Sirius music needs improvement

So the sound quality has already fallen to average, and you want them to squeeze more channels in, making sound quality worse, just so you get a warm fuzzy knowing you have an option to hear 40's music, even though you're not into 40's music?

I understand completely.

Yeah, I've a lifetime sub to Sirius and haven't listened in about 6 months. I've a regular subcription to XM and I enjoy it a lot more. I listen to it at work, home, and in the car.

Sirius took much of what I hate about FM Radio and put it on the satellite. All they'd need is 20 mins of local car ads per hour and it'd be FM. The DJs are too frequent and too chatty.

Umm, just enjoy your car. Seriously, that's a nice vehicle. As far as your taste in music, I don't think those genres are popular enough to have much dedication to them. And Journey is a guilty pleasure, I don't if I would post it on a website. But again enjoy the ride.

I don't know, I'm pretty thrilled with Sirius music. I really like Lithium, Hair Nation, and classic Vinyl.

Then again, I'm not into alternative or cultish genres, and I don't listen for many hours a day. For every person like you who wants hear obscure stuff, there are probably 10 subscribers that would be turned off by it.

I mean it is a nationwide satellite radio company that broadcasts to millions of subscribers. If you were into really obscure stuff, an iPod is probably more of your thing.

22 does have a 80's goth rock show. Not sure when it is on but it is called Dark Wave. The channel 'The Garage' (or something like that) plays quite a bit of rockabilly.

I've been hearing a lot of The Sweet on "The Vault" (16) lately. And not just their biggest hits. That's probably the channel that I hear Glam played on most often.

And morgan1112 is correct that they play Rockabilly on "Underground Garage" (25) occasionally. I personally think that's the best channel they're running. (In fact, I have it on right now.)

"The Vault" and "U. Garage" are definitely my two favorites.

The two genres I would love to see have their own dedicated channels are Progressive Rock and Jazz-Fusion, with the main focus on the 70's, when both were at their heights, and then into the 80's. But I know better than to ever expect to see those. They're too "passe", and are not (or never were) widely popular and/or commercial enough.

Now that I think of it, they could probably use a good, World Music channel, also. And I'm talkin' like Far Eastern, African, Celtic and more obscure cultures too, not just that Latino and Caribbean stuff they're so fond of. Not just the "popular" stuff. Even the New Age channel they have could be vastly improved. It's completely boring and worthless as it is now. Maybe start by playing more of the creative Windham Hill stuff rather than all that Narada stuff.

They do play Windham Hill and older Fusion stuff on the "Planet Jazz" (70) station on rare occasion, but not often enough to make me want to sit there and have to listen to all the other stuff waitin' for it.

"The Vault" does have a Progressive show M-F, 10:00-11:00 PM. They've finally got away from their nightly infatuation with Yes and Pink Floyd recently, and are playing a lot more obscure, European "70's Prog lately. And some of it even leans towards Jazz-Fusion. It's excellent, but it's still not enough to satisfy me.

That's the entire POINT of satellite radio (well that, and commercial-free music). The subscriber base is large enough that pretty much anything will have listeners. Blues, Bluegrass, showtunes, movie themes, ambient, trance, metal and punk wouldn't have a chance of surviving as formats on FM, but they're on satellite, because people will listen. Likewise for Jazz. Most markets don't have ONE jazz station, let alone divided into seperate sub-genres. The main advantage of satrad music channels is to be able to listen to stuff you wouldn't hear on FM because it wouldn't turn a profit.

And glam-rock isn't exactly obscure, it was a major component of 80's rock. XM has a channel--The Boneyard--that, while not dedicated completely to it, plays an awful lot. And it just happens to be one of the most popular music channels. Sounds like The Vault is a somewhat similar channel on Sirius.

Sounds like we have similar music tastes...you can hear bands like the Cramps, X, Gun Club on Little Steven's Underground Garage(25) and on the new punk Channel (29). On 25 it's not uncommon to hear bands like The New York Dolls, T.Rex, Sweet, Mott the Hoople, etc...

Also make sure you check "Outlaw Country" on 63....they play lots of cool rockabily, cow punk, etc...

XM reportedly has a much deeper playlist than Sirius. i can only speak firsthand for XM...sometimes the playlist seems almost *too* deep. very little in the way of DJ's and chris daughtry is kept mostly on one station (top 20).

try XM online and see what you think.

Maybe that's where I've been hearing The Sweet so much lately. I've been listening to both that channel and The Vault equally recently. If I get the urge to drift, I usually check out the Punk or Alternative channels. I heard some better than usual stuff on the College Rock channel the other night. I think it was a particular "show", because I never hear stuff like that on there usually. It was pretty "experimental".

(I will say that I'm really starting to get sick of hearing "Because I'm Awesome", by The Dollyrots, on U. Garage .)

They (25) can really run some songs into the ground.

One thing I didn't know until yesterday...Little Steven is also in charge of Outlaw Country (63).

Little Steven said something once that made the most since about music. "All the great bands either influenced the Ramones or were influenced by the Ramones."

I've had Sirius for a few years now. It also came with my new car (300C SRT-8). I never thought I'd listen to it in my car, but I do.

I think a lot of us here will have more eccectic tastes than the "average" person. Remember that Sirius has to cater to the general public (read: top-ten, pop music, music that sells, etc...) just like any other business.

I'm just happy that their jazz channel has a few people from WBGO who can keep it real. Some of the channels are decent, most aren't. I'd have to say that, in general, the programming is more varied than FM (and, if you like Howard Stern, a good deal less cencored ).

see one of my favorite stations is 34 boombox. i think the reason i listen to it so much is the "smash ups" (lyrics of one song put to the beat of another) of songs they do. surprisingly a lot of them work well together. then again i do like the chemical brothers, fatboy slim, beck, and so on

On the "Buzzsaw" channel, they do repeat songs too many times. Hopefully they'll change that.

Sirius is great. I had XM for a year before i got pissed and changed. If you cant find something to listen to on Sirius....just give up.

This is so well written that I have nothing to say but "I agree." My 2007 Explorer came with the Sirius free trail thing and I had been demo-ing Sirius online at work for while previously and I feel the music is lacking compared to XM plus all the other drawbacks.

Thank you for your ever so helpful post....

sirius or xm, i wish the they would just let them merge, maybe for music XM is better but for sports i think sirus has the edge, i have had both and kept sirius.

what type of music do you listen to-
and what other drawbacks?

ts

I listen to a variety of music, I would not peg one genre... Sirius constantly has their various hosts on all of their channels break in every 10-12 minutes and talk about gossip or other conversation when that is taking away from music. On average the Sirius radio I have in my truck cuts out 70% more often than XM does. (taking the SAME exact routes, i.e. going to work and same radio anteanna location) I also find that Sirius repeats many songs on a higher frequency than XM. I do not care for Stern nor the sports channels, all music. In my opinion, XM offers a better service. My opinion is strongly formed from being on BOTH sides of the fence for a decent amount of time. And before anyone gets all emotional, I am not pushing anyone from side to side just rather agreeing with what others have already posted, adding my additional thoughts, and putting it out there for perhaps others who have a similar views/thoughts.

I agree, I have Sirius and my husband has XM. His choice of music stations is much better. I got Sirius solely to listen to Howard.

This is the way it's been since day one. XM plays a much deeper playlist, Sirius plays the favorites over and over. Some prefer XM's philosophy( like me), others prefer Sirius's playing mostly the top 40. Neither is right or wrong, it's nice having a choice..(for now)

Everyone is different, to each his own...

Geez, does Sirius really sound that bad? I've had an internet only subscription since October so I can't really tell the difference. I'm in the market for a new AVR and I hope it will be Sirius ready. But all I really listen to is Howard Stern anyway so I'm more concerned with content over sound quality.

Why not just drive your home theater system from your PC when you listen to Sirius? Save adding to your subscription until you add a receiver to your car or get a portable.

the other day on sirius they played photograph by def leppard 3 times in less than 1 1/2 hours...almost as bad as the time the rolling stones were on 4 channels in a row.

Pardon my jumping in ... I listen to both Siruis and XM a lot; I have both at my desk at work. Sirius IS like FM radio especially compared to XM. There is no question Sirius is programmed more by "radio" guys and more of XM is programmed by "music" guys. Read the philosophies of their respective top guys/founders (wish I had quick links to insert here ). XM particularly started with the idea of transmitting nearly every imaginable form of music, but bandwidth limits got in the way (too bad they wound up splitting the available band with Sirius).

I fear "radio guy" Karmazin will push the music guys aside when/if the merger or takeover happens, so I am recording as much XM (Deep Tracks, XMX, Fine Tuning) as I can for future reminiscing about the good old days of satellite radio, much as when I spin reel-to-reels of the good old days of FM.

The one constant in broadcasting is "formats change" - otherwise the "programmers" have little reason to exist or at least allege "progress" - so enjoy now. No matter how popular, niche-wise or overall, a format's 'manager' will have to show the boss he can do better (a Wall Street-driven attitude that's mindless but ubiquitous, and not just in broadcasting).

Don't you wish XM's internet signal was as good as Sirius's (extra price) high(er) bandwidth signal? Had to spring for the extra DirecTV receiver just to get decent sound of XM for home stereo listening (and no XMX dang it).

And no I can't listen to internet radio at work (and agree with the boss's reasoning) and for various reasons FM isn't really listenable at my desk so sat radio or what I bring in with me is it. And the XM signal is solid while Sirius fades in and out - maybe the problem is the Sirius repeater antenna is 17 floors directly above me

BTW I think I will drop Sirius after this year's sub, hoping somehow a decent sat service survives the merger/takeover and Howard is available on XM.

And no an iPod is not the answer - I have a lot of music but I really enjoy not only hearing stuff I don't have but the stuff I do have arranged in ways that never occurred to me. I pay XM to create a listening experience, not just play music I've heard before - with more than "shuffle" intelligence. Sirius doesn't do that for me (alright they do with Raw Dog).

I was a Sirius SUB for nearly 5 yrs until yesterday when I canceled due to the FM repeats. At any given time I can hear any of the songs I hear on Octane, Alt Nation, Hair Nation being played on my local FM channels. I emailed my disgust with no changes. Why Sirius insists on being almost exactly like FM I will never know. XM's music programming is easier to listen to(you dont hear the same songs repeated over and over) and its nice hearing a deeper selection of music.

If you are genuinely into music Sirius' shallow playlist and fm feel will wear thin very quickly.