Maybe you remember something called “fast forward”?
Back in the days of audio cassette tapes, you pushed the FF button to get to the next song on the playlist. Compact discs made tapes obsolete. Now you could just skip to the next track. But CDs were clunky – and only held a relative handful of songs. Digital music rendered CDs yesterday’s technology only about ten years after they were first mass-marketed.
I think satellite radio is next-up for retirement.
Because Pandora.
Free music.
Yes, there are some commercials – one every 10 or 15 minutes or so. But the service – unlike SiriusXM is free. Pandora (unlike SiriusXM) does not expect you to pay them to listen to commercials.
Lots of commercials.
Listen to almost any SiriusXM channel – but especially the talk/news channels – and you will be deluged with obnoxious 5-10 minute blocks of ads.
Remember: You are paying to hear them.
It’s damndest thing. And – arguably – the stupidest thing.
People have fled so-called “terrestrial” (AM/FM) radio to a great extent because the ratio of music (and talk) to commercials reached a tipping point, became insufferable. One of the major draws of satellite radio was commercial-free content. But that’s not what you got. At least AM/FM radio was free.
It’s hard to choke down paying $10-$20 a month to hear sales pitches.
Sirius/XM is careful to qualify that it offers “commercial free music.” It’s only the talk channels that are chock-a-blocked with “learn more” and “call 1-800-BUY GOLD NOW” juggernauts. But, here’s the thing.
Pandora and other forms of digital streaming music provides the same thing – without the commercials.
Or, for free.
I recently loaded the Pandora app on my iPod and now can listen to whatever music Iwant to listen to (as opposed to whatever music Sirius/XM programmers think I might want to listen to) without paying a penny for it. Pandora gives me (and you) the option of paying a very small fee – it’s less than $5 a month, so a fraction of the cost of a Sirius subscription – to get 100 percent commercial-free streaming music. Personalized, tailored to suit. Not “programmed” – and take it or leave it.
