Comments on: Sirius XM's latest blunder: Its iPhone app

Satellite radio provider finally launches its long-awaited application for the App Store. But with some major channels missing, it's more a mistake than anything else.

[totalsquare]

chcek out wunderradio iphone app. i think its $5 and you can use your sirius log in to access the available streamed stations

in addition to all the negatives, how about the fact that they want to nickle & dime us for an entirely new subscription for using the app

boo (siriu)hiss

[dregzilla]

There's no way Howard can even say 60% of SiriusXM customers listen to his channels, they have no way to track that information. The only information they can track is their online listeners.

[sting7k]

For the sports and stuff that is not on in the app I don't know if they ever will. Howard Stern though, you can be almost sure as soon as he hears about this it will change. Howard has mentioned this app many times and how great it could be for the company. He will not let this go once it gets to him. He will drag Mel down to the studio every day until it's done.

I have to say the app is a total failure right now. Useless...

[not-likely]

THIS ARTICLE IS A JOKE

Howard is ABLE TO BE HEARD on 60% percent of SIRIUS XM radios - this is because a percentage of xm radios upgraded to Best Of SIRIUS - this statistic does not mean that every single SIRIUS subscriber and every single Best Of SIRIUS subscriber listen to him, just that they are ABLE TO... his actual listenership is nowhere near that...

[gopnick]

They already get $16 a month out of me and now they want another $3 to get what I can get for free from Pandora or Last.fm. Right.

No.

[Vito9090]

Great article Don. Here is some more info. I have subscribed to XM since its start. The online listening was free with all of the channels except for the pay per stations (at the time I believe Playboy). Then it was regulated to only certain stations and now it is pay a fee to have access as you have indicated (as of last week). I am not subscribing to an online radio service I had for free and as you pointed out-there is a lot of free content on the net. Very disappointing and stupid of XMSirius to do this.

[todd3617]

XM used to let you stream the music to your computer for free. Now that SXM is a monopoly, they quickly started charging for the streaming service. They never had the MLB channels available to stream, even when it was just XM.

[mikehill33]

Sirius is in a squeeze pattern right now.

Content they provide has gotten stale. Hampton Howie phones it in day after day, and is basically background filler for the 4 four hour days he is on.

The company has done a horrible job of combining channel lineups, and is lost in what it promotes, and especially the stupid ads (Ashley Madison anyone)?.

Sirius was worth it at one point, but I have yet to see any positive effect from the merger. Content sucks, stock price is down, lack of innovation, and the experience is starting to slip.

Releasing an iPhone app is a needed "keeping up with the Joneses" move, and not surprising, especially the lack of key channels.

Sirius FAIL.

[tytyson1]

I mainly listen to NFL Radio, so I'm good. you had to know they weren't going to allow streaming of games as other stations/networks have the streaming rights and it wasn't available over the net anyway. The no Howard thing surprises me though... although I don't listen to him, I hear alot of callers saying that's all they listen to (other than NFL radio)

[NYCriminal]

some people on here think Howards just making up the 60% thing and he is not


Scott Greenstein, president-entertainment and sports at Sirius, said Sirius has hired a third-party research company to get audience data on "certain things our advertisers would need." The third-party data shows that 58% of subscribers listen to Howard Stern during the week.

[tryaluckystrike]

If that's the case, why did every previous research study show that Howard had anywhere from 1.6 million listeners to 2.5 million listeners? You mean to say that all of those reports were nonsense and in actuality, he has 600% more listeners than originally reported multiple times?

You're falling for "Howie Math" - the same number manipulating that makes Howard zombies believe he's worth half a billion, 4 days a week of subpar radio, and 26 weeks of vacation a year. The people that believe the industry exists because of him and will die when he leaves.

Are you sure this research doesn't just count every radio CAPABLE of getting his channels? There's no way in the world that many people listen to him on a regular basis. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had to do that failure of a promotion on XM channels to try and get subscribers to sign up for his channel.

[NYCriminal]

why did every previous research study show that Howard had anywhere from 1.6 million listeners to 2.5 million listeners?

cause the previous surveys (from Jacobs Media and Arbitron) were random surveys and the Sirius research is from actual subscribers

[scaught78]

My two pennies.

"Premium Radio" is 128K??? Sorry Doc Brown, I must have fallen asleep in the Dolorean and woke up in the year 1999. I can't believe you have to pay for the right to listen to a 128K stream.

Second, people have to realize that the no Stern is a HUGE factor. I'm sorry if you don't like Stern or his channels, but it is the truth. This is content that people do pay for. I should know, I got Sirius as soon as Howard signed on. My morning commute depends on it. Cutting him out of the iPhone experience means I have no interest in the app. Sorry, I want all or nothing.

Sirius has to figure out what their goal is. You can't have a service that says, you can listen to "A" in your car, "B" on your computer and "C" on your iPhone. Is it too much to ask for consistency as a customer. If you have advertise a list of stations, then give me that. I really think they are shooting themselves in the foot big time.

[motogonzo]

First you call it a "blunder" then midway through the article, the real reason appears.

You think Sirius doesn't want to stream Stern and baseball to mobile devices? They would if they could, but their current contracts with Stern and the MLB don't allow for it...

[ender21]

The "blunder" is charging for it.

[Techie_Jr]

How can Sirius/XM boast of providing a free iPhone app when us Blackberry owners are forced to pay $7.99/mo to have access to appx 10 stations??! I hope this company goes belly up sooner than later... either that or I'm hoping that I come to my senses soon and cancel this waste of a subscription.

Ever since the merger things have been all wrong. I was an XM subscriber & don't like Sirius' talk-first, music second format. Then they started charging $3 for internet listening, starting next month it's an extra $2 for copyright protection, now it's a free iPhone app but nuthin for us BB'ers. WTH

[SooneratND]

I'm not at all surprised at the lack of MLB rights, considering there is a competing app run by MLB itself that does the same thing a Sirius app would do.

While some XM subscribers may be able to stream XM online for free, that wont last forever. At their next renewal point, everyone will have to pay $2.99 a month. This isn't an iPhone/iPod charge.

I upgraded a bit early to get access via the iPhone app because I was tired of serving it myself from home via uXM

[svk1069]

I love my Sirius radio subscription, but there is NO WAY IN HELL that I am paying another $2.99/month to get Sirius on my iPhone. It should be free to existing subscribers, esp. when you consider the multiple alternatives like Pandora, Slacker Radio, etc, that are free.

[Techie_Jr]

It IS free. As long as you currently have a subscription.

[darcydj]

I cannot understand why I don't have access to the same programming I have in my car as the internet connection. I pay 12.95 a month and at best I have full access to programming for a few hours a week. I am on the edge of dropping service altogether.

[skepsysinfo]

I don't think the app itself is bad at all. Actually its really nice. The problem is the pricing. They are clearly trying to drive people to get traditional sirius packages and then pay 3 bux extra for the iphone part. If the iphone app service was just $3 for anyone and free for sirius subscribers then they would grow market share. I don't have sirius now and don't need it in my car b/c I have a short ride. I was looking forward to getting it on my iphone to use at work but I am not paying $12.95/mo t do that. I'd probably pay $3 though. As usual people who have great ideas at companies have them tarnished by someone greedy.

[MattatQC]

While I understand to some degree why SIRI booted this app, I couldn't be more disappointed. I am a long time XM Radio subscriber, and I also own a vehicle with Sirius. My first disappointment was that the channel line-up is strictly Sirius. The XM channel line up, in my humble opinion is ten times better. It seems clear that Sirius is moving away from the XM line-up, and makes me think twice about committing for more than a year. The cost for non satellite subscribers is prohibitive, but it makes sense, cause I was ready to cancel my subscription and just stream the feed to my iPhone. At 6.99 a month, it would be tempting, but not for the cost of a normal subscription.

I also noticed the service cutting in and out, which, I do not see when using the Pandora app. I am just glad I didn't have to pay for it.

[baisa]

<sigh> Mr. Reisinger strikes again...

First... if Sirius/XM is NOT LEGALLY ENTITLED to stream certain channels then how can it possibly be a "blunder" for them to omit them.

Love this gem of Reisinlogic:

"That means 12 million people who currently have satellite radio won't have any use for its streaming app."

So in other words, just because someone listens to Howard Stern means they don't listen to any other channels? That they may not be ecstatic to be able to listen to the scores upon scores of other available channels???

sheesh...