A few months ago my brother and I had an argument about satelite radio services. He thought they were a great idea, I thought they were doomed to failure. While both of them have been struggling, the jury is still out on their longterm prospects. One of my central points in the debate with my brother was that there was no way I would pay $10 or so a month for access to satellite radio when I get what I need for free already. Among his counterarguments was the quality (which isn’t there – they’re streaming 96kbs MP3 files. By way of comparison, I won’t play anything below 192kbs on my stereo) and breadth of programming. Which is actually true. But still, I was adamant – I wouldn’t pay and I seriously doubted that enough people would pay to make satellite radio commercially succesful.
I still think that. But the irony lies here – today, I sent $10 via paypal to Radio Paradise. Why? Because they kick ass. They’re tremendously better than anything I can get off of broadcast radio. They’re exposing me to new artists that I like, something that I’ve been trying to do myself, largely unsuccesfully, by hunting through usenet for recommendations. Yet the quality is not that good, it’s prone to interruptions, and most importantly, I paid for it. And I’ll likely continue to pay them periodically if they continue to deliver.
So I’m guilty of intellectual dishonesty I guess, or at least of inconsistency. But do give Radio Paradise a try. Check out their website too, it’s got a great ‘community ranking’ feature similar to ones like Game Rankings that I’ve linked to in the past.
Dave's Place/Metamusing 
I can see the use of satradio for the car. Digital cable in the house has numerous music channels, some of them quite good, with virtually no commercial interruption. I like that. To have the same in the car would be nice, but, to have to pay for it specifically, hmmmmmm…
At home it is a byproduct of having digital cable. Another feature of a service you are paying for. For the car though, you would be paying out, only for use in the car.
I think it is a good idea, but I also think it is doomed, unless they broaden the offering in some way.
LikeLike
Now that you have to commute for a couple of hours a day, would you consider buying a new radio for your car and then paying $10.99 a month for service, if it gave you the same sort of features as you get on digital cable? I’m actually curious about it, trying to guage if people will really pay for it.
LikeLike
If I had a lot of disposable $$, maybe. But given that it requires a new radio, as well as subscription, I would say no. It is too limited, not too mention that I have 2 cars, and would want to use it in whichever one I was in. I would need 2 radios to pull that off.
LikeLike
XM Radio…Many of the new cars coming out have the system already installed.
LikeLike
Well yippee for new car owners then.
I think that if you buy a radio to refit your car with, it should come with the service for free for at least a year. Otherwise, it is not worth it.
Too bad it wasn’t some kind of module that you could hook to your stereo or portable boom box, that way you could make use of the service any time, rather than just in the car.
LikeLike