XM or Sirius for small business?

Your thoughts? I'm sicking of wearing out CD's / our customers' ears. It'll probably be on some jazz station all the time, except when the doors are locked and it's "All Slayer, all the time." Any allegiance to one or the other? Any idea what I should expect to pay up front/per month?

Siriusly.

If it's one of the generic stations, it's exactly the same thing.

Say, the classic jazz is 70 on XM, 72 on Sirius, but they are the same broadcast.

There are just a handful of channels that are unique to one or the other.

We've had Sirius for a few years now- got it in my Miata, and comes on all the lease cars we've been getting (it's a Ford thing- GM is XM). I can't recall what we pay a month, but we do the 2 year subscription.

If you are in it for the long term, the ala-carte is cheaper by the month, but the radios are a little more expensive up front. Probably would save for both if can get a limited ala-carte set up.

My favorite channel is Real Jazz, followed by Caliente- on Saturday Mornings when it's classic Salsa. But 90% of the time it's Real Jazz.

Eric

Same company, Sirius/XM. They merged or bought each other a while back. I've got XM. Overall pretty happy with it. Buy the long term package and it gets pretty cheap. Spend most of my time on Classic Rewind or Deep Tracks. They've got some pretty good jazz too, but it puts me to sleep while driving. Then I've got to switch to talk radio to wake up and that pisses me off...Just can't win.

Edited for spelling

I love the new Sirius/XM merged company. They have a lot more to offer, or maybe I should say what they have to offer is presented in a better format than the old split companies.

But as far as for a company you might have a problem. Is this a company that the public comes into? Several of my friends who have companies have been visited by ASCAP(?) and want them to pay royalties on the music they play for the public.

Several of my friends who have companies have been visited by ASCAP

FO reyaaal? I googled "XM for business," and they do indeed have a seperate plan for businesses that (presumably) costs more, as they claim to collect royalties and distribute them accordingly or whatever. Lame.

I listen to youtube mostly at the shop just click on one band that has a multi song list but i still look out for single such as this abba classic dancing queen or this claasic by cannibel corpse dancing squaws

Interweb radio - there are plenty of commercial free stations by genre or location that stream - most with rock steady connections. I can't stand listening to a commercial station anymore and since I've already got the internet connection it doesn't add cost - although I did pay a few bucks for an iphone app so I could listen in the car too.

Sirius has CBC1. XM does not.

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Neither. Pandora One. $36 per year. http://blog.pandora.com/faq/contents/64.html

poopshovel wrote:

Several of my friends who have companies have been visited by ASCAP

FO reyaaal? I googled "XM for business," and they do indeed have a seperate plan for businesses that (presumably) costs more, as they claim to collect royalties and distribute them accordingly or whatever. Lame.

Yep, I remember learning about that in my music business class, but that was before XM, Internet, etc.

And I'll also vouch for Real Jazz at 70/72. I like their mix and enjoy the hosts--Les Davis, Mark Ruffin, etc. Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note Records, does a great show, too.

If you have either don't pay full price. Just by asking you can usually get it for $77/year. There's a looooong thread at fatwallet.com on this. I have Sirius in my BMW and love it. Thankfully the prior owner bought the lifetime plan and didn't transfer it when he turned it in off lease so I haven't paid for it in the 2 years I've had it

David S. Wallens wrote: And I'll also vouch for Real Jazz at 70/72. I like their mix and enjoy the hosts--Les Davis, Mark Ruffin, etc. Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note Records, does a great show, too.

I'll third that one. That channel is generally the soundtrack of my weekend (when I'm not catching up on Stern or listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me) and it is an amazing education in Jazz. The DJ's are scholars and it's great having them share their love of jazz.

Chill (Sirius 35) is also really good--great background/mood music.

I have nothing but good things to say about Sirius' music programming. I listen to a good cross-section of it--alt-rock/indie/classic rock/new hip-hop/oldschool hip-hop/jazz/electronic

The other non-terrestrial radio alternatives can come close, but the variety and programming of Sirius is untouchable, IMHO.

David S. Wallens wrote: And I'll also vouch for Real Jazz at 70/72. I like their mix and enjoy the hosts--Les Davis, Mark Ruffin, etc. Bruce Lundvall, president of Blue Note Records, does a great show, too.

I'll third that one. That channel is generally the soundtrack of my weekend (when I'm not catching up on Stern or listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me) and it is an amazing education in Jazz. The DJ's are scholars and it's great having them share their love of jazz.

Chill (Sirius 35) is also really good--great background/mood music.

I have nothing but good things to say about Sirius' music programming. I listen to a good cross-section of it--alt-rock/indie/classic rock/new hip-hop/oldschool hip-hop/jazz/electronic

The other non-terrestrial radio alternatives can come close, but the variety and programming of Sirius is untouchable, IMHO.

I miss mine. I went with XM originally to get O&A and Nascar but the music channels blow away anything commercial radio has to offer, i would jump around between the country, jazz and comedy channels.

JeffHarbert wrote: Neither. Pandora One. $36 per year. http://blog.pandora.com/faq/contents/64.html

My only problem with that is they seem to always generate the same songs/bands. It gets really old really quickly.

So, regarding the Sirius/XM thing, any suggestions on where to get the best price? Do I just call them directly?

Regarding the "free internet radio" option, 2 questions:

1. How's the sound quality? Seems kinda crappy, but then again, I've got crappy computer speakers. I'll need to run cables from the computer to our receiver, and I'd hate to spend the money on the cables only to find out the sound is horrible.

2. Any favorite "free radio" sites? I'm not really fond of pandora, but I've been listening to lastfm the last couple days, and I'm pretty happy with it.

The sound is as good as your sound card/audio system. It doesn't take much to get things sounding pretty good. I also stream through an iphone in the car - that sounds about as good as CDs. There's networks like fm.1, sky, accuradio, laut.fm is good for euro stuff. The cool part is if you want all norwegian death metal - there's a station for it. Feel like clearing the place out? All polka, all the time...

I've got Series in the big truck. I pay $12.99/month. Sat radio is the best solution long haul.

For a business, it seems that it would be a good solution.

poopshovel wrote: 2. Any favorite "free radio" sites? I'm not really fond of pandora, but I've been listening to lastfm the last couple days, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Give slacker.com a try

carguy123 wrote: Several of my friends who have companies have been visited by ASCAP(?)

Yep. ASCAP, BMI and NMPA/HFA all have foot soldiers that visit service businesses open to the public, ask the employees about the music playing, and when they don't get a satisfactory answer (basically, 'it's satellite radio'), the business owner receives a letter that reads like legal extortion. You can pay a license fee to all three, but satellite's a lot cheaper.

Yeah, support the artists and all that. I'm an independent recording artist, and I'd much rather get my music into people's ears than the $0.12 I'd see per airplay. It only makes sense for the big boys, so the record labels are the ones that spur the enforcement, since they're the biggest benefactors.

That why employees should be schooled to play dumb when anybody asks them about the music. Or hell, they oughta just think it's satellite, even if it's not.

This happened at my local indoor skatepark after Bam Margera did an appearance there. The owner ended up playing all unsigned local music after that.

Thus, my mp3 player is working overtime when I skate there...

Fortunately(?), I don't see Bam Margera visiting Blue Ridge any time soon. We've been here 7 years and I've never had any run-ins.

Try www.radioparadise.com. It's eclectic but awesome. Commercial free and free to listen to, unless you chose to become a supporting listener.

A lot of these internet radio stations don't count re-broadcast, though, which is what you're doing when you play it for your customers to hear. Technically speaking, you can't even play the over-the-air radio for your customers. That's re-broadcasting. (If it's being played for the for the employees - like in a kitchen or a back room - and the customers incidentally hear it, you're generally fine, for some reason.)

Basically, if you ain't paying for it, and therefore the license fees, you're not giving the royalty collection agencies their cut, which is all they're after.