Sirius XM iPhone App Due Within Weeks

MacRumors · May 6, 2009

The Wall Street Journal reports on the upcoming launch of an iPhone application from satellite radio provider Sirius XM, which is reportedly due "in the next few weeks." While details of how Sirius XM service will be deployed on the iPhone are not yet known, it is assumed that a subscription fee will be required in order to access the music channels.

The iPhone application likely will require purchasing a subscription, although Sirius XM has announced few details of how the plan will work. An estimated seven million people in the U.S. have iPhones, estimates Richard Klugman, an analyst at Majestic Research. Exposure for the Sirius service on the iTunes Store site of Apple Inc. could draw valuable attention from the gadget-loving crowd that flocks to the site.

The article places the upcoming iPhone application release within the context of Sirius XM's larger market and describes how the landscape has changed for satellite radio as the iPod and iPhone have changed the way people listen to music.

In releasing the new application, which will allow customers to stream satellite radio over their iPhones, Sirius XM appears to be tacitly conceding that the satellite-delivery system that once was cutting edge now has competition far beyond what its founders imagined. Sirius must prove it can hold its own in a world where cars have iPod jacks and phones can go online, allowing people to stream free music stations. And cars, where many people do most of their radio listening, are expected increasingly to have built-in Internet access.

While satellite radio has gained popularity, particularly with the increased adoption of satellite radio-ready stereos in new automobiles, the challenges of running a profitable satellite radio service led to the merger of Sirius and XM last year and have driven Sirius XM to find new ways to add subscribers and reduce churn, something the new iPhone application appears designed to address.

Article Link: Sirius XM iPhone App Due Within Weeks

deannnnn · May 6, 2009

THEY MERGED??
How did I not hear about that!?

DipDog3 · May 6, 2009

Better not charge me even more!

deannnnn said:
THEY MERGED??
How did I not hear about that!?

Yea, if you had either XM or Sirius, you would know that.

I just want to know if they will be charging another separate monthly fee for the iPhone. They already charge separately to listen online & extra to get NFL if you are on XM. I am not paying even more!!

SomeTechGuy · May 6, 2009

Hmmm, sounds like the perfect app for the "in-app purchase" subscription feature coming to iPhone 3.0 firmware. That's probably why it'll be a "few more weeks".

smarch · May 6, 2009

WAHHHHHHHHHH but i want it nowwwwwww

evilyankeefan · May 6, 2009

DipDog3 said:
Yea, if you had either XM or Sirius, you would know that.

I just want to know if they will be charging another separate monthly fee for the iPhone. They already charge separately to listen online & extra to get NFL if you are on XM. I am not paying even more!!

I'm thinking if you already pay for online you will get access with the iPhone app. Makes no sense to double dip as if you have to you could always cancel the other. I too am anxious for this to come around.

williej81 · May 6, 2009

evilyankeefan said:
I'm thinking if you already pay for online you will get access with the iPhone app. Makes no sense to double dip as if you have to you could always cancel the other. I too am anxious for this to come around.

You don't know XM/Sirius apparently.

rdowns · May 6, 2009

My free 3 months (from buying new car) was up and I opted to go month to month as I am not in the car much. I paid them way too much for last car and didn't listen much. Month to month costs like 12 or 13 bucks.

Two days later, I get a postcard offering month to month for 6 months for 5 bucks a month. Only took an hour on the phone to get them to honor the price.

I don't see me paying another monthly fee for iPhone access.

aidricksdad · May 6, 2009

you can listen to sirius right now if you buy pocket tunes from the app store and it works great

smarch · May 6, 2009

aidricksdad said:
you can listen to sirius right now if you buy pocket tunes from the app store and it works great

oh wow. didn't catch this. That's pretty sweet. I'm guessing you have to do that log-in procedure every time?

ArtursBoy · May 6, 2009

I somehow don't see XM Sirius start making money anytime soon. I used to have Sirius before the merge, and was fine with it, after the merge, they changed the programming, cancelled some of my favorite channels (I guess I liked the not so popular ones?) and found myself listening to Pandora, AOL Radio, Slacker or FlyCast more and more often on my car thru my iPhone. It's been a couple months since I cancelled and I'm glad I did.

The idea of them charging to allow people to listen to music when there are other (better in my opinion) free alternatives somehow just doesn't make too much sense to me. I mean, Slacker or FlyCast, or any other online radio station have way more variety, and the fact that they allow to skip songs on most of them and "learn" your musical taste is much more appealing to me than having a monthly fee and in some cases, putting up with DJ's on some stations.

I could be wrong, but I just dont see this app being a significant source of revenue for them.

ArtursBoy · May 6, 2009

evilyankeefan said:
I'm thinking if you already pay for online you will get access with the iPhone app. Makes no sense to double dip as if you have to you could always cancel the other. I too am anxious for this to come around.

Oh and by the way, SIRIUS XM has been available on other smartphones, and even regular phones for quite a while now, and it in fact is a separate subscription from your car/home setup. I bet it will be a similar case for the iPhone app, but to make it appealing they might link it to the iTunes Music store or something to allow you to purchase the song there, just how the other online radio apps do.

luv2hum · May 6, 2009

the real question will be can you run the app in the background while doing other things, as opposed to alll the other radio apps which its either only run thier app or dont listen to radio

dwd3885 · May 6, 2009

This is great...If I can get the stations like Fox News, CNN, NFL Network and ESPN Radio

SolRayz · May 6, 2009

ArtursBoy said:
I somehow don't see XM Sirius start making money anytime soon. I used to have Sirius before the merge, and was fine with it, after the merge, they changed the programming, cancelled some of my favorite channels (I guess I liked the not so popular ones?) and found myself listening to Pandora, AOL Radio, Slacker or FlyCast more and more often on my car thru my iPhone. It's been a couple months since I cancelled and I'm glad I did.

The idea of them charging to allow people to listen to music when there are other (better in my opinion) free alternatives somehow just doesn't make too much sense to me. I mean, Slacker or FlyCast, or any other online radio station have way more variety, and the fact that they allow to skip songs on most of them and "learn" your musical taste is much more appealing to me than having a monthly fee and in some cases, putting up with DJ's on some stations.

I could be wrong, but I just dont see this app being a significant source of revenue for them.

You make a real good point about the multitude of other free options online. I fear that as phone/internet technology progresses, satellite radio may become obsolete before it really has a chance to break out into the mainstream.

aidricksdad · May 6, 2009

smarch said:
oh wow. didn't catch this. That's pretty sweet. I'm guessing you have to do that log-in procedure every time?

NOPE just save a station as a favorite and it does it all for you.....easy as pumpkin pie on christmas in mexico on a sunday with a stranger who is blind

verks · May 6, 2009

dwd3885 said:
This is great...If I can get the stations like Fox News, CNN, NFL Network and ESPN Radio

Fox, CNN and ESPN are not available through streaming. NFL is. By the way, Pockets Tunes works great. The built in browser logs you in through the Sirius media player and then you can save channels through the favorites option. If they charge for the app I'm sticking with PT.

dwd3885 · May 6, 2009

verks said:
Fox, CNN and ESPN are not available through streaming. NFL is. By the way, Pockets Tunes works great. The built in browser logs you in through the Sirius media player and then you can save channels through the favorites option. If they charge for the app I'm sticking with PT.

Right. So it's not as cool. I wish Fox, CNN and ESPN were available via streaming

Chupa Chupa · May 6, 2009

Is it just me or is a Sirius/XM app something that would have been great on the first iPods but kind of passe now. With Pandora and other radio apps who really needs Sirius/XM and now with the MLB app you can get baseball too. With most of Sirius/XM's "unique" stations like news, etc blacked out I don't really see the point unless you already subscribe. I don't think the app will encourage non-subs to subscribe.

anubis · May 6, 2009

I haggled my way into a 1-year XM subscription for my car for $77 about 3 years ago. I listened to it quite a bit, but MY GOD the sound quality sucks. Everyone I've ever asked about it said they thought it sounded fine, which leads me to believe most people either have significant hearing loss or are the same kind of people who think the white iPod earbuds also sound fine. XM and Sirius streams are 56kbit. Have you ever listened to a 56kbit sound file? 96kbit is marginal at best... 128kbit is the minimum acceptable bit rate for music to sound even remotely good for me.

I cancelled my subscription after a year and bought an aftermarket iPod/iPhone interface for my stereo.

smarch · May 6, 2009

aidricksdad said:
you can listen to sirius right now if you buy pocket tunes from the app store and it works great

This is ridiculous. I spent the $10 bucks on the app and then i go to try it out and it won't work? Why? Apparently Sirius dropped internet streaming as a free service for subscribers. I just ignore all their dumb emails so I guess I missed when this happened. It's complete bull. I've been paying for Sirius for 3 years. I only got Sirius to listen to Stern. The music channels are borderline terrible. I'm constantly getting choppy reception in my car, so I don't even listen to stern there (I've been downloading the shows and listening on my phone). I figured I'll keep paying for service because I don't want to be a freeloader and also, this way I'll be all set when an Iphone app comes out too. EHHHH. WRONG. SIRIUS IS BULL. They're as bad as the ***** cable companies with this policy of jacking up the prices and then giving good deals to anybody that threatens to cancel. Just sell a ***** product for a price. The world has to stop rewarding busy-bodies who got nothing better to do than call customer service lines.

aidricksdad · May 6, 2009

smarch said:
This is ridiculous. I spent the $10 bucks on the app and then i go to try it out and it won't work? Why? Apparently Sirius dropped internet streaming as a free service for subscribers. I just ignore all their dumb emails so I guess I missed when this happened. It's complete bull. I've been paying for Sirius for 3 years. I only got Sirius to listen to Stern. The music channels are borderline terrible. I'm constantly getting choppy reception in my car, so I don't even listen to stern there (I've been downloading the shows and listening on my phone). I figured I'll keep paying for service because I don't want to be a freeloader and also, this way I'll be all set when an Iphone app comes out too. EHHHH. WRONG. SIRIUS IS BULL. They're as bad as the ***** cable companies with this policy of jacking up the prices and then giving good deals to anybody that threatens to cancel. Just sell a ***** product for a price. The world has to stop rewarding busy-bodies who got nothing better to do than call customer service lines.

chill out man they were going bankrupt and had to do something.....some dude came in and helped them out but that was only short term....stern sucks anyway

DMann · May 6, 2009

rdowns said:
I don't see me paying another monthly fee for iPhone access.

Let's hope they offer a 3 month free incentive when the app is introduced. In the meantime, AOL Radio, Pandora, Slacker and FlyCast are free, (Pockets Tune Radio, .99) and work really well over 3G, as well as Wi-Fi.

The Joker · May 6, 2009

I would assume if you pay for the online listening at 3 bucks a month....then that will also cover the iphone app...

DMann · May 6, 2009

The Joker said:
I would assume if you pay for the online listening at 3 bucks a month....then that will also cover the iphone app...

One would certainly hope!

Sirius XM iPhone App Due Within Weeks

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