesterday. He stated that HOlly was for those who could not wait, but the rest would arrive after Thanksgiving.

Hope so....I love variety.

So far I am not unhappy to the point of cancelling, but I do see a lot more songs getting played more often AND on multiple channels. I hate trying to skip Maroon 5 for the 8th repeat only to find two other stations playing the same song.

Grrrrrrrrr

I hear you and I'm not happy with all the changes either.

BUT they are 3 billion in debt, they owe 1 billion in 2009. They'll never be able to pay that which means they have to borrow more and/or get their banks to allow them to push back paying these loans. They have to show their creditors and banks something. They couldn't still have duplicate personal and channels. They had to show these banks they are cutting back and trying to save some money. If they didn't they wouldn't have a chance of getting new loans.

I get what you're saying...and I certainly didn't expect there to be no changes or only changes that I'd like. Unfortunately, it sounds like they've managed to alienate a good chunk of both of their client-bases. That debt certainly isn't going to get paid off if they bleed customers. And it seems that they were very arbitrary in their selections of what to reduce or eliminate. Classic Vinyl and Classic Rewind, for example, seem to cover a lot of the same ground and probably could have been reduced to one channel, allowing them to retain something like a station for Punk, which was eliminated in favor of AC/DC radio.

From what I'm hearing, a customer's level of satisfaction has a lot to do with what stations they listened to. Most people who listened to Fred, Ethel and Lucy are far less happy than someone who primarily enjoys the Decades channels, for instance.

I would say #2. The channels I listened to daily for hours on end, mainly Squizz, Lucy, XM Chill, The System, and even Ethel were all replaced by less competent substitutes. The DJ's are way too chatty about things not even related to music, and the feel of the channels is much more like FM than the irreverent (and cool) feel that XM had.

I will keep my car subscription for Octane (somewhat), Cinemagic (if it does come back), ESPN Radio, Home Ice (and play by play), America Left, CNN, XMPR, and NPR.

I've cancelled my Inno in favor of my iPhone (Pandora, Last.fm, AOL Radio, iTunes Radio). December 25th will tell if I get a Slacker G2 or not. :D

2.
Our listening is all over the place from Fred to the Loft to Classical, but whats on most of the time was High Standards. Siriusly Sinatra is just not a replacement, it concentrates way too much on Sinatra and his buddies rather than a more general "Great American Songbook" approach. Frank is fine in moderation but this is way too much. Jonathan Swartz' daily show is fine, but thats only 12-3.
1st wave is also not a replacement for Fred, which had a much deeper playlist.

Ok so I'm an old fart, but I really like America for the older country songs and I liked XM's 50. America was replaced with Roadhouse which is more talk and less songs and the songs they play aren't as good of a selection as America. In fact with all the talk, I might as well be listening to regular radio. As for XM 5 the 50's station, yes the play all the best of early rock and roll, but they also completley ignore any of the songs previous to the rock and roll era. I enjoyed hearing these older 50's songs, that I remember from hearing from my childhood. They brought back nice memories. Now they are gone, only to hear the best of the 50's Rock and Roll, which I already have 90% of.

I probably won't be renewing XM when it comes time. I have a 6 cd/mp3 player in my truck radio, and I can get 200+ mp3 songs on a CD, so I'll just listen to the music I like and won't have to people talking.

#2
This is just plain awful
I cancelled my second radio on 11/24,I should have just canceled my account entirely.
Top and Big tracks were great,Their replacements classic vynal/rewind sound like cucca and thats being nice:D Now they have Dj's on these channels now.
I miss Chrome sirius has No replacement for this one.
The overall sound quality is now terrible sound like fringe area FM reception. I wonder if in some metro areas they start tuning(TERESSTIAL) repeaters off,creating even more problems as leases on towers get cancelled.
I see this compant going Belly upby the end of 2009

I've had XM Online only for a couple of years now. Am I imagining it or has the audio quality dropped off some since the change? Sounds a bit muffled at lower volume. I never had that problem with XM.

I've had XM for about 6 months or so, and overall I'm pretty happy with the changes, but not completely thrilled. I like the addition of Jay Thomas and some of the other talk shows (I listen mainly to talk radio while in the car), but am also starting to listen to the various music channels a bit more. Loving Hair Nation, Siriusly Sinatra, and my wife and daughter love the 2 christmas channels.

#2.

The loss of Audio Visions is HUGE for me and believe it or not, some of the new Channels lack reception here in Montreal. I was one of the first 100 clients here in Canada and I am seriously thinking about cancelling the service right now.

I was always happy with Sirius. Purchased a car with XM radio forcing me to purchase an XM subscription. I was not happy with XM's Channels. ( i listen to clasic rock, 60's 70's 80's)

I am very happy most of those channels have moved over from Sirius.

Those are my BIGGEST complaints. I heard Coldplay on Octane the other day...the hard rock station. Squizz wasn't a GREAT station by any means by Coldplay?! Alt Nation is just terrible compared to Ethel and Lucy was 10x better than Lithium. The thing I loved most about XM is they never "fell in love" with certain artists. ALL I HEAR on Alt Nation and Lithium is Green Day and Pearl Jam! I like PJ and OLD GD is ok but man, relax on the play time.

I call you on this. Octane would *never* play Coldplay. I will admit I was pissed when they got rid of Squizz but the 2 main DJs from Squizz have moved over to Octane and it does have a very similar playlist.

Longtime XM subscriber now extremely unhappy with the new line-up. My favorite stations are either gone or gutted, and they were XM Comedy 150 and America. The replacement channels suck compared to what we had. I'm not ready to cancel, because FM is just unlistenable, but I'm not happy.

Had Xm - let subscription expire. F--get it! I'm not paying for this crap. I can listen to my ipod and not hear as many songs repeat.

"4. Had Sirius - Unhappy with changes"

Is it me, but has the playlists sucked since the merger?

Yesterday, for the first time in my 3 years since I've had Sirius, I actually listened to a local FM station for the whole day.

Jury is still out. This merger had best not lead to "generic programming" found with any FM station. XM, over the years, was gradually heading in that direction.

I was listening to the CD channels on Dish last night, and I swear, these are not that much better for the amount of money you're paying (especially with the sound quality being about equal now - it didn't used to be that way).

Same thing with some of the subchannels on HD radio.

#2. Emphasis on the had part. I cancelled the day they killed Fungus. I took the free three months and bought an iPod the week after the Sox were eliminated from the playoffs. Other stations I listened to were completely gutted in the mid-November changes. My wife still subscribes to Sirius but hasn't listened much since we just had a baby and she isn't driving to work daily. I know she was very upset to find Backspin gone.

4. Had Sirius Not Happy

After they censored my Hip Hop stations and messed with the electronic music, I went back to my iPod. I still listen to the playboy morning show if I'm on the road at that time, but other than that I've given up on it. Luckily my sub is up in Dec, and I won't be resubscribing. I originally had a year free with my Truck, and then I resubbed becuase it was great, guess they lost a customer from me.

My biggest problem is there was no notification of what was going to happen, even Comcast sends me a letter at least a month in advance of changes. Who's to say they don't drop more unexpected changes on us again? Not a good way to build customer loyalty.

1 Had XM -- happy with changes

Well, I'm delighted with the addition of Metropolitan Opera Radio to the XM line-up -- it's much better than Vox ever was. I'm not as fond of the XM classical and opera "DJs", but Symphony Hall is not too bad (as compared with XM Classical.) I don't think Spa is half-bad. I certainly don't mind the reduction of Mexican pop stations, and I like BBC Radio One. On the sports side, they still have college sports and baseball, so that's great. On the talk side, I think they've beefed up their offering -- I like World Radio Network and NPR Now (in addition to XM Sirius Public Radio.) And I think the dedicated stations (Frank Sinatra, Grateful Dead, Elvis, Jimmy Buffet, Bruce Springsteen) are a blast.

I am missing one station, Beyond Jazz, but all-in-all, I think it was an improvement in service.

Where I live, radio reception is lousy (and even if it were good, the selection of programming is often poor), so I am really hoping Sirius XM makes it through their debt problem in 2009 ($1 billion) and beyond ($3.4 billion). I am afraid they'll probably file for bankruptcy.

Our listening is all over the place from Fred to the Loft to Classical, but whats on most of the time was High Standards. Siriusly Sinatra is just not a replacement, it concentrates way too much on Sinatra and his buddies rather than a more general "Great American Songbook" approach. Frank is fine in moderation but this is way too much. Jonathan Swartz' daily show is fine, but thats only 12-3.
Glad to hear someone else say that since I have seen many posts here and on the XM fan site praising the change to Siriusly (Excessive) Sinatra. I agree with you, I liked High Standards much better. I like some of Frank Sinatra's music, but I always prefer variety over playing the same artist or songs over and over. At least they kept Jonathan Swartz which is the only time I listen to the channel for more than a song or two.

Put me down for #2
I was a Sirius subscriber for years. I liked them at first but over time did not like the changes they made, one of which was changing "Standard Time" (their original standard channel which was more like High Standards) to "Siriusly Sinatra". They also eliminated "The Stobe" disco station and "Lime" talk channel which my wife liked. They seemed to settle in to limited playlists on all the music stations I listened to and I found myself listening more and more to Comedy. Maybe they spent too much money for Howard and couldn't afford good/varied music programming anymore. About 6 months ago I got a new car and switched to XM and loved it, especially Fine Tuning which had no equivalent on Sirius. All the channels seemed to have better and deeper playlists. Now they have made the same changes to XM that drove me to switch from Sirius. Very annoying. Not too surprising I guess since Sirius management took over. If they thought it was a good business model for Sirius, why not XM. They may be right as far as running a business, but it is sad to see the great XM music programming go away.

#4

All of the stations I listen to except for NFL were either cancelled or changed. I can't stand the changes at all the music selection now is terrible. My wife likes the new dance music played but since the remaining active Sirius receiver is in my car I cancelled my subscription. The good thing is that my 2 year automatic renewal came up only one month prior.

What's really eye opening for me is the amount of Sirius subs who are unhappy. By all accounts the music channels, even the ones that kept their XM branding have been "Siriius-ized" = tighter playlists with more repetition. But at the same time they may have been opened up just enough to have alienated the core hits-only audience that Sirius went after.

Another real downer is the loss of Special X-Mas. This would have been a real treat for Sirius listeners and its PD has been kept on (Lou Brutus). But while he's been kept on his babies have been slaughtered (Fungus, Special X-Mas) and he's programming XM Led and AC/DC. Why waste talent like that?

Does anyone listen to the all Elvis, Led Zep, AC/DC, Bruce, etc channels? They seem like the biggest waste of bandwith, ever. Use those channels to bring back some of the channels that people ar bitching about?

#2 (and also #4 I listened to Sirius on dish sometimes)
It seems like they got rid of the best of both of the stations. I really miss the system, the area is fine but if I chose from trance/electronica that I have on my computer (I have a lot), I couldn't find a better selection.
EDIT: I am also unhappy with all of the DJs talking all of the time now.
EDIT #2: Why did they add those channels that only have one band, that is ridiculous, they could put a channel that has a variety of music.

As a whole, I found enough fault with either service's playlists that I never wanted to subscribe to them as they were. What I really wanted was to pick and choose from among all of them with the a la carte option when that and the new radios became available. I wanted a selection of the music channels, and possibly MLB.

But that's out now, because the one Sirius music channel I absolutely had to have that would make it worth it to me is now gone.

And not that I listened to it all the time, but at least one Punk channel would be nice.

Also, I agree - get rid of each and every one of those "dedicated artist" channels. Who the he!! wants to listen to just one artist all day long, or even just for hours at a time? Especially when they're such popular artists that you hear them all the time everywhere else already? (And you talk about repetition - if that ain't a recipe for it, I don't know what is.)

Does anyone listen to the all Elvis, Led Zep, AC/DC, Bruce, etc channels? They seem like the biggest waste of bandwith, ever. Use those channels to bring back some of the channels that people ar bitching about?


I listen to the Zep channel....

Also, I should mention that degrading the sound quality to worse than it already was puts it out of the picture for me anyway.

#4 - Had Sirius and UNHAPPY with changes

They eliminated almost everything i consistently listened to, starting with the Punk channel. How can you take away an entire genre of music. Faction should be renamed the Jason Ellis channel, and they don't play punk anyway (not enough to matter). This is ridiculous. I'll probably cancel by Jan 1st if things don't improve.

There's some good & some bad.

I miss Lucy & Ethel.
Lithium, Alt Nation & Octane are okay, not better.

I like Soul Town, & Jam On.

I really hate what they've done to POTUS. It was one of the reasons I subscribed. The new hosts they've added are obnoxious. Knowing it was originally scheduled to end after the election makes it a little easier to stomach.

I really like the NPR Times channel. This makes up for a lot of the changes I didn't like.

I could do away with all of the dedicated artist channels. If I like them that much, I probably already have their music.

I know nothing about their 2 systems & compatibility, but I really hope they can find a way to boost their sound quality now that they have 2 satellites worth of bandwidth.

4. Had Sirius - EXTREMELY Unhappy with changes

A) ***ARTIST SCAN DOES NOT WORK ON tens of thousands of SIRIUS radios on all XM converted channels: This applies to Sportster 4, Starmate, Sportster 2 and who knows how many more. Their customer service sucks. You telthem you get the "Artist Unavailable" error and the scan doesnt work and they tell you to reset your radio. This is a KNOWN ISSUE and is corroborated by numerous forums and boards, yet they act like they've never heard of it. Not only do they alienate PAYING users by buying the competition, but they dont even stand behind their own hardware**** I called their customer service 3 times to complain, they promised a supervisor will call back, and they dont. I want them to credit my account since the XM switch and buy me a new radio that actually scans the artists like its supposed to. We should file a class-action suit against them and antitrust for buying the only competition. I own over $500 of Sirius equipment and I am so displeased.

B) Decade channels no longer state Year song was recorded

C) 80's channel is no longer 80's pop/top 100 but any garbage that came out in the 80's from any genre. its like they forgot that 1980-1984 ever happened

D) NO NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES - give us a chance to "try before we buy" and drop them if we hate what they did with XM replacements. DUH - Let the audience VOTE on which station should win, don't just make Senior Mgmt decisions for a service that people pay for

E) Terrible customer service, terrible PR, and dumb management decisions.

Can we get a REAL poll to Sirius XM so the thousands of unhappy subscribers can sign a petition/vote/ show them how unhappy we are? How can we get them to make meaningful changes. I used to love sirius and now am so tempted to drop them.

(does anyone like HDradio?)

Thanks for letting me rant.

(does anyone like HDradio?)If they'd use less compression and boost the power, some of the subchannels aren't that bad. I mean, for free, anyway.

Cutting down the commercials would help on the main channels, too - but being free, I guess that's an unreasonable expectation.

So I guess the answer is, in it's present state, no.

The quality needs to be improved or I am cancelling.

Pretty thrilled - I almost dumped XM for SIrius to get Siriusly Sinatra, and now "High Standards" is gone, replaced with SS. Way cool.

It's depressing we only get Holly this year; I miss the "Traditional" channel.

I completely agree on Sinatra! Standards was horrible! It played mostly women, then instrumental and occassionally some good crooner. I like the songbook idea, but please let's stick to the greats! Traditional is on 36.

#2

The playlists have been reduced and sound quality is down. I agreed with the merger for survival, but some really dumb decisions have been made:
1) Gutting better music stations
2) Adding in personnel to talk on air (how does this save $$$?)
3) Decreasing sound quality
4) Surprise! Your service has changed
5) Reducing playlists
6) Thinking the wrong bottom line. What does that mean? Well pinching pennies will lose dollars. It's about revenue generation and they won't be doing that by being stingy.

They did not take a best of breed approach here. A simple measure would have been to see which same-same stations had the highest number of listeners and pick that winner. A majority of the people on XM chose it for the music. Most of the people who chose Sirius did not go for the playlists. Best of breed would have been best music with best talk and bam: better product. The current format will alienate and fail to discriminate itself from regular radio. The only saving graces are sports, a few niche stations, poor FM signal in some areas, and the fact that FM sucks so bad. Should be that their offering is SO good. They don't get it. Wrong bottom line!

#2

The playlists have been reduced and sound quality is down. I agreed with the merger for survival, but some really dumb decisions have been made:
1) Gutting better music stations
2) Adding in personnel to talk on air (how does this save $$$?)
3) Decreasing sound quality
4) Surprise! Your service has changed
5) Reducing playlists
6) Thinking the wrong bottom line. What does that mean? Well pinching pennies will lose dollars. It's about revenue generation and they won't be doing that by being stingy.

They did not take a best of breed approach here. A simple measure would have been to see which same-same stations had the highest number of listeners and pick that winner. A majority of the people on XM chose it for the music. Most of the people who chose Sirius did not go for the playlists. Best of breed would have been best music with best talk and bam: better product. The current format will alienate and fail to discriminate itself from regular radio. The only saving graces are sports, a few niche stations, poor FM signal in some areas, and the fact that FM sucks so bad. Should be that their offering is SO good. They don't get it. Wrong bottom line!


Thanks for telling ME why i picked sirius.

Thanks for telling ME why i picked sirius.
Because of Howie, right?

Have XM, unhappy with changes. Have let them know how unhappy I am. I have e-mailed them about 4 to 5 times about the changes. I have yet to receive any response from them. A few of these were even before the official merge. Really bad. Decembers here, renew time, maybe not......

Because of Howie, right?


correct.... me and about 3 million other people.;)

correct.... me and about 3 million other people.;)

Okay, so assuming that information is correct. If you were the managment team at Sirius, knowing that a large portion of your audience did not subscribe due to your "fantastic" music programing yet the other company in the merger had more total subscribers, a large portion of which, did subscribe due to the music programming, how would you choose what music programming model to follow? (holy run-on sentence, Batman)

Okay, so assuming that information is correct. If you were the managment team at Sirius, knowing that a large portion of your audience did not subscribe due to your "fantastic" music programing yet the other company in the merger had more total subscribers, a large portion of which, did subscribe due to the music programming, how would you choose what music programming model to follow? (holy run-on sentence, Batman)

Because it was a takeover instead of a merger.

Okay, so assuming that information is correct. If you were the managment team at Sirius, knowing that a large portion of your audience did not subscribe due to your "fantastic" music programing yet the other company in the merger had more total subscribers, a large portion of which, did subscribe due to the music programming, how would you choose what music programming model to follow? (holy run-on sentence, Batman)

It was more of a takeover, with elements of merger. But, their total lack of planning on this demonstrates the whole problem with theses companies. Ego has gotten in the way, and those Sirius execs "know" they have a superior format. Despite fewer people, poorer selections, poorer sound quality, etc, etc, etc.

Mercury--you're welcome! ;) See, it wasn't the music, further corroborating my point.

Because it was a takeover instead of a merger.Been argued before, merger vs takeover, but whatever the case may be, wouldn't you think that the "great business mind" of Mel would require that those working for him had a plan in place to make sure that the majority of their customers that subscribe for music programming ended up with programing based off what led people to subscribe in the first place.

Yeah, it does seem a little strange. We've read over and over how most of Sirius subs signed up because of Stern and the NFL, yet many of the new music channels seem to be following the Sirius type of programming.

You would think they would try to follow the XM example instead.

I had XM.

I like some of the changes and dislike others. So far, I say I dislike more than I like, but not enough to cancel.

Okay, so assuming that information is correct. If you were the managment team at Sirius, knowing that a large portion of your audience did not subscribe due to your "fantastic" music programing yet the other company in the merger had more total subscribers, a large portion of which, did subscribe due to the music programming, how would you choose what music programming model to follow? (holy run-on sentence, Batman)



so wait,

a few thousand un-happy people on the internet dont like the changes and this means what? what about the other 18 million people? do they not like the changes also. or do they not give a ****.

also-

it seems to me sirius people hate XM's music just as XM's people hate sirius music. deeptracks is dogshit compared to the vault.

of Mel would require that those working for him had a plan in place to make sure that the majority of their customers that subscribe for music programming ended up with programing based off what led people to subscribe in the first place.


pat who says xm's music programs are better then sirius???

Mercury, first of all your dislike of Deeptracks is undesrstood and supports my point. They took one channel from XM and said that it was a substitute for one from Sirius when it wasn't. Obviuously, The Vault was a little more aimed at the "not too far from top 40" crowd and Deeptracks was not. My point on XM vs Sirius programing is that they should look to why people subscribed to each service. Sirius had many subs that were tied to Howie that will stick around regardless of the music. XM's subs were probably more evenly distributed between music, talk, sports, news, etc. but if you were to take a look at the number of subs that were there for the music for each service it would give you a pretty good idea of which music platform to model the new channels after.

Mercury, first of all your dislike of Deeptracks is undesrstood and supports my point. They took one channel from XM and said that it was a substitute for one from Sirius when it wasn't. Obviuously, The Vault was a little more aimed at the "not too far from top 40" crowd and Deeptracks was not. My point on XM vs Sirius programing is that they should look to why people subscribed to each service. Sirius had many subs that were tied to Howie that will stick around regardless of the music. XM's subs were probably more evenly distributed between music, talk, sports, news, etc. but if you were to take a look at the number of subs that were there for the music for each service it would give you a pretty good idea of which music platform to model the new channels after.

pat the "not too far from top 40" crowd as you say probably makes up for 70+% of music listeners on satrad. so your argument makes no sense.

pat the "not too far from top 40" crowd as you say probably makes up for 70+% of music listeners on satrad. so your argument makes no sense.
I would think that on sat radio, that number would be much lower due to the fact that it attracts those who are looking for something more than FM. Other than the Vault vs Deeptrack gripe you have, where are you going with this? Is it your position that song repittion, heavily favoring certain bands, sticking to the songs played on regular FM and annoying DJs talking over the music is a good thing?

pat the "not too far from top 40" crowd as you say probably makes up for 70+% of music listeners on satrad. so your argument makes no sense.
Maybe for Sirius. But you need to understand that the two services were marketed in very different ways and that XM music programming was to be the antithesis to the stale FM programming model of the past 20 something years - pioneered by the very guy that pioneered the modern model of FM programming.

The "evidence" that it was the more successful programming decision is that before Howard Stern XM was killing Sirius in subscribers and even with Howard Stern they managed to hold a very slim subscriber advantage, and that's allowing for Sirius's heavily debatable "subscriber" formula which counted unpurchased cars sitting in dealer lots.

Deal with it. Former Sirius subscribers are just as unhappy for their own reasons, and have every bit as much right to be. We're all in this together now.

Fighting with each other isn't going to accomplish anything. Do you realize how bad that makes you look?

Direct your anger where it should be directed - at Sirius/XM.

Merc, buddy, pal...You've argued here for YEARS the only thing that saved Sirius was Stern's. Hell, we've had some Stern fans here flat out say all 8 million Sirius subs signed up because of Stern.( not you, but other posters)

Now you're making it sound like Sirius's success is due to their music.

There's no doubt XM put more work and homework into their music programming. That's NOT a knock on Sirius, but their philosophy of playing the hits is an easier type of program. And I'm also NOT talking about every single channel, but it was no secret across the board XM music programming was deeper.

Deal with it. Former Sirius subscribers are just as unhappy for their own reasons, and have every bit as much right to be. We're all in this together now.

Fighting with each other isn't going to accomplish anything. Do you realize how bad that makes you look?

Direct your anger where it should be directed - at Sirius/XM.

No one is fighting, just having a discussion. Chill out;)

Merc, buddy, pal...You've argued here for YEARS the only thing that saved Sirius was Stern's. Hell, we've had some Stern fans here flat out say all 8 million Sirius subs signed up because of Stern.( not you, but other posters)

Now you're making it sound like Sirius's success is due to their music.

There's no doubt XM put more work and homework into their music programming. That's NOT a knock on Sirius, but their philosophy of playing the hits is an easier type of program. And I'm also NOT talking about every single channel, but it was no secret across the board XM music programming was deeper.


barb..... Im in the camp that deeper is not necessarily better. and lets remember sirius was catching xm at almost 2-1.

its all about marketing, marketing, marketing!!!!

barb..... Im in the camp that deeper is not necessarily better. and lets remember sirius was catching xm at almost 2-1.

its all about marketing, marketing, marketing!!!!

Merc. That's cool, I'm sure many people are in that camp. No problem, to each his own.

BUT again it would seem XM has more invested in the music, not Stern, not NFL, not NASCAR. But music so I don't think it's too far fetched to believe XM probably had better music programming.

Merc. That's cool, I'm sure many people are in that camp. No problem, to each his own.

BUT again it would seem XM has more invested in the music, not Stern, not NFL, not NASCAR. But music so I don't think it's too far fetched to believe XM probably had better music programming.


better music programing for who? certainly not the masses because the masses always prefered top 40 in all types of genera of music.

at least thats what I think;)


happy holidays barb and pat and the rest.

better music programing for who? certainly not the masses because the masses always prefered top 40 in all types of genera of music.

at least thats what I think;)


happy holidays barb and pat and the rest.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to you and yours Merc.

And everyone else too.

We'll agree to disagree.

Thanks Merc and Happy Holidays to you.
As I suggested before perhaps they could have met in the middle and had something everyone would like. At the very least, they should program the computers to not allow a song to play twice within 3-4 days, except channels on playing current hits.

Tally added to top of thread.

I think it's interesting that XM subscribers are about twice as happy with the changes as Sirius subscribers (32% versus 18%). Any thoughts why that might be?

And you can put me down as #6 - will wait and buy A La Carte for $6/month (if the company survives that long).

At the very least, they should program the computers to not allow a song to play twice within 3-4 days, except channels on playing current hits.

They'd have to make a lot more changes than that. With such limited playlists on some channels, that goal would be impossible, anyhow. Last night, I wondered..."should I give them more time instead of cancelling this week?" Then a DJ came on over the end of one song, thanked someone for subscribing, told me that Barry Manilow could be heard on Channel X and then talked over the beginning of the next song...and the radio only show his name while the song was playing, not the name of the song. Needless to say, that thought left my mind immediately.

Tally added to top of thread.

I think it's interesting that XM subscribers are about twice as happy with the changes as Sirius subscribers (32% versus 18%). Any thoughts why that might be?

And you can put me down as #6 - will wait and buy A La Carte for $6/month (if the company survives that long).

There is a new poll added and right now 100% of XM customers are not happy.:)

And you can put me down as #6 - will wait and buy A La Carte for $6/month (if the company survives that long).Yeah, I was waiting for that, too. It would've been something worth paying for, especially at the prices I was hearing. But not now - especially with the decrease in sound quality.

I've had Sirius for 3 years and in 1 week have to decide if I buy another year, go with a lifetime sub., or ditch it all together.
I love the fact it works everywhere.
I like having NFL.
I miss Buzzsaw.
I wish I had bought the lifetime sub. earlier as it would have almost been paid by now. Is a-la-carte programming to be available in Canada anytime soon?
I found through google the NFL contract with Sirius is up in 2011. Will it renew? Who knows. I will admit, I rarely turn on anything but Sirius anymore.

#2

Audio quality is worse, WHO THE HELL WANTS 24/7 AC/DC, ZEP, ETC, Beyond Jazz is gone, and now we're treated to more "personalities?" As in, DJs, who babble on and on???? Sorry, but those idiots were one of the reasons I was so excited about satrad: more MUSIC, less TALK.
Good thing my new Honda also came with a CD player.

I've had Sirius for 3 years and in 1 week have to decide if I buy another year, go with a lifetime sub., or ditch it all together.
I love the fact it works everywhere.
I like having NFL.
I miss Buzzsaw.
I wish I had bought the lifetime sub. earlier as it would have almost been paid by now. Is a-la-carte programming to be available in Canada anytime soon?
I found through google the NFL contract with Sirius is up in 2011. Will it renew? Who knows. I will admit, I rarely turn on anything but Sirius anymore.

God Bless if you still have enough optimism to go with a lifetime sub.

Yeah, I was waiting for that, too. It would've been something worth paying for, especially at the prices I was hearing. But not now - especially with the decrease in sound quality. Ehhhh $6 is nothing. Even if it only sounds like FM, the amount of stations I would get (50?) would make it worthwhile. I spend more than $6 on food each day; I can certainly afford XM A La Carte.

What I meant by "But not now" was since they dropped some of the stations I liked.

For 6 bucks I could probably live with the SQ too, but not without the channels I wanted.

I disagree the $6 is nothing. The fact is, if I were to cancel all of my recurring subscriptions to stuff, it would add up quickly to a ton of money. $72 dollars + tax per year could buy me a few more movies, or a video game, or what ever.

I finally had them cancel my account today, (they offered me a bunch of options before so I took them, then just decided that it wasn't even worth that) and I would tend to agree the customer service was rude. They did say that Backspin and Strobe was coming back, but my main complaint was the lack of notice of the service changes. I may consider going back when I pick out a new truck soon if it has a free year, but I would be unlikely to pay for it again, as I did for this past year.

I had Sirius btw.

I disagree the $6 is nothing. The fact is, if I were to cancel all of my recurring subscriptions to stuff, it would add up quickly to a ton of money. $72 dollars + tax per year could buy me a few more movies, or a video game, or what ever.I would basically agree. But as far as my own situation, I don't really have any subscriptions to speak of (believe it or not - I'm one of those "weirdo's" that don't even have a cell phone).

A basic package and a few a la carte channels, probably including some MLB, would've been worth it to me. But I would've had to have one channel they cut out.

No XCountry, no go for me. :(

To me, it was really different from most anything on Sradio. Combine the loss of channels with the LOSS big time in quality of sound, and I'm out of the sradio business for a while.

I disagree the $6 is nothing. The fact is, if I were to cancel all of my recurring subscriptions to stuff, it would add up quickly to a ton of money. $72 dollars + tax per year could buy me a few more movies, or a video game, or what ever. In my original post I compared it to food. I eat about $3000 worth of food each year, so the $72 for XM A La Carte is trivial. If I cut back my snacking by just 20 cents per day, I'd be able to buy XM's Carte service with no added expense. (I'd probably improve my health too.)

The only flaw in the $6/month analogy is that SiriusXM is competing with a lot of other things that are only a few $/month. HBO is, typically, $15/month. That's only $2/day. That's a cup of coffee. XBox live is, I think $50/month (I don't have it) which is only ~$4/month which is pretty cheap. Unlimited SMS on your cellphone is $15-20/month which is $.50+/day. So on and so on...

Basically, all of these little insignificant purchases add up to so pretty decent cash across the year and, when you're looking to cut expenses, you start looking at the stuff you can do without. Maybe you cut out the premiums on cable. Maybe you cut back to the basics on cable. Maybe you just make coffee before heading to work or maybe you cut SiriusXM out. When something has to give, though, something is going to give and that puts SiriusXM out there on the chopping block of family budgets along with everything else.

The only flaw in the $6/month analogy is that SiriusXM is competing with a lot of other things that are only a few $/month. HBO is, typically, $15/month. That's only $2/day. That's a cup of coffee. XBox live is, I think $50/month (I don't have it) which is only ~$4/month which is pretty cheap. Unlimited SMS on your cellphone is $15-20/month which is $.50+/day.Don't have any of that stuff. :cool:

Me neither. No HBO. No Xbox. No cellphone.* That leaves room for the $6 a month XM Carte service if it ever becomes available. Just eliminate my 20 cent per day snack, and it's covered.

*
* It's a 20 cent per call phone, and I rarely make calls, so it's essentially $0 a month expense.