Filed under: Audio, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Satellite Radio finally coming to iPhone
Ever since the iPhone could run applications people have been really excited about the possibility of streaming XM-Sirius on the go.After a lot of buzz, it appears the uSirius StarPlayr will finally be submitted to the app store this weekend. Then Apple will decide when to release the player to eager consumers.
The player, developed by nicemac LLC has been getting positive reviews from beta testers.
The bad news is that streaming services will no longer be free. Despite a promise from Sirius-XM that prices would be capped for 3 years, as of March 11, 2009, streaming will be an additional US $2.99 a month. Additional radio charges will be US $2.00 extra monthly. Costs of the base service will stay the same. and subscribers can lock in their current rates by agreeing to a 3 year contract extension. People rushing to do that may help the beleaguered merged companies in the short run. On the other hand, a lot of customers may not be anxious to throw a lot of money at a service that may not survive 3 years.
As far as the streaming app goes, nicemac hasn't released a price yet, but says once it is purchased updates will be free until they bring out a major upgrade.
Sirius-XM haven't released their own player. That may happen, but this third party app will certainly be first on the scene.
Addenda: One of our loyal readers says, and we confirm, that people with long term subscriptions will be able to stream for free for the life of that subscription. Thanks Daniel.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Bullet said 1:16PM on 1-30-2009
I can say that this app is top notch. I have been testing it for the last few weeks and its been a great experience. It is definitely apparent that the developers are trying to make the initial version very solid, unlike many other applications that have very unstable launches.
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Dave said 5:03PM on 1-30-2009
+1. I've been testing too and the application is excellent. Very clean, well made, and a very responsive development team. This and Sudoku are easily my two most-used apps. I've considered canceling due to the rate hike, but if I don't it's solely because of this app.
David said 5:31PM on 1-30-2009
Question for you, does this app have ESPN as a channel? Or are the channels the same from the online player?
Bullet said 5:34PM on 1-30-2009
Exactly the same as the online offerings.
KIlroy said 1:42PM on 1-30-2009
After March 11, Sirius XM is trying to eliminate 32k and 64k streams. Everyone will be on 128k cd quality. This hurts dialup and some users over Edge that have poor coverage.
Don't left Sirius XM charge more and offer less. Call, write, email Sirius and XM today and explain to them that they are making a huge mistake by getting rid of 32k and 64k streams. If they were smart they will keep 32k and 64k and add 128k to all users on both services.
Sirius XM is making a huge mistake and the wrong time. Charge more is okay, but taking away 32k and 64k access to its users is a bad more. Sirius XM has tunnel vision. They need the money. We give them that, but not to offer users less. Don't do it Sirius XM.
If you are consumer/customer/listen of Sirius XM, speak up now! And let Sirius XM know that this means to you.
Contact XM:
http://www.xmradio.com/contact_us/contact_us.jsp
Contact Sirius:
http://www.sirius.com/contactus
Keep on streaming! 32/64/128k It should be your choice, not Sirius'
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David said 1:47PM on 1-30-2009
Did I read this correctly...we will be charged in the near future to stream stations? What will us lifetime members have to pay for this? When I got my sirius radio and activated it, I paid a one time flat rate of $300 and that got me lifetime subscriptions with no monthly fee.
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Bullet said 3:12PM on 1-30-2009
Lifetime subscribers will continue to have their streaming for free.
David said 3:43PM on 1-30-2009
That is great news, bring on the app!
Kilroy said 1:48PM on 1-30-2009
After March 11, Sirius XM is trying to eliminate 32k and 64k streams. Everyone will be on 128k cd quality. This hurts dial-up and some users over Edge that have poor coverage.
Don't left Sirius XM charge more and offer less. Call, write, email Sirius and XM today and explain to them that they are making a huge mistake by getting rid of 32k and 64k streams. If they were smart they will keep 32k and 64k and add 128k to all users on both services for Sirius and XM.
Sirius XM is making a huge mistake at the worst possible time. Charging more is okay, but taking away 32k and 64k access to its users is a bad move. Sirius XM has tunnel vision and can't see the forest from the trees. This why they can't write their own software player for the iPhone.
They are hurting for dough. We give them that, but to offer users less for more is a crime. Don't do it Sirius XM.
If you are consumer/customer/listen of Sirius XM, speak up now! And let Sirius XM know who important StarPlayr is to you and that you want them to succeed but to commit to a screw up like this is a disaster in the making.
If you are consumer/customer/listen of Sirius XM, speak up now! And let Sirius XM know that this means to you.
Contact XM:
http://www.xmradio.com/contact_us/contact_us.jsp
Contact Sirius:
http://www.sirius.com/contactus
Keep on streaming! 32/64/128k It should be your choice, not Sirius'
Reply
Kilroy said 1:54PM on 1-30-2009
After March 11, Sirius XM is trying to eliminate 32k and 64k streams. Everyone will be on 128k cd quality. This hurts dial-up and some users over Edge that have poor coverage.
Don't left Sirius XM charge more and offer less. Call, write, email Sirius and XM today and explain to them that they are making a huge mistake by getting rid of 32k and 64k streams. If they were smart they will keep 32k and 64k and add 128k to all users on both services for Sirius and XM.
Sirius XM is making a huge mistake at the worst possible time. Charging more is okay, but taking away 32k and 64k access to its users is a bad move. Sirius XM has tunnel vision and can't see the forest from the trees. This why they can't write their own software player for the iPhone.
They are hurting for dough. We give them that, but to offer users less for more is a crime. Don't do it Sirius XM.
If you are consumer/customer/listen of Sirius XM, speak up now! And let Sirius XM know how important StarPlayr is to you and that you want them to succeed but to commit to a screw up like this is a disaster in the making.
Even if you are not an iPhone user, Streaming quality should be your choice. It's your bandwidth. It's your Sirius and XM Radio. 32k, 64k, 128k should be a choice not a 128k dictatorship.
If you are consumer/customer/listen of Sirius XM, speak up now! And let Sirius XM know that this means to you.
Contact XM:
http://www.xmradio.com/contact_us/contact_us.jsp
Contact Sirius:
http://www.sirius.com/contactus
Keep on streaming! 32/64/128k It should be your choice, not Sirius'
Reply
Dan said 2:54PM on 1-30-2009
I received an email from Sirius last week about the new pricing and offering to "lock in" the old pricing. This is what the customer service associate explained to me:
First, streaming remains free on your primary account, which does not go up in price.
Second, though secondary account will go up, you can lock in the old rate by agreeing to a one-year extension, not a three-year term, as you stated. (This I can confirm, because I did so, and the charge already went through.) This would then keep your Internet radio on those secondary logins free.
(For those who don't understand: you pay per radio with Sirius XM - right now, $12.95 for the primary radio, and $6.95 for each additional. The current plan allows you one separate login per radio for streaming service, as well. The streaming service currently comes in two flavors - low-end and high-end. Low-end is currently free and is being eliminated with the price increase for secondary radios.)
My questions/comments to TUAW:
- Your three-year extension info is wrong, since the email I got from Sirius clearly states that a one year extension is all that's needed.
- Do you have a good source on the info that streaming is being eliminated as a free service for the primary radio account? That's not what the customer service agent told me (clearly, CSAs are not terribly reliable, so I'd like to know what's really going on.)
- I think eliminating the free streaming isn't great, but on the other hand, it probably is necessary. More and more, people are using podcasts and streaming as a replacement for over-the-air services like cable as well as satellite TV and radio (as they did and are doing for recorded music and video.) I don't think Sirius could stay in business offering its service for free, because people would then refuse to buy more than one radio - and my experience (anecdotal) is that many, many people have two, at least: one for the car and one at home. (The car is where the service remains indispensable. Two cars in the family ups the returns considerably.) Already, my Sirius car usage has declined quite a bit iin the car has declined quite a bit in the past year because of the iPhone device convergence, the ability to use Genius to simulate a nicely mixed series of channels, and the ability to spontaneously download podcasts, which allows me the feeling if "flipping around" the dial searching for something surprising.
- The above said, there would seem to be no point to charging for secondary logins and giving a single login away for free; I just checked, and there's (currently) no kick-off system that detects simultaneous connections under the same username.
Bottom line for me:
- I extended for a year and locked in the original rates and free streaming. My price will go up in a year, I was told, unless I go to lifetime before that. I can't re-extend at the low price.
- Charging for streaming seems necessary, though I'm not sure if the primary account will have to pay, which would make the issue moot, if the above assumptions are correct.
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zeero said 2:46PM on 1-30-2009
Thanks for the triple post Kiljoy. We got the message.
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utterer said 2:54PM on 1-30-2009
Sirius agreed to not raise the rates of their basic package. The rate increase only applies to those of us who use streaming or have additional radios. If you have a lifetime membership, the streaming remains free as you have locked yourself into those rates.
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Andrew D. said 2:58PM on 1-30-2009
Satellite radio is almost dead. It is just a matter of time. I just canceled my Sirius subscription and switched to Last.fm because i just could not pay 30 bucks a month (CDN) for one subscription and two radios anymore. Most of my listen experience was online at work and when I heard they were going to start charging an additional 3 bucks to listen online i decided I had enough. So an iphone app... meh, maybe 6 months ago when I got my iphone I would have been interested in this.
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Andrew said 2:58PM on 1-30-2009
@Kilroy -- I couldn't care less if they drop the lower-bandwidth streams. They sounds like crap. I'm happy to pay a small monthly fee to get a better quality stream.
Satellite radio over dialup??? If you live out in the sticks and don't have DSL or cable, consider buying an actual satellite radio and pointing it at the sky.
Satellite radio over edge? If you're out and about, try your phone's iPod feature -- it works really well, you can have 1000s of songs in your pocket (so I've heard).
I have integrated Sirius radio into my MythTV system so we can listen to satellite radio on our home stereo, and then enjoy music on the road on our car's radio. I'm a big fan of the whole setup and I do hope XM/Sirius survive as a merged company.
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NiceMac LLC said 9:37PM on 2-01-2009
Great ideas. Thank you!
Bullet said 3:15PM on 1-30-2009
There's a whole other article about the rate hikes, can't we keep this thread about uSirius StarPlayr?
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Erik said 7:40PM on 1-30-2009
I checked out their Windows Mobile application for the price and the page describing the app they say,
"By the way the iPhone version is expected to sell between 14.99-19.99. There is much more involved creating an iPhone application than Windows Mobile."
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NiceMac LLC said 9:34PM on 2-01-2009
That's an old quote.
The price of uSirius StarPlayr is 12.99.
Todd
profcrayzee said 7:58AM on 1-31-2009
Who needs this? I dropped XM as soon as I got my iphone, and use pandora, aol radio, last.fm, etc. Save your money. It's laughable that they now want to charge MORE money to use the streaming service !
BTW if you call XM to try to cancel your service, be prepared to be hung up on three times and then argue for about 1/2 hour with them about why you shouldn't leave them.
Breaking up with them was harder than with my last girlfriend. And arguably more painful.
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