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Sirius-XM to begin iPhone streaming this spring

by Mel Martin Mar 12th 2009 at 3:00PM

It won't be a major surprise to people who have been following the ups and downs of this story, but on an earnings conference call this morning satellite radio provider Sirius/XM confirmed that it will provide streaming to iPhones and iPod touch devices.

CEO Mel Kamarzin said "by streaming its music, sports and talk channels to users of the iPhone and iPod Touch, Sirius can give its existing subscribers another way to access content and let new customers sign up without buying new radios"

The announcement today makes it clear what happened to the much awaited StarPlayr application that was about to be released and then was killed by the developers, likely on advice from Sirius/XM that the player would not be allowed.

Sirius now has 19 million subscribers, which is 10 percent higher than a year ago. Nevertheless, Sirius took a 4th quarter loss of $245.5 million dollars.

Sirius almost went bankrupt, until Liberty Media bailed them out last month with a $530 million investment.

Thanks to Justin and others who tipped us to this story

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It won't be a major surprise to people who have been following the ups and downs of this story, but on an earnings conference call this...
 

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More Moore MOhr

Great point! The SIRIUS story is part of a new movie (stockshockmovie.com). FYI: I used coupon code: FREESHIP for free shipping of the DVD.

April 28 2009 at 3:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jindo Fox

This is WAY too little, WAY too late in my opinion. Like #13 above, I have XM built into my car, but ever since the XM/Sirius merger, the channel options have been lame (very fun XM Fred became the boring/lousy First Wave, for example), the price has gone up, existing streaming options have been turned off, and we've heard empty promises like this software announcement. I had a hard time canceling my XM account but I'm not turning it back on now that I have an iPhone.

There are too many other superior alternatives on the iPhone to bother with anything from SiriusXM. Off the top of my head: Pandora, Slacker Radio (there's a great XM Fred knockoff on there), Last.fm, Stitcher, and other internet radio tuners -- not to mention the podcasts and albums you carry on your iPod/iPhone.

SiriusXM can't afford to give away anything for free, but they'll be laughed off the App Store if they try to charge a subscription fee for this.

March 16 2009 at 5:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ken

I have been waiting for this for a long time. I'm really pissed that StarPlayer went away this week because it was a far superior client for listening to XM online than their own website.

Any idea what "Spring" translates to? Spring starts next week.

March 13 2009 at 2:16 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
freediverdude

Too little, too late Sirius. I have a built-in Sirius player in the car, and I still cancelled the service. There's too many other choices now that are free if you have a smartphone. Especially on the iphone, like there's Pandora, streaming podcasts (including recent news, which has replaced talk radio for me), iPod, even streaming things from different websites. There's no way I'm going to pay $15/month or whatever on top of all that for Sirius.

March 13 2009 at 9:43 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tom

I hope this includes XM subscribers as well. But really they should just merge the two products...

March 13 2009 at 1:51 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Nick

All this so it can compete with Pandora?

March 12 2009 at 7:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Nick's comment
Cabbage

>>All this so it can compete with Pandora?
Maybe if you only listen to music but 95% of my time is spent listening to Opie & Anthony and the comedy channels.

March 12 2009 at 8:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
louisraffio

I am in no means a brilliant business tycoon here, but is it just too obvious SiriusXM needs this app immediately....... Nicemac has it (as all reviews, comments so far have been rated excellent) WHY not just fly with Nicemac and reap the profits........ I must be missing something

March 12 2009 at 5:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
John Laur

I cannot possibly imagine the logic of Sirius/XM not simply buying the application from Nicemac and releasing it.

Or maybe they did? Who knows what "This spring" means anyway.

March 12 2009 at 4:29 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Rudy

that app better be fucking flawless and cheap!

March 12 2009 at 4:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Rudy's comment
Alex

No, the app better be free (we know it will be far from flawless)

The real question is will they charge an Iphone fee on top of the monthly streaming fee (in ADDITION to the standard fee)?

i.e. $12.95/month for Sirius + $2.99/month Internet streaming fee + monthly iphone fee?

They started charging regular customers for Internet streaming, ludicrous just for the fact that their streams are buggy and often get stuck "Buffering..."

March 12 2009 at 5:17 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
neil

Pardon my language, but it better as shit be free. The recent price increase as well as an elimination of free online listening for xm subscribers has me looking for alternatives.

March 12 2009 at 4:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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