So after about a week off due a little bit to my being busy but mostly to indifference, I'm back since I have absolutely nothing better to do, given that it's Valentine's Day and all.
As I mentioned a little while ago, I was planning on getting XM Radio. I have in fact gotten XM Radio and have been enjoying it almost practically non-stop for over a week now. Since I don't have much in the way of poker thoughts right now, I figured I'd give a little review. (Although I doubt I could do a better job reviewing XM than this guy, I do think I have a few things to add.)
For those who don't know, XM radio is satellite radio for which you pay a monthly subscription (there's also its competitor Sirius). For the cost of hardware, installation, a small activation fee and a $9.99 monthly fee you get about 70 commercial-free music channels, about 40-50 channels dedicated to news, sports, talk or comedy and about 20 traffic and weather stations for various major metropolitan areas (full channel lineup). In fact, there's even a "premium" playboy channel for those so inclined, although a playboy channel without visuals seems to me to be of, well, limited value.
For an additional $3.99/month on top of regular service (or $7.99 alone) one can also get XM online. One cool feature of the online feed is that you get to choose from a list that displays every station and the song and artist that's currently playing. It's very snazzy.
The equipment can get a little costly. My car stereo was already XM compatible, so the tuner, antenna, adapter and installation ran me about $175. There's also $10 activation fee, and so with tax that's about a $200 one time charge. For someone without an XM compatible stereo, there are other options that could cost anywhere from an addition $50 on top of that charge (so about $250 total) to going out and buying a XM compatible stereo (probably at least $150 in itself...although maybe worth it if it also plays MP3s and has more power). Obviously, there's no hardware costs for someone who just wants the online feed.
Anyways, to make a long story short, I love it! XM has skyrocketed into the top echelon of my "indispensables" list, along with food, sleep and poker (not necessarily in that order). Whether I'm in my car, at work, or on my computer at home, I have a constant stream of commercial-free music right there, er, at my, uh, fingertips. (Okay, at this point I'd like to say that as much as an advertisement as I sound like right now, I SWEAR that XM is not paying me a dime for this review. Seriously, I couldn't think of any better way to phrase that last sentence, full of advertisement cliches and sentence structure and all).
Some might say, well gee, I can download all the MP3s I want for free and store them on my iPod/desktop/whatever, and I get to listen to only the songs I want to hear. Why should I actually have to pay for satellite radio?
My answer is damnit, I'm not trying to sell it to you, I don't care what you do. However, for me, the reasons I chose satellite radio over just downloading music (which I've done, ahem, legally of course) are:
1) Opportunity cost. I spent hours searching for and downloading enough music to fill about three CDs. Even though that's 24 hours of music or so, that's still not enough music to keep ones sanity after a few replays without getting a lot more options available, ie, spending a lot more time searching for and downloading more music on a pretty regular basis. I'd rather spend all that spare time playing poker and making money--believe me, it'll be more money than the monthly XM charge (and the one time hardware/installation cost).
2) My own music exposure has been limited. The simple matter is that I really don't know about a whole bunch of music that I'm sure I'd like but haven't been exposed to yet. All I can do online is search for songs I know, but I'm not learning new music. And unfortunately, regular radio only has the "hits" stations that play the top twenty or ten or two songs, or whatever, of the moment or the "classic rock" station that plays what seems to be the best 30 songs of the 1965-1985 period (seriously, Blinded By the Light, Stairway to Heaven and Sweet Home Alabama are good songs and all, but let's get something different already!). And I just don't have the time nor inclination to go researching new bands or go out to shows regularly to learn about new music. XM gives me a cheap and readily accessible way to reach out to many new bands and new genres that I never would have known about (for example, the Latin Jazz station, Luna 95, is now my personal fave and I'd never even thought the phrase "Latin Jazz" before hearing XM for the first time).
It's also helpful that I enjoy a variety of musical genres, pretty much anything except country or rap. Rock? Love it. Metal? Bring it. Pop? Sure. Alternative, Jazz, Classical? Yup, yup, yup.
When I got satellite radio, I had to decide between XM and Sirius. Both seemed solid options--XM is more established with the bigger customer base, but Sirius is growing rapidly with its aggressive marketing. Neither seemed to be in danger of failing any time soon. Sirius was $12.99 a month and that included online listening, while XM would be $13.98/month with their online package (or $9.99 without online). So the costs were about the same. Sirius had the NBA, NFL and NHL, but XM just got MLB, and everyone knows that MLB >> NBA+NFL+NHL. Also XM had the Latin Jazz station which I had the pleasure of listening to all the one summer that I worked at Circuit City (back in my single-digit-dollar-per-hour days). So it ended up being no contest, for me at least. MLB+Latin Jazz = case closed.
It's not all roses, though. I've found that during peak times the online feed gets a little dicey, sometimes with reduced sound quality, sometimes the feed cuts out for brief instances, and on occasion it stops with no explanation forcing me to restart the applet. Non-peak times, like when I'm at work, it generally works with nary a hiccup. I'm guessing increased bandwitdth would solve this problem--hopefully they're working on it.
Another small problem is that although the music stations are commercial free, they aren't DJ free. Well over 95% of airtime is still dedicated to music, but most stations still have the brief station ID spots, and some have DJs that talk a little more than they should (which for me means at all). The problem is rather slight, however.
Ultimately, I believe XM was a great purchase for me. It makes work, commuting and even playing poker a lot more enjoyable. It comes highly recommended from this humble blogger.
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