Back in 2020
About two years ago I decided that I wasn’t going to pay for Howard Stern’s salary anymore and tried to cancel my car’s SiriusXM subscription via their online Chat customer service. You can read about that in my earlier post.
I called and spoke with someone on the phone who told me that Howard Stern was NOT an employee of SiriusXM so despite the things he said which I took issue with, I should not cancel my SiriusXM service because it.
I pointed out to the customer service representative how prominently he was featured in their advertising and suggested that their reasoning made zero sense to me. I was offered a discount as an incentive not to cancel but in the end was successful in getting the subscription for the radio in my vehicle removed and partially refunded.
Life without Howard Stern
In the days following my cancellation I continued to enjoy the music programming on SiriusXM with the added benefit of not contributing to the betterment of a fallen anti-establishment entertainer.
My cancellation of the subscription for my car’s radio did not remove access to the service for me, as I had purchased a lifetime subscription way back when the shock jock was making the move from terrestrial radio to the satellite service. I could continue to listen to what I liked using that radio or other devices via the internet streaming function of their service.
Good Timing, Bad Circumstances
Later in 2020 the pandemic started and the amount of time I spent in my car dropped down to almost nothing as I was able to just stay at home and socially distance. I probably would have cancelled my car’s radio subscription any way as a cost savings move instead of a boycott due to the comments of one of their hosts.
Over the last two years my use of YouTube has really increased since I’m spending more time in front of my computer. So much so that I’m paying for a subscription there to remove commercials. So much for any cost savings I might have realized from my cancellation of SiriusXM.
“OK Google play Classic Vinyl on SiriusXM”
That’s something I say every so often when using my Google Nest Home devices to listen to music in my home or via my Pixel cellphone. If I know the genre of music I want to hear and the corresponding SiriusXM channel number or name, I can easily command my devices to start playing it.
Sometimes a song will just pop into my head and if I was to specifically hear it, I will instead tell my Google Nest devices to play it by name and artist, and they will use the subscription I have with YouTube Music to play it.
The only time I think about Howard Stern now is when I see a news headline quoting what ever is the most recent stupid comment he’s shared with his audience.
In the future there will be data everywhere
It may take a while for companies like Elon Musk’s Starlink to cover the entire surface of the Earth with data at speeds and prices within the reach of the average consumer, but that’s the trend with the idea of maintaining a constellation of satellites just for delivery of audio programming and limited one way data transmission to become economically unfavorable.
IP networks delivered by RF are going to sunset satellite delivered radio using proprietary formats and systems. Instead of a SiriusXM receiver in your car you will be looking at integrating your cellphone or a head unit running the apps you want while being fed IP data. I suspect the ratio of IP connected listeners versus satellite radio listers at SiriusXM will continue to grow until they are an overwhelming majority. The only question remaining is when will SiriusXM announce the sunset on their legacy satellite receivers?