TP Loves Satellite Radio

TP loves satellite radio.  I may -- sacrilege, I know -- love it even more than my Mini iPod.

Effective April 1, XM upped their price to $12.95/mth, which is absolutely bupkis for what you get.  Commercial free, uninterrupted music for the price of one CD? You've gotta be out of your mind if you think that's not a good deal (of course, it isn't for everyone, but I'm shocked when I hear people saying, they don't think it's good value).

However, as part of their price upgrade, they extended their internet broadcast, previously a premium service for $3.99/mth, for free to all XM subscribers.

This morning, here's what I've listened to: Nice N Smooth, Mobb Deep, Grandmaster Flash, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Dvorak, J.S. Bach, the Misfits, the Ramons, Alan Jackson, Clint Black, Kenny Chesney, Cooder McGraw, Randy Travis, Miriam Makeba, Ali Farka Toure.

So good.

I also recently purchased the XM Delphi Satellite Radio and the Boombox, which means I now get 24-hr, commercial free satellite radio in my home.  I flip it on on Saturday morning, and turn it off when I go to work on Monday.  Sublime!

Ferris Bueller said it best: if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.  They are so choice.

I've read some articles detailing the declining revenues of commercial radio, and the incipient threat posed by satellite radio, which is really just getting started, and the arrogance and delusion of the radio execs is staggering to me.  They are so obsessed with pricing, they pay no attention to valuation of the product.

A bag of dirt may be free, but that has nothing to do with whether I'd pay $10 for a nice sandwich to eat for lunch instead of chowing on said dirt.  Of course price is relevant, but valuation has got to be part of the equation.

"For most of their listeners, traditional radio companies say, the tradeoff of a few ads for free content will be worth it. 'You can buy satellite,' says David Field, chief executive of Bala Cynwyd, Pa.-based Entercom Communications Corp., 'or you can pay nothing for us.'

This guy just doesn't get it.  If you paid me $5/mth, I still wouldn't listen to the utter Crapfest of music that passes for commercial radio these days.  I love listening to car dealerships screaming at me for 15 minutes every hour, too.

Satellite radio.  As that noted prophet Judge Reinhold said in FTARH, "Learn it. Know it.  Live it."

Comments

[R. Alex]

That's how I feel about Rhapsody. A lot of my coworkers think I'm crazy for paying for music, but it's the best $10 I spend a month.

[Feddie]

I been thinking about getting SatRadio. I really would love to be able to listen to EWTN in the car and at work. Yes, I know what a huge nerd I am.

[TP]

It's ok, Feddie. We already knew you were a nerd.